Croome Court

Well the weather changed today! 

I had a ticket to Croome Court today, I was surprised I haven't been for 4 years! 

Croome was built by the Earl's of Coventry.

The estate has had a chequered recent history... after WWII the Croome Estate Trust sold the house and 38 acres to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Birmingham. From 1979 to 84 it was leased to the Hare Krishna movement eventually it was purchased by the Croome House trust in 2007 and is now leased to the National Trust (the Trust owns the park). There is a walled garden which I believe was closed.

The House was stripped of most of its contents.

The park was designed by Lancelot Capability Brown. Since I first visited the whole estate has much improved/restored!

The visitors centre is unusual, in 1941 part of the park was transformed into RAF Defford and the visitors centre is the old RAF Medical buildings. Defford was used to test radar and Defford was the place the first automated landing took place. There is a museum which is open Sunday to Tuesday.

The weather was looking dodgy so I left the camera behind and used the phone.

The excellent St Mary Magdalene in the care of the excellent Churches Conservation Trust

The house didn't open until 12 so I headed back to the cafe

This is a remnant from when the house was a catholic boys school.

Ice House

I had never seen the church yard before.... The one way route takes you around the back.

A good scone! 

So with the rain setting in I picked off a couple more from the Kingfisher Trail. This is from Moreton in the Marsh. 

This is from Stow on the Wold

I might have arranged by time differently to see more if I had known about it. I missed one near Sudeley the other day. And there is one at Bibury that I often visit. I hope to find another tomorrow.