Parvise

Parvise or Parvis may refer to:

A room over the porch of a church—quite often found in Norman churches in England. In some churches these rooms were used for school rooms and in Castle Ashby was the home of a woman - who saved the manor house from burning when she saw the fire taking hold from her room.
The enclosed area or court in front of a building—particularly a building such as a cathedral or a church. In some places they are like a cloister, surrounded with either colonnades or porticoes. As a result, when applied to a single portico or colonnade in front of a church, this gives rise to the description of a church porch.

[edit] Examples of Parvises

The Parvise at Castle Ashby

Bletchingley Church Parvise

The Parvise at Dodford Parish Church, Northamptonshire

The Oxford Dictionary of English (revised edition). Ed. Catherine Soanes and Angus Stevenson. Oxford University Press, 2005
The Concise Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. Ed. E. A. Livingstone. Oxford University Press, 2006
The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology. Ed. T. F. Hoad. Oxford University Press, 1996.