As Leah was bound and determined to get out of the
city and into the countryside after a busy week of go-going, we headed for
Croome, another National Trust site (http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/croome).
The original massive acreage of parkland and country manor house had been owned
by the Coventry family since the 16th century. However, it was the ingenuity
of the 6th Earl of Coventry, at the age of 28, who, having just
inherited Croome Court (the residence by itself) and its deer park together
with 15,000 acres of Worcestershire, full of ideas on the new movement towards
classicism in architecture and landscape design – with more dough than he knew
what to do with, obviously – had the vision of turning the estate into the
incredible xanadu it was in its heyday. It was his pairing with the now famous
Lancelot “Capability” Brown (the grand designer who always saw a garden’s
“capabilities”), the first and most well-known landscape artist of the modern
world (In fact you could safely say he single-handedly created the art of
landscape design, and Croome {the combination of the house and the wider estate
as a whole) was his first complete landscape design of note.}, that was the
catalyst for what became one of the most colossal renovation projects in all of
England – of the original house, plus the dormant, though spectacular, undeveloped
woodland. The two set about transforming the Earl’s dominion into an undulating
rural idyll, set about with trees and lakes, rolling away to the distant
Malvern Hills (where later in 1840, Wilford Woodruff dedicated the land for the
teaching of the gospel, having been lead by the Spirit to a field prepared by
the Lord , white and ready to be harvested), including completely changing Croome
Court into a Palladian-style mansion.
The extensive park contains a series of follies
(structures with no functional reason for existence other than for the intrigue
they add to the landscape) that were just beginning to be the architectural must-have
for people in the know (and with the disposable income to throw it after): dry
arch bridges, punch bowl gates, a man-made lake AND river (a scaled down
version of the River Severn), statues and temples, a Greek pavilion and grotto
made of coade stone (an artificial type of stoneware created in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, used for
moulding Neoclassical statues, architectural decorations and garden ornaments that were both
of the highest quality and remain virtually weatherproof today), to name
but a few. On the site also stands the Church of St Mary Magdalene, a copy of a
medieval structure that had been relocated by Brown to better suit his design,
as well as the ruins of a boathouse that was home to rowing boats and a
pleasure barge. (Sounds like a real Shangri-La, doesn’t it?!) In the early 19th
century, Croome was home to over 5,000 species of plants and trees from all
over the world. Only the famous royal botanical gardens of Kew (see Day seventy
eight) had more species.
The last of the direct line of Coventry earls was killed in battle during
World War II and the expense of maintaining the holdings became prohibitive for
the family left behind.
Since then the site has ranged from being a huge, full-fledged
Royal Air Force base, with more than 2,500 military personnel, during World War
II (that played a vital role in the secret wartime development and testing of
top-secret radar systems), a Catholic school for boys, and, before being
acquired by the Croome Heritage Trust in 1996, a Hare Krishna community.
Through these permutations, the house and grounds had fallen into considerable
disrepair – no one could afford its expensive grandeur. The trust has only just
begun its renovation plans in the past several years and funding is always a
major issue. (It was kind of fun to get a perspective on the different stages
heritage sites might potentially pass through, having only seen completed ones
to date.) Leah is especially fond of this particular National Trust site
because so far the house has no fittings, fixtures or furniture, so she doesn’t
have to be afraid of her children behaving like children (you know “accidently”
upsetting everything in sight, including that precious Ming dynasty vase – a
refreshing change from how it is at pretty much every other site.
The majority of our adventure was spent exploring
the extensive parkland. I was particularly intrigued with these massive,
eye-catching trees with their mostly horizontal branches, and asked around if
anyone knew what kind they were. (No, they didn’t.) I discovered, when looking
on the Croome’s webpage later, that they are Cedars of Lebanon – something
we’ve all heard about, oft mentioned in the Old Testament. The appearance of
this particular tree has always reminded me of what an African savannah looks
like. An especially fascinating structure that we discovered upon our walk (amongst
so many, it is difficult to single out a particular one) was an intriguing ice
house – a curious, restored 18th century thatched building.
Rambling about was a perfect diversion for mostly
city-dwelling children. One fun thing I have found about these sites is that,
besides having a gift shop and facilities for outdoor picnicing, there is always
a playground for children. Some even have a wonderful seemingly wilderness play
area (see below), replete with all kinds of climbing/crawling structures made
of rough-sawn wood, plus a collection of standing large trees and cut off
branches you can move about to create forts and secluded castles, etc. Very
exciting for kids. It was a brisk autumn day, and though the sun was shining
brightly, the air was cool. We ate our picnic lunch – in jackets, in the
sunshine – on a small island in the middle of the lake, connected to the main
park by a series of bridges.
Our day was a wondrous sensory treasure trove: the
aroma of mowed lawn and the natural essence of autumn; the texture of the Coade
stone that made up the grotto, originally interspersed with semi-precious gems,
coral and shells on its walls; a sweet kiss from slobbery, teething Ella; the
sound of happy, squealing children and the call of birds overhead and in the
trees; enough visual spectacles of an elaborate, vanished-forever way of life
to keep our heads spinning for a good long while!
Photos_
1-
panoramic view (the best we can do) – Katya steering Ella
2- Church
of St Mary Magdalene (leaning unnaturally in honeybee’s viewfinder)
3- inside the
Church of St Mary . . .
4- statue
of bygone Countess of Coventry in memorial to lost infant
5- juxtaposition
of Croome Court to the Church of St Mary . . . (in 1500s the original church
stood
next to the house)
next to the house)
6- Croome
Court
7- titular
queens of the Nile (you would assume this was the front of the house, but, in
fact, it is
the rear – leading into the voluminous acreage of engineered landscaping wonder_ )
the rear – leading into the voluminous acreage of engineered landscaping wonder_ )
8- cedars
of Lebanon in merry old England
9- regulars
to National Trust sites
10- interesting picket technology detail
11- river scene
12- picnicking on an island
12- picnicking on an island
