AT first sight the seething mass of pogoing punks at Birmingham's Odeon in 1978, screaming along to their heroes X-Ray Spex as the band ripped through its hit Oh Bondage! Up Yours, would appear to have little in common with the genteel feel of faded aristocracy at Croome Court, one of Worcestershire’s great country houses.
In fact on second, third and fourth sight you’d struggle to find a connection either.
But back in the 1980s, X-Rays' singer, a young lady who went by the name of Poly Styrene and was having a few personal issues, underwent something of a transmogrification.
She pitched up at Croome as a member of the Hare Krishna community, which had bought the country mansion for £300,000 in 1979 and turned it into its UK headquarters.
Having taken the spiritual name of Maharansi Dasi, Poly ditched the punk lyrics and turned to songs in praise of Krishna. Occasionally she appeared among the happy-clappy, bell ringing and chanting lines of devotes who would cheerfully conga their way down Worcester High Street through the Saturday shopping crowds.
Croome’s ownership by the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, which lasted from 1979 until 1984, was but one brief interlude in the history of this marvellous place which is now, thankfully, in the care of the National Trust and along with its surrounding landscape park has become on of Worcestershire’s popular tourist attractions.
The mansion and park were designed by Lancelot "Capability" Brown for the 6th Earl of Coventry in the mid-1700s and were Brown's first landscape design and first major architectural project. Some of the mansion's rooms were designed by Robert Adam.
Although the seat of the Coventry family, the Court’s ownership had been put into a trust, but even that couldn’t save it in the upheavals brought about by the Second World War. In 1948, the Croome Estate Trust had to sell Croome Court, along with almost all of its original furniture and fittings. The 10th Earl had been killed during the retreat to Dunkirk in 1940 and with maintenance costs rising and agriculture depressed, the upkeep of the Neo-Palladian property could no longer be supported by the great estate surrounding it.
For nearly 20 years it was owned by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Birmingham and run by nuns as St Joseph's School for boys, until the International Society for Krishna Consciousness moved in at the end of the 70s.
When the bells and chants moved on, Croome was not lived in for 12 years and then endured a succession of attempts to turn it into a country club, hotel and a golf course. When all those failed, another property developer turned the house into a private home once more, living there with his family.
However, years of neglect were catching up with the old building and in October 2007 Croome Court was bought by the Croome Heritage Trust. This took the property on in partnership with the National Trust, which undertook to run and repair it. The house opened to the public in September 2009 and the Heritage Trust has since extended the lease to the National Trust for 999 years.
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