Chartwell, Winston Churchill's Home

Day 16   Croyden    Tuesday, Sept 26, 2017

Our excursion with David and Hilary today was to Chartwell, which is Winston Churchill's home/museum in County Kent in SW England (south of Croyden). Here we are just as we were arriving, overlooking the vast grounds of his estate. We all loved the tour and walks we took around the estate.

The origins of the estate date back to the 14th century, and for over 40 years it was the Churchill home. He bought the property in 1922 and lived there until he died in January, 1965. In the 1930s, when Churchill was excluded from political office, Chartwell was the center of his world where he composed his speeches and wrote books, built garden walls, constructed lakes, and painted. During WWII, Chartwell was largely unused while he staying at his London home. The Churchills returned after he lost the 1945 election. In 1953, when he again was prime minister, the house became his refuge after he suffered a stroke.

 The croquet lawn. Looks like they still play.

We loved strolling the grounds. This was one of Churchill's spots to sit and paint or reflect, which he did all the time around Chartwell. We walked around quite a bit before our ticketed time to enter the house.

The rose garden, as Janet explains to David why Donald Trump is a moron.

 A perfect day to enjoy the outdoors, both before and after we toured the house.

Chartwell was acquired by the National Trust clear back in 1946 because Churchill could no longer afford it, but donors paid to allow them to continue to live there until he died. When he did, the Trust opened it to the public only a year later. It's now very much a museum of Churchill's illustrious life.

In addition to following his live history, the house had numerous gifts given to Churchill, such as a famous Persian rug from the Shah in 1943. There were many ceremonial bowls and plaques, and his own paintings (500+ of them in the house and studio). They had many of his honorary military or royal uniforms, with a photo of him wearing each one at an event. A special theme was putting copies of the little "love notes" he and his wife, Clementine, sent each other frequently during their lives. 

We ate lunch outside in the sun, at the museum cafe, after our tour, and notice that one of our beers was British Bulldog, with a photo of Winston.

We then strolled more of the grounds, on such a beautiful day. The wall down there was partially built by Winston himself.

There's the plaque declaring that Churchill built most of that wall "with his own hands" between 1925 and 1932.

This was daughter Mary's playhouse, who was the fifth of their five children. Marigold, the 4th, died at age 3 in 1921, and the house had many touching photos and mementos regarding Marigold.

Hilary was inspecting the toy stove.

The sign above the fireplace says that Mary used to keep her playhouse neat and tidy, so please keep it that way!

We spoke to the keeper of the coop, who was feeding them before going home.

Cackle cackle. We were intrigued by the fluffy head feathers on the white ones in the center and to the right.

One of the pretty lakes on the grounds, where Sir Winston often painted. We all listened to a docent describe the studio and its famous paintings. Some were gifts from famous artists, but most were Winston's.

What is everyone looking at in the water?

Isn't it cute? It's clearly the best picture I took on our entire trip!

Then we came across the statue of Winston and Clementine by Oscar Nemon, who was famous for sculpting about a dozen public statues of Churchill. You can see his knee is worn smooth from people sitting up there for a photo. We resisted that urge!

Another lake. The Nemon statue is right behind David when he snapped this photo.

 I took this as we were at our farthest point from the house. We enjoyed the entire day at Chartwell.

These swans were squawking away as we walked near the little pond called Swan Pen. So, I had to walk over to get their photo. This was my final photo while at Chartwell, at which point we walked on back to the carpark.

We had dinner at a fish-and-chips restaurant that David and Hilary said was the best one they knew. We agreed! Check out those "healthy" chucks of cod.

The drive back was again thrilling, on those curvy, narrow roads. We did like their Jag-you-are, which was so quiet, we had no idea it was a diesel. It was a relaxing evening. We did our laundry. We chatted, and again watched the 10:00 news.