The original church at Croome was demolished by the 6th Earl of Coventry when he decided to replace his adjacent Jacobean house in the 1750s. His new house and park were designed and laid out by Capability Brown as was the church, set on a low hill nearby in Croome Park as an ‘eye catcher’. The views out to the Malvern Hills on a clear day are spectacular.
The interiors of both house and church are attributed to Robert Adam and were completed in 1763. Built by some of the finest craftsmen in England, every detail has been considered, from pretty plaster mouldings to handsome carved pews - the church is a perfect fantasy of the period, with elegant Gothick windows and plasterwork, pulpit, communion rails, commandments and creed boards. Opulent monuments brought from the old church, long since demolished, show the former Barons and Earls of Coventry in their full glory. The earliest in black and white marble shows the 1st Lord, who died in 1639, reclining under a canopy. The monument to the 1st Earl, who died in 1699, is missing because the 2nd Earl disapproved of his father’s second marriage, at an advanced age, to a servant, Elizabeth Graham and so his monument is now in the nearby church of St Mary’s at Elmley Castle instead!
St Mary Magedelene is open when Croome Park is open. See the Croome Park website (National Trust) for detailed opening times.