Croome Court, Croome d'Abitot, Worcestershire, England

The following is from the English Heritage Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest. 

The Coventry family became established in Worcestershire in the late 16th century, and were created earls in 1697. The sixth Earl, who inherited in 1751 and died in 1809, was foremost among the 'Earls of Creation' and noblemen who developed their estates under the influence of classical philosophies and the Grand Tour. His long tenure of the Croome estate saw the full development of the landscape park around a rebuilt house, and Croome's recognition as one of the greatest landscape creations of the age.

After the early 19th century there were few additions or alterations at Croome, the landscape of which matured and then decayed through neglect. The family remained here until 1948 when the house was sold for institutional use. In 1996 the National Trust purchased 271 hectares of the park and began its restoration. The house remains (1999) outside the Trust's ownership in private hands.

Pirton Park (please see description of this site elsewhere), 2km to the north-west, was landscaped by Lancelot Brown for the Earl of Coventry in the 1760s. Although here registered as a separate site for reasons of clarity, Croome and Pirton were intervisible and essentially elements of the same scheme of landscaping.