Croft Castle

St Michael and All Angels. Twelfth century origins but essentially C14th . Worth reading about here

Here lies Sir Richard de Croft and Eleanor, his wife, slumbering in stone while the world around them changes. 

And just outside——the castle. 

When you wander through its rooms you sense the family around you as each generation of Croft leaves their imprint. It’s akin to drifting through transparencies, one overlaying the other. Here for example is the drawing room, restored to interwar tastes, and which resembles an Agatha Christie set waiting for Poirot. 

I love the phonograph and small drinks' table.

But back to the very beginning or, at least, its Norman origins.

A Norman knight, Bernard de Croft, was rewarded with an estate and on this spot built a rudimentary castle;  in 1085, he was rewarded with a mention in the Domesday Book. The family next stumbles into the spotlight  when Sir John de Croft marries Jonet, the daughter of Owen Glyndwr in the 1390s and finds himself in an embarrassing position—caught up in Glyndwr’s rebellion against the English Henry 1V. 

His grandson, Richard de Croft, a wily dog, fought for the Yorkist Edward IV against the Lancastrian Henry VI and after the Yorkist victory at the battle of Mortimer Cross (1461) was duly rewarded. Twenty-seven years later, he changed sides and fought for the Lancastrian, Henry VII and never looked back, and never will, buried in his splendid tomb in the adjoining church.

 

In 1570, his grandson, Sir James Croft became Elizabeth I’s Comptroller of the Royal Household, and it was then that the old castle was pulled down and replaced by a more comfortable Elizabethan equivalent, complete with formal gardens. 

Sir James’ grandson, Sir Herbert Croft, complicated things a little, becoming  a Catholic, and retiring to a Benedictine monastery in France. Three of his sons inherited Croft in turn. The eldest, Sir William Croft fought for the king in the English Civil war and was killed in 1645  during his retreat from Stokesay Castle. 

Sir William Croft

The second son also fought in the war but died without an heir, and so the inheritance passed to the third son, the Reverend Herbert Croft, shown above to the right.

After the Restoration, the newly restored Charles II made him Bishop of Hereford as a reward for his loyalty. Over the years, Herbert spent what he had restoring the castle, unaware of what his grandson would do to the Croft estate.

                                  

The grandson, Sir Archer Croft. invested in the South Sea Company, exporting slaves to the Spanish Americas. It was a gigantic Ponzi scheme later to become known as the South Sea Bubble. When it collapsed in 1720, Sir Archer Croft was ruined and lost much of his wealth including the castle. 

Crofts were not to return to Croft Castle for another 170 years. Even so, they remained an important family though never a fortunate one. 

A later Herbert Croft— the Reverend Sir Herbert Croft 5th Baronet is a case in point. One of his great treasures was an early Samuel Johnson's Dictionary. Sir Herbert, though was never entirely satisfied with Johnson's own definitions, and if you look at his copy, it is marked with his own 'superior' definitions scrawled in the margins. Herbert was also obsessed with trees and planted three million of them over 1000 acres.  It cost him more than he had and he was arrested for debt, imprisoned, and eventually fled to France where he lived in exile. His worst sin, perhaps, was being unable to provide a dowry for his three daughters who remained unmarried as a result. 

Herbert's library and study. His portrait adorns the wall

                                

                                                  Sir Richard Croft 1762 - 1818

                                 

                          

Sir Richard Croft, a leading obstetrician, was called upon by the future George IV to handle the pregnancy of his daughter, the Princess Charlotte. Unfortunately, both mother and child died, and the shamed Sir Richard committed suicide soon after.  

During the C18th  the castle was owned by a succession of richer families, each making their mark on the building as shown below. The Crofts though were never far and never forgot the castle they'd once owned. 

The Blue Room with its distinctly C18th clock. The eyes near the top of the clock move from side to side with every tick. Most unnerving. 

The Jacobean panelling was brought from Stanage Park in Radnorshire and painted pale blue. The gilded rosettes at the centre of the panels were hand painted - 300 of them - so no two are exactly the same. The 'trompe l'oeil' technique gives the roses a 3 D effect. 

A chest of drawers with a porcelain Tulip Holder for each individual very expensive flower. 

And then, 170 years later the family repurchased Croft in 1923 for the young James Croft, the 11^th Baronet. During the interwar years the castle was brought back to life by these modern Crofts.

Mrs Owen Croft 1885 - 1972 as a young woman. She  married Major Owen Croft a younger brother of Herbert, the 10th Baronet. When her husband died in 1956 she went into deep mourning. She had her car sprayed black, edged her stationery in black and wore mourning clothes until she died sixteen years later. 

Henry Page Croft and his wife Nancy painted by society artist  Phillip de Laslo in the 1920s

 In 1941 James, the 11th baronet died and his cousin, Sir Henry Page Croft inherited what had become a temporary Girls' School— St Mary's Convent School for Girls. 

As, perhaps, the painting and photo indicate, Sir Henry was ‘old school,’ a military man, a Brigadier General in World War I, later an MP and then Under Secretary of State for War in Churchill’s wartime cabinet. In 1940 he was made Lord Croft, championed all things imperial, opposed the League of Nations as an interfering folly and had opposed self-government for India in 1935. When he died he was succeeded by his son, Michael, the 2^nd Lord Croft, and he and his sister worked non-stop to save Croft from speculators, preserving it instead for the nation through the National Trust. And all the time, Sir Richard and Lady Eleanor slept undisturbed in their tomb.

https://chat.openai.com/auth/login the National Trust cafe there has a wonderfully warm fire but their sausage rolls are horrible. 

It also has a small second hand book shop where I bought this book from my childhood past.

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