{"id":1093,"date":"2010-09-30T11:25:05","date_gmt":"2010-09-30T11:25:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stroudcivicsociety.co.uk\/wp\/?p=1093"},"modified":"2010-09-30T11:25:05","modified_gmt":"2010-09-30T11:25:05","slug":"croome-park-september-2010","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stroudcivicsociety.co.uk\/home\/2010\/09\/30\/croome-park-september-2010\/","title":{"rendered":"Croome Park, September 2010"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is a report on the Society’s visit to Croome Park on September 9th 2010, written by Sue Houseago. (pictures by Juliet Shipman and Guy Williams)<\/p>\n

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Stroud Civic Society Scores a First!<\/h3>\n

\"viewingDuring a lively visit to Croome Park, Juliet Shipman ensured that we were the first members of the public ever to climb the winding stone stairs of The Panorama Tower, an early 19th century \u2018eye catcher\u2019 – one of three designed for the sixth Earl of Coventry.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The gasps of astonishment as we emerged onto the circular viewing balcony were proof enough that although our motley twenty-first century coach load of viewers was very different from the aristocratic pleasure seekers of 1802, the dazzling vistas were exactly the same.<\/p>\n

\"Croome<\/p>\n

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There in the distance was Worcester Cathedral; May Hill; a waving line of Malvern Hills; the West Tower of the Earl\u2019s Georgian Gothic Church and many other wonders.<\/p>\n

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We had already marvelled at Robert Adam\u2019s design for Croome\u2019s Church, with its filigree plaster cornices and ceiling roses. Huge family monuments had been brought over from the original medieval Church, which, being too near to the house, had been demolished and rebuilt on high ground 500 metres away.<\/p>\n

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\"CroomeLooking down from the Church, Croome Court, a golden 18th century Bath stone house, lay in a grassy parkland of woods and waters with views of bridges, an island pavilion, monuments, a temple greenhouse and beyond it all the Malvern Hills.<\/p>\n

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Astonishingly the house itself, though now unfurnished, has survived virtually unscathed through being requisitioned by the RAF as a base, airfield and hospital during the Second World War, followed by use as a Catholic School, and as a centre for Hare Krishna. The usual conversions into golf club, country house hotel followed, before, in 1996 the National Trust with Heritage and other funding, acquired it.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"PanoramaAfter tea and sandwiches, scones piled high with cream and jam, all served in a Nissen hut – cleverly conserved as a caf\u00e9 – we were held in thrall by the Project Curator, Sara Kay\u2019s, illustrated talk. She told of the rich estate archive where intricate details of bills and inventories of expenditure are held, such as the sixth Earl\u2019s meticulous recording, while in Paris, of his purchase of six caf\u00e9 au laits! Sara\u2019s deft weaving of old photographs with new, revealed ideas about how the house had originally been used.<\/p>\n

She told us that while measuring a space under the stairs, she had noticed an incision in the wood that confirmed the placing of a particularly large picture of a horse race. The painstaking uncovering of six minute layers of 20th century paint alone, shows the skill required to reconstruct the life of an 18th century house, whose furniture, tapestries, sculptures and paintings have been scattered over galleries and houses here and abroad. Sarah\u2019s delight, however, as she declared that one such gallery had \u2018more or less promised they could have Croome\u2019s treasures back\u2019, confirmed that this dedicated team of National Trust professionals will return this fascinating house to far more than simply its former glory!<\/p>\n

Driving away from Croome Park with its \u2018eye-catchers\u2019, statues, trees, river, lake, and shrubs, we knew, that yet again Juliet, through her own detailed research had uncovered for us all, yet another fascinating part of our heritage. This one is just up the road too!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is a report on the Society’s visit to Croome Park on September 9th 2010, written by Sue Houseago. (pictures by Juliet Shipman and Guy Williams) Stroud Civic Society Scores a First! During a lively visit to Croome Park, Juliet Shipman ensured that we were the first members of the[…]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1093","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorised"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stroudcivicsociety.co.uk\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1093","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stroudcivicsociety.co.uk\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stroudcivicsociety.co.uk\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stroudcivicsociety.co.uk\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stroudcivicsociety.co.uk\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1093"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stroudcivicsociety.co.uk\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1093\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stroudcivicsociety.co.uk\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1093"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stroudcivicsociety.co.uk\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1093"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stroudcivicsociety.co.uk\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}