© Jeff Dyson  - November 2006

Croome was the centre of the Coventry Estates which held many acres of land throughout the three counties of Worcester, Warwick and Gloucester. It occupied land in about thirty parishes and most of the land south of Worcester to the east of the River Severn.

Croome Park was commissioned by the 6th Earl of Coventry in 1751. It was the famous Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown’s first complete landscape design. It made his reputation. At Croome Park, Brown established the English Landscape Style a vision of ‘perfected nature’ which became the fashion throughout Europe and inspired copied throughout the world.

In the centre of Croome Park lies the Pleasure Ground consisting of a series of inter linked, undulating shubberies, punctuated by lovely buildings, statues, specimen trees and dramatic vistas. Brown created a lake and a mile and half long artificial River Croome, which was a fifth scale version of the River Severn. Paths through the shubberies formed a circuit which Croome’s guests could walk or ride, whilst admiring the vistas of the estate.

The estate fell into disrepair after 1949 when the Coventry family left the estate. In 1996 it was acquired by the National Trust who have undertaken a restoration project over a period of ten years.