“Welcome to my office,” said Joe as he led the Friends of Lydiard Park group from the
visitor’s centre along a winding pathway which opened up on to a breath-taking view.
Croome Court has been a work in progress for more than 260
years as restoration continues today. The 6th Earl of Coventry’s £400,000 (worth £35 million in today’s
money) project began in 1751 with the building of a Palladian mansion and a
landscaped parkland and work continued throughout the 18th centuries. Croome Court was sold in 1948 following the death of the 10th
Earl at Dunkirk in 1940.
The National Trust acquired 670 acres of the Park in 1996
and in 2007 the Croome Heritage Trust bought Croome Court and leased it to the
National Trust on a 999 year lease. The house opened to the public on September
26, 2009.
The 6th Earl of Coventry inherited Croome Court
in 1751 when he was 28 years old, but he already had a vision for his family
home. He engaged Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown (who designed first the house and
then the grounds) and Robert Adam neoclassical architect, interior and furniture designer, to fulfil his ambitions.
At my first glimpse of Joe's 'office' I could see many similarities to Lydiard House. Admittedly on a larger scale, well yes, a MUCH large scale, but then John St John probably didn't have £400,000 at his disposal.
Joe walked us past the Georgian 'Gothic' church, built when the 6th Earl demolished the medieval one which stood too close to his house. At the stairs on the north front of the house we met volunteer guide Rosie who gave us a most fascinating and comprehensive tour of the house.
Most exciting for me was visiting the apartments occupied by the 6th Earl's second wife, Barbara St John. Barbara was the fourth daughter of John St John, Baron St John of Bletsoe and his wife Elizabeth Crowley.
The Earl's second marriage was much more successful than his first to the actress and society beauty, the stunning Maria Gunning. The teenage Maria and her sister Elizabeth were presented at Court to George II in December 1750 and in little over a year they were both married. Elizabeth to the 6th Duke of Hamilton and on March 5, 1752 19 year old Maria married George William 6th Earl of Coventry.
In his second wife the 6th Earl found a soulmate, a meeting of minds. She was interest in bird and animals and George created a menagerie and a model dairy and farm for her.
Barbara was no slouch in the beauty stakes either as is evident from her portrait painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds around the time of her marriage. Today the portrait is part of the Faringdon Collection and is on display at Buscot Park.
Barbara's rooms at Croome Court were among those re-decorated by one of the more recent owners of the property who gave her elegant bedroom a bathroom makeover. Quite what happen to this room in the future is still up for debate as the National Trust occupancy is still relatively recent and there is an awful lot of work still to do.
So what were the best bits of my day - well, I loved standing in Barbara St John's rooms, and the attic rooms, oh and the Church where I discovered the grave of William Dean (more of that to follow) but I didn't have time to explore the parkland with its numerous follies or visit all the rooms in the house, or the walled garden, not to mention the RAF Defford Museum where radar was developed.
Croome Court most definitely requires a second visit ...
At my first glimpse of Joe's 'office' I could see many similarities to Lydiard House. Admittedly on a larger scale, well yes, a MUCH large scale, but then John St John probably didn't have £400,000 at his disposal.
Joe walked us past the Georgian 'Gothic' church, built when the 6th Earl demolished the medieval one which stood too close to his house. At the stairs on the north front of the house we met volunteer guide Rosie who gave us a most fascinating and comprehensive tour of the house.
Most exciting for me was visiting the apartments occupied by the 6th Earl's second wife, Barbara St John. Barbara was the fourth daughter of John St John, Baron St John of Bletsoe and his wife Elizabeth Crowley.
The Earl's second marriage was much more successful than his first to the actress and society beauty, the stunning Maria Gunning. The teenage Maria and her sister Elizabeth were presented at Court to George II in December 1750 and in little over a year they were both married. Elizabeth to the 6th Duke of Hamilton and on March 5, 1752 19 year old Maria married George William 6th Earl of Coventry.
In his second wife the 6th Earl found a soulmate, a meeting of minds. She was interest in bird and animals and George created a menagerie and a model dairy and farm for her.
Barbara was no slouch in the beauty stakes either as is evident from her portrait painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds around the time of her marriage. Today the portrait is part of the Faringdon Collection and is on display at Buscot Park.
Barbara's rooms at Croome Court were among those re-decorated by one of the more recent owners of the property who gave her elegant bedroom a bathroom makeover. Quite what happen to this room in the future is still up for debate as the National Trust occupancy is still relatively recent and there is an awful lot of work still to do.
So what were the best bits of my day - well, I loved standing in Barbara St John's rooms, and the attic rooms, oh and the Church where I discovered the grave of William Dean (more of that to follow) but I didn't have time to explore the parkland with its numerous follies or visit all the rooms in the house, or the walled garden, not to mention the RAF Defford Museum where radar was developed.
Croome Court most definitely requires a second visit ...
 |
| First view of Croome Court |
 |
| The chimneys of the older house are still visible |
 |
| Cedar predating the work of Lancelot Brown |
 |
| Barbara St John's bedroom |
 |
| Model showing the original house around which the Palladian mansion was built |
Comments
Post a Comment