Skip to content

Things to see in the House at Croome

An historical illustrated world map showing global plant collection locations
Pages from Nature exhibition map | © Nina Leonard

At Croome's heart lies the House, the brainchild of the 6th Earl of Coventry, an 18th-century trend-setter who collaborated with the best new talent of the day – Robert Adam and Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown.

Guided house tours - November

From Monday 2nd to Sunday 15th November, the house will be open for guided tours only, where you can join one of our knowledgeable volunteers as they bring Croome's stories to life.

Our free guided tours are offered on a first-come, first-served basis. Spaces are limited; this is so that we can best care for our house and collection. Please book on arrival at visitor reception. Please ensure that you factor in the 15-20 minute walk from reception and arrive at the house before your tour is scheduled to begin. Shuttle service is available.

If you have booked onto a tour upon arrival, but can no longer attend, please notify any member of staff or volunteer on the premises and ask them to contact the House, so that your space can be released.

All tours are subject to the availability of volunteers who run them, and may be cancelled at short notice.

Mondays and Tuesdays - Behind the Scenes Collections tours | 12pm and 1.30pm | 45 mins | capacity 8

Join our volunteers to bring Croome’s story to life through a free Behind the Scenes Collections tour in the house.  Step behind closed doors to discover Croome's treasured collections, revealing stories of servants, families and architecture through a guided tour in some of Croome Court's most atmospheric spaces.

Introductory House tours | 12pm and 1.30pm | 45 mins | capacity 20

Join our volunteers for a tour that will bring Croome’s story to life; with its varied history you’ll definitely learn something new. 

______________________

Wednesdays - Robert Adam tours | 12pm and 1.30pm | 45 mins | capacity 20

Join our volunteers as they share the significant contribution Robert Adam, British neoclassical architect and designer of interiors and furniture, made to Croome.  This tour provides an introduction to British neoclassical architect and designer Robert Adam and the significant contribution he made to Croome’s interiors. Commissioned early in his career by the 6th Earl of Coventry, Adam went to form important collaborations with ‘Capability’ Brown, having met when working together at Croome

_______________________

Thursdays and Fridays - Introductory House tours | 12pm and 1.30pm | 45 mins | capacity 20

Join our volunteers for a tour that will bring Croome’s story to life; with its varied history you’ll definitely learn something new. 

_______________________

Saturdays and Sundays - Introductory House tours | 11am and 1.30pm | 45 mins | capacity 20 

Join our volunteers for a tour that will bring Croome’s story to life; with its varied history you’ll definitely learn something new. 

Behind the Scenes tours | 12pm and 2.30pm | 45 mins | capacity 15

Join our volunteers to bring Croome’s story to life through a free Behind the Scenes house tour.  Step behind closed doors to uncover centuries of change and explore hidden stories of servant life through a guided tour behind the scenes in Croome Court.

Please note, no photography is permitted in Behind the Scenes tours.

2 metre high 'Golden Box' installation with a reflective cube whose interior is encrusted with exquisite pieces of Meissen, Worcester and Sevres porcelain from Croome’s collection.
'Golden Box' installation/Bouke De Vries | © Jack Nelson

Contemporary exhibitions and installations

With about four-fifths of its collection absent, the House at Croome isn’t necessarily what you would expect from a traditional National Trust property. Instead, rooms, many with beautiful 18th-century plasterwork and fireplaces, are used to present temporary exhibitions and installations continuing the 6th Earl’s legacy of nurturing new talent.

Robert Adam bookcases display

A monumental set of mahogany mid-18th-century bookcases, designed by renowned architect, Robert Adam (1728-1792) for Croome Court have returned from the Victoria & Albert Museum (V&A), London.

The bookcases were in the Library for which they were designed for over 200 years before leaving Croome in 1973. These bookcases were not just pieces of furniture designed to hold books but were designed, made, and fitted by craftsmen responsible for three of the finest of Croome’s Neoclassical rooms designed by Robert Adam (1728-92).

These highly significant pieces were one of the last of the house’s original interiors to survive into the late 20th century intact. Uncertainty over the mansion’s future in the mid-20th-century, led to the selling of much of the collection in a series of auctions in the 1940s.

In 1752, the 6th Earl was said to be ‘furnishing his house with elegance’ employing four of the most pre-eminent people or firms operating in mid-18th-century Britain: Robert Adam; William Vile (d. 1767) & John Cobb (1715-78) and Sefferin Alken (fl. 1744-83). John Hobcraft (fl. 1757-84) installed the bookcases into the space.

Aside from their association with one of Adam’s most celebrated early Neoclassical interiors, the bookcases stand-alone as superb examples of mid-18th-century English furniture. This is why the Victoria & Albert Museum was keen to acquire them, purchasing them in 1975 with the aid of a generous anonymous donation.

To allow Croome to re-install the bookcases funds will need to be raised to allow this momentous work to be carried out.

The Robert Adam Bookcases at Croome

A monumental set of mahogany mid-18th-century bookcases, designed by renowned architect, Robert Adam (1728-1792) for Croome Court have returned from the Victoria & Albert Museum (V&A), London.

This video is hosted by YouTube

A display in the library of Crome Court, with text and photos of the historic bookcases and a section of bookcase on show.
he Robert Adam Books cases designed for Croome Court's library are being returned | © National Trust
A family with a pushchair walk in the grounds at Croome, Worcestershire. In the background Croome court can be seen.

Discover more at Croome

Find out when Croome is open, how to get here, things to see and do and more.

Our partners

Arts Council England

Arts Council England invest public money from government and the National Lottery to make sure everyone's creativity is given the chance to flourish and we all have access to a remarkable range of high quality cultural experiences.

Visit website 

The National Lottery Community Fund

The Big Lottery Fund, now called the National Lottery Community Fund, awards money raised by National Lottery players to fund great ideas that help communities to thrive.

Visit website 

Green Fingers Project

Our project engages looked after children in artistic, horticultural and healthy lifestyle activities. We aim to improve the emotional and physical wellbeing of Looked After Children (LAC) and carers through green activities along with healthy living information, activities and training to give LAC and carers a better understanding of health and healthy lifestyles.

Visit website 

You might also be interested in

Explore Croome's History 

Read about Croome's eclectic history, as a home to the 6th Earl and the Coventry family, its time as RAF Defford's airbase, a school for boys, Hare Krishna centre, and the people that helped shape it.

Large glass cases displaying RAF memorabilia such as flight suits and flags inside the RAF Defford Museum at Croome, Worcestershire.

Croome's Walled Gardens 

Discover more about the privately owned Walled Gardens at Croome, home to large greenhouses, a rose garden and vegetable plots. The Walled Gardens are open weekends and bank holidays.

Colourful flowers in the spring in the Mediterranean garden at Croome

Things to see and do in Croome's parkland 

Stretch your legs and take in winter scenes with far reaching views to the Malvern Hills across 'Capability' Brown's first major landscape design project.

Two visitors explore the parkland at Croome, following a pathway away from the camera that's surrounded by trees covered in yellow leaves. One visitor sits on a mobility scooter.

The history of the House at Croome 

Discover the history of the House at Croome, from its beginnings as a mansion house, to its various uses in the 20th century.

North front of the house at Croome Park, Croome D'Abitot, Worcestershire. Capability Brown remodelled the exterior facades of the house in Classical Palladian style, and added wings to the east and west in 1752.

Houses and buildings 

Historic houses and buildings are full of stories, art and collections. Learn more about their past and plan your next visit.

A family of two adults and two young children looking up at the archway leading to an ornately-gated area inside the Chapel of St Mary the Virgin at Clumber Park, Nottinghamshire.

Houses and buildings in Worcestershire and Herefordshire 

Explore the historic houses and buildings in Worcestershire and Herefordshire, encompassing the Georgian elegance of Berrington Hall and a 14th-century moated manor at Brockhampton.

The Painted Staircase in the Hall at Hanbury Hall, Worcestershire