Newspaper
Croome crime
The stunning work of one of the landscape architecture profession’s pioneers is under threat.
Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown’s impressive 18th Century design for the gardens at Croome Court in Worcestershire could be destroyed as landowner Laurence Bilton has applied for planning permission to build six bungalows in the walled kitchen garden area of the site.
The National Trust, which owns and manages the surrounding 272ha Croome Park, is fighting the plans, along with the Croome Estate Trustees and landscape architects who feel it would be terrible to build on Lancelot Brown’s first great realisation of the Natural English Landscape movement.
Hal Moggridge, of Colvin & Moggridge, told Vista that the Croome Court landscape is “priceless” and it would be “a crime” to build modern bungalows on the suggested site. He explained why the land is so special to the landscape profession: “Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown acquired his peculiar nickname from his habit of telling clients that their gardens had ‘great capabilities’. He was the first professional, in architecture or landscape architecture, who acted in the modern sense as a real professional,” he said. “Brown set up a modern-style practice, designed and supervised work and he never accepted patronage or tips, which had been the norm previously for consultants. He was also the greatest and boldest exponent of the Natural English Landscape style, which is often recognised as one of this country’s most significant contributions to European art.”
Bilton intends to sell the property, so the National Trust has joined the Croome Estate Trustees in an attempt to purchase the main home, but their offer of £2.25m was rejected by Bilton outright. Moggridge told Vista that he suspects Bilton has little intention of actually building the six bungalows, but, instead, merely wants to gain planning permission in order to raise the value of the land so that the Croome Trustees and the National Trust would have to raise their offer. However, if permission is granted, then the risk of the landscape being wrecked is high since Moggridge does not expect the Trust to raise their offer of £2.25m and Bilton may well sell the land to somebody else who could build on it.
“What Bilton is doing is like cutting a piece out of a Turner painting – a ship or something – and then selling it off as a separate painting. The real value is lost forever,” Moggridge said.
The National Trust, with help from the Heritage Lottery Fund, has spent ten years pouring money into the site and restoring the landscape to its original glory. Julian Gibbs, National Trust Parks and Gardens curator, said: “The proposed development would effectively mean that a priceless piece of garden history would be lost forever.”
He continued: “A leasing partnership with the Croome Estate Trust would enable the house, gardens and wider landscape to be united, restored and opened to the general public.” Owner Laurence Bilton told Vista: “The National Trust is saying that these houses would be a ‘blot on the landscape’, but the wall of the walled garden and the trees would hide them completely. The land I am going to build on already has 15 garages, bicycle stores, parking spaces, LPG tanks and a substation in it, so it has changed irrevocably already. In an ideal world it would be nice to restore the walled garden to its original state, but the National Trust would not even do it – they would use the space for car-parking, I think.
“This house was built for family occupation, not for thousands of people to traipse through,” he added. “Why should I have to open it up to the general public?”
Bilton labelled Moggridge’s fears as “absolute rubbish” and described the offer of £2.25m as “derisory and contemptuous”. He commented: “I’m not even going to entertain it. Croome Court is worth a lot more than that. The National Trust is bullying me and the pressure has been unbelievable and unreasonable. I will not deal with the organisation anymore. They have tried a lot of shady, dodgy little tactics and they’re getting all their little volunteers to object. It’s just absurd.” He added: “I will never ever sell to them. They will never ever get it. I might deal with the Trustees, but I will never sell this house to the National Trust.”
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