The majority of contents of the house that had not previously been sold off were sold at auction and the court itself was sold to the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Birmingham. It was fitted out as a boarding school for boys and run by the Society of St Vincent de Paul. St Joseph’s had about 140 pupils from all over the country.
The remainder of the collection which had not sold in the auction was moved to nearby Earls Croome Court where the Coventrys took up residence.
A new home for the collection
On the death of the 11th Earl in 2002 and the subsequent sale of Earls Croome Court, it became necessary for the Croome Heritage Trustees to find a new home for the porcelain, furniture and family portraits which had been retained.
Until recently many of these items (around 1200) have been stored and exhibited at Kelmarsh Hall in Northamptonshire.
The collection comes home
After extensive remedial and re-servicing work of Croome Court during 2014 to 2016, it is now a suitable environment once again to store and exhibit the remaining items of the collection.
From the start of 2017 the Croome treasures have been returning, staff and volunteers have brought the items back to the house cataloguing everything using the National Trust Collection Management System.