Couple turn ruined walled garden into a jewel in the crown at Croome

Most prospective buyers would have turned straight around and moved on to view the next property on their list.

But the couple, who met aged 15 at Pershore High School and were living near Evesham, are no strangers to big projects. In fact they positively relish them. They run a company called Total Solutions which designs and builds giant stage sets for concerts and major events and they have worked with some of the biggest names in the pop and rock world – including the Rolling Stones.

Chris explained: “When our daughter left home we were left with a large house and no mortgage and we really needed a challenge. The business was going well and we always had ambitions to do something like a barn conversion.

“Our best friends lived in Pirton and we visited them every other week. So every two weeks we were driving past the gates to Croome Court not knowing what was behind them.

“We wanted to come back to the Pershore area so we started looking for properties that needed a bit of sprucing up.”

They had their eye on one property up for auction but the bidding started at the top of their budget so they started their search again.

“Karen went around the estate agents in Worcester and found one who had just been instructed to put this cottage and walled garden on the market. We were the first on the scene.”

The property had been separated from the court and surrounding parkland, now run by the National Trust, and was in private ownership.

Despite the crumbling neglected state of the cottage, historic glasses houses and walls which were buried under overgrown weeds and brambles, the couple were drawn by the magical quality of the walled garden and the chance to restore its beauty and grandeur.

“When we came into the grounds at Croome we knew we were stepping into a different world,” said Chris. “It was so overgrown”

Chris said it was a once in a lifetime opportunity which they simply couldn’t resist - even though neither of them were avid or expert gardeners.

It was only later they realised exactly what they had taken on. “Shortly after we arrived various archaeologists and experts spoke to us and explained what we had taken on. Slowly but surely it started to sink in,” said Chris.

The seven-acre rhomboid-shaped walled garden at Croome holds a unique place in the history of British gardening. It is thought to be the largest 18th century walled garden in Britain and possibly Europe.

Evidence that the Coventry family, who lived at Croome from the late 16th century until 1948, were interested in gardening stems from the late 17th century and the gardens evolved as the property was passed through the generations.

It is thought the massive walls were finished by the mid 1700s as the Croome archive – now at the Worcester Records Office – contains over 600 bills for vegetables, flowers and fruit including vines and artichokes.

In 1752 the 6th Earl of Coventry brought in ‘Capability’ Brown to work on the house, gardens and park. He, together with Robert Adam, made changes to the garden and hot houses for growing melons, pineapples, peaches and vines were built.

In 1766 a circular stone-curbed ‘dipping’ pond, which was used for drawing water to distribute around the garden and for the nearby horse stable block, was added as well as an Adam-designed sundial. The pond has been completely rebuilt and both features can be clearly seen today.

According to Jill Tovey, archivist for the Croome Estate Trust, in around 1806 a 13ft high 100 metre-long free standing ‘hot wall’, with five underground furnaces, was built.

This heated wall created a non indigenous environment to propagate and extend the growing season for fruit and vegetables. It is one of the first of its kind ever built and is considered one of the historical gems of Croome’s garden.

She says: “The walled garden at Croome is at least 250 years old and unique not only in its size and its history, but also in the fact that the 18th century records survive almost in their entirety and together they form a whole which is of national importance to garden history and to the history of Britain, and Worcestershire in particular.

“The two can only be read together. This is a whole lot more than the usual 19th century walled garden of which there are hundreds of examples - important though they are too.”

The first job for Chris and Karen was to get in builders to make the cottage habitable. “We had one bedroom, a bathroom and a living room. Our kitchen and dining room was in the Rose and Crown at Severn Stoke.”

Before long the couple were rolling up their sleeves and getting stuck in to clearing the unruly wilderness that had taken a stranglehold on the gardens and buildings.

Chris said: “We joined this walled garden network. We have all become friends over the years and they became a great source of knowledge and information. We have also had the benefit of National Trust experts.”

Over the past 15 years the Gardener’s Cottage has become a comfortable and extended home linking to half of the restored vine house.

Chris and Karen, together with a team of five regular workers, have painstakingly restored the melon and cucumber house, the peach and fig house as well as the converted vine house. They also rebuilt part of the exterior wall for which they went on a course in Wales to learn how to use lime mortar.

They also own an area of woodland, which they discovered was formerly a dumping ground for the estate. Several archaeological digs have been conducted revealing 200 years’ worth of bottles, porcelain, masonry and iron artefacts.

The rose garden, with the Robert Adam sundial as its centre piece, is a new addition at Karen’s request which complements the historic setting.

Now after 15 years at the property they see themselves more as custodians of an historic treasure rather than property owners.

“It has been a great privilege to be here. We have had the opportunity to uncover the work done here before us and show respect for that. The best we can do it to provide some sustainable continuity for the gardens.”

The work goes on with a possible future restoration of the tomato house and Chris doesn’t rule out the option of recreating the pineapple pits where three varieties of the exotic fruit were grown in a show of 18th century aristocratic one-upmanship.

There are plans too to create a visitor centre with refreshment facilities and possibly open up the network of underground tunnels taking the heating pipes to the hot houses.

“We started with a restoration project and now we have a restoration project and a maintenance project.”

They are now appealing for volunteers to help maintain the gardens. There is a wide array of tasks ranging from weeding to harvesting vegetables and volunteers will also have the opportunity to grow and look after their own area in the garden, with a wide range of flexible hours.

To find out more contact Emily Cottrell on 01905 370001 or email Emily.cottrell@nationaltrust.org.uk.

Last year the couple opened the garden to the public and there are plans for more weekend openings this year. For more information visit http://www.croomewalledgardens.com/events-diary.php

“I am really a behind the scenes person but I am always very excited about showing off the gardens because it is such a lovely place. It is so easy to talk about it,” he said.

And they were in the spotlight at Pershore College recently giving a lecture arranged by the Royal Horticultural Society called The Restoration of Walled Gardens at Croome where they talked about their project – its successes and failures. Participants will get a chance to visit the gardens in June.