REVEALING THE MAGIC

This month we're off to Worcestershire to the Walled Gardens of. Croome Court. Once sadly neglected they have now been lovingly restored, revealing treasures old and new

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Chris and Karen Cronin didn't set out to own a walled kitchen garden. Having found success in the music industry, the couple wanted to do what some of their rock'n'roll friends had done – find themselves a place in the country with space for a swimming pool. As it turned out, their new garden had different plans.

The Croome Court estate the Walled Gardens are a part of has always been important, starting life in the 1500s as the seat of the Earls of Coventry. With the Malvern Hills and beautiful Severn Valley as a backdrop, the surrounding estate was Capability Brown's first full landscape design. Once covering 22,000 acres, this was one of the biggest private estates in the UK, with parts stretching as far as the neighbouring estate of Blenheim Palace. Even today Croome still covers an impressive 800 acres.

Croome Court, which along with the wider estate is now in the care of the National Trust, has had a varied past since being sold by the Croome Estate Trust in 1948. It became a boys' school and in 1979 Beatles' guitarist George Harrison purchased it for the Hare Krishna movement which had its headquarters there until 1984, when it was purchased by a developer.

"We bought the Walled Gardens in 2000 and at that time they had been derelict for half a century and were in an appalling state," said Chris. "The site was fragmented. The National Trust owned the landscape and a developer had bought the mansion and about 30 acres of the inner part of the estate, including the Walled Gardens and Gardener's Cottage. Shortly after, he put it back on the market and we just happened to be in the right place at the right time.