Croome Court

I'm beginning to feel like an ambassador for National Trust properties!  Today we visited Croome Court -- a fascinating and very atmospheric 18th Century neo-Palladian mansion surrounded by beautiful parkland designed by Capability Brown.  The history of the house is varied and quite sad -- the house started life very grandly, when the 6th Earl of Coventry arranged for the best of everything for its interiors as well as the grounds.  Succeeding generations whittled away the family fortunes, and eventually the family left the house after the death of the 10th Earl in 1940.  During World War II, the grounds were partly taken over by the top secret RAF Defford base, which was conducting vital work in radar research and development.  It was also an airfield for RAF fighter planes.  After the war, the house became a boys school for a number of years, and then it was taken over by the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (Hare Krishna) for a number of years.  The place now looks quite forlorn, and is in need of quite extensive restoration, but it still fascinates.  Walking through the parkland, we admired the handsome Rotunda, and also visited the enormous walled garden -- claimed to be the largest in Europe -- which contains 7 1/2 acres of flowers, vegetables, and fruit trees.  As you can see, the dahlia borders were blooming to beat the band!