In 1580, Anthony Cage had a house built to the typical E shape favoured during the reign of Elizabeth I. This arrangement can still be seen today, in the central three bays facing west, now overlooking the garden.
In 1596, we know that Anthony Cage held the important position of High Sherriff, just two years before Oliver Cromwell’s father. However, in the subsequent Civil War the Cages supported our King Charles 1st. After the Royalist’s defeat, in 1646, the Cages lost their property.
The surrounding landscape in the Cage’s ownership was as one would expect – the site was favoured as it lay in a gentle hollow, and faced towards a series of graded carp ponds whilst beyond a deer park was enclosed.
Life at Longstowe settled down, and the property changed hands rarely over the next 250 years.
However, with the ascendancy of Victorian Britain, in the Nineteenth Century, there was a resurgence of interest in the Elizabethan period, and houses dating from that time were much sought after.