Chartwell and Winston Churchill

Looking across the soft fruit garden

The swimming pool, fed by a brook

Fab sunflowers in the walled garden

Outside the drawing room

The pool, with his favourite chair

Beehives

A drupe, but which one?

Gourds, beans and courgettes

The Golden Wedding Rose Walk

Chartwell, Kent. The Family Home of Winston Churchill

A late-in-the-day decision to visit Chartwell (getting the best value from the National Trust annual membership), the family home of Winston Spencer Churchill. Presented very much as it was when it was their family home, with gardens that Winston had a great deal to do with – choosing the plants, building walls, the natural swimming pool he swam in, an extensive walled cutting and vegetable garden, bee hives, orchard, croquet lawn, ponds and fish pools, painting studio, sunken rose garden – and a Golden Wedding rose walk too – and so much personal and official memorabilia on show too. Very impressive.

The house from the croquet lawn

Looking across the Golden Wedding Rose Walk and Walled Garden

The house from the extensive orchard

His painting studio – the two pitched roofs on the left – made out of farm cottages