The History of Chartwell

The wonderful thing about a visit to Chartwell is that it really is just as if Winston has just left. Fresh flowers on the hall table, his walking sticks at rest in the umbrella stand, his reading glasses on the table along with his trademark Havana cigars, just as if he might come in at any moment and choose one from the box. Chartwell cannot compete in size or grandeur with Churchill's birthplace, Blenheim (see The History of Blenheim Palace), but no house better captures the spirit of the man who lived here from 1924 until his death in 1965.

No greater love
The house and garden near Westerham in Kent was, apart from his wife Clementine, his greatest love. He said of Chartwell, "I love the place - a day away from Chartwell is a day wasted". With its magnificent views over the Weald of Kent, the house was Winston's home as Chancellor of the Exchequer, Leader of the Opposition and as Prime Minister (1940-45 and 1951-55).

The artist within
Winston started painting during the First World War. It became his chief form of relaxation and Chartwell was the perfect place to practice it. Picasso allegedly said that Churchill could have been a great artist if he had not been a great statesman and many of his paintings hang at Chartwell today or in private collections. He built a studio in the orchard at the bottom of the garden and loved to work there when he couldn't paint outside. Shy of his talent, Winston submitted three paintings to the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition under a pseudonym, David Winter, and was delighted when they were accepted.

Wilderness years
During the 1930s, Winston was out of favour with his own party and out of office with the government. During this time, it was his writing that kept the family finances afloat as he produced histories of the First World War, a biography of Marlborough and his History of the British Speaking Peoples in four volumes, which later won him the Nobel Prize for Literature. But it was also a time when he wrote a stream of speeches and articles - notably attacking the government's 'do-nothing' approach to the rise of fascism in Europe.

Black days
Churchill famously suffered from recurring bouts of depression which he called his 'black dog'. He was haunted by his experiences of the First World War and his involvement in the disastrous Dardanelles campaign. One of his forms of release was bricklaying - he would don his overalls and go off to the walled kitchen garden where he rebuilt parts of the walls. He was often to be found, smoking a cigar and contemplating the accuracy of his handiwork.

Saved for the nation
After the war, Churchill's finances were in such a muddle that, in 1947, a group of friends got together to buy the house and gave it to the National Trust with the proviso that Churchill should live out his days there and that thereafter it should be kept in his memory.

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