Chartwell

Chartwell, country house near Westerham, Kent, England, that from 1922 until shortly before his death in 1965 was the country home of British statesman Sir Winston Churchill. The house, the oldest walls of which date from Tudor times, was named for a nearby spring.

Winston and Clementine Churchill were looking for what they called “a country basket” when they found Chartwell Manor, an undistinguished Victorian country house in a thoroughly dilapidated state and riddled with dry rot, but set in delightful countryside. He bought it in 1922, without telling her, and they moved in two years later, after massive and expensive renovations were completed. Clementine was horrified and worried for years about how they could afford it. She never became as attached to the place as he was. Used for weekends to begin with, it became their principal home out of London, and Sir Winston later said simply that a day away from Chartwell was a day wasted.

Visitors included T.E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) and the painter Walter Sickert as well as dozens of politicians and scholars. The Churchills lived at Chartwell when he was chancellor of the Exchequer in the 1920s. When he was out of office with his career apparently finished in the 1930s, it became his base of operations, from which he prepared to meet the coming storm of World War II. He also wrote his books and speeches there.

During World War II, Chartwell was thought to be too exposed, and its ponds were covered, though Churchill did make occasional short visits. He returned to Chartwell when he was out of office between 1945 and 1951. When he suffered a stroke in 1953, he returned to Chartwell to recuperate, and it was to Chartwell that he retired in 1954, spending his last years writing, painting, and sitting outside on sunny days gazing silently over the lakes and the beautiful landscape.

The estate was always a financial burden to the Churchills, and a group of Churchill’s friends bought Chartwell and gave it to the National Trust in 1947. Clementine Churchill relinquished her interest in 1965, and the house opened to the public in 1966. The interiors remain largely as they were, and the rooms reflect Clementine Churchill’s tastes. Her husband’s study is exactly as he left it. There are many of his paintings. The extensive grounds were landscaped by Churchill, and among their features are the lakes he created and the walls that he built himself.