Stefan Buczacki - From Blenheim to Chartwell : The Untold Story of Churchill’s Houses and Gardens

by Randolph Churchill

A s one of the most significant and most studied individuals in our history, my great-grandfathers life has been raked over countless times by historians and biographers. It might seem in consequence that there is nothing new to discover. However, when Stefan Buczacki began what was planned to be a study of Chartwell and its garden and discussed the project with my great-aunt, Mary Soames, she urged him to widen his brief. No one had previously studied the many other homes and their gardens that Churchill and his wife Clementine bought and sold over the years, the residences that culminated in their ownership of the great house of Chartwell itself.

The resulting story is the product of years of painstaking research, of uncovering scarcely known facts and scarcely known houses including one that Churchill bought almost by mistake. Through his thorough research Stefan portrays the full breadth of Churchills homes with insight and detail that helps us understand Churchill, both statesman and family man. We are indebted to Stefan for his scholarship and vivid account.

It has been a fascinating revelation, even for my own family.

I n his highly praised biography Churchill, the late Roy Jenkins wrote that he did not claim to have unearthed many new facts about his subject. He said that with published sources about him on their existing scale, this would be almost impossible and concluded that there are no great hidden reservoirs of behaviour to be tapped. In as much as Churchill is probably the most biographed man in history whose letters and papers have been raked over by two or three generations of researchers, that is probably true and the interest and significance of most published Churchill study today lies in the interpretation of what are essentially irrefutable facts. But there is a significant aspect of Churchills life that has never been examined in detail. Most biographers have overlooked much of the private, domestic existence of this very public man.

Whilst it is generally known that Winston and Clementine Churchill owned a property called Chartwell and it was their home for forty years, the fact that they also owned, rented or borrowed many other houses is largely unappreciated. When I first set about researching what I expected to be the Chartwell story therefore, it soon became evident that I too needed to know what had gone before and who and what had influenced them. Then, in turn, many other questions arose. Why did they move home so often and sometimes own two or three properties at the same time when at others they owned none? Who and what were the driving forces in deciding where they would live? How were the houses paid for? Why and when did Churchill take up farming and equestrian enterprises? And how did the familys pattern of domestic life relate to Churchills political career?

It also became evident that while much of the information I needed was certainly in the pubic domain at the Churchill archives, it had in large measure remained hidden because the bits that interested me were those that other biographers had ignored. And they were usually the bits that had been left out when the documents and letters were published.

I soon reached three decisions therefore. First, I would read all the relevant Churchill papers as original documents; second, where I had unavoidably to rely on secondary information, I would be circumspect in trusting any facts or comments that were neither in the late Sir Martin Gilberts official biography nor written by members of the Churchill family; and third, I would endeavour to visit all the Churchills homes, official and private, long and short term, owned and rented as well as those of significant friends who influenced them.

I had two significant pieces of good fortune. I located a small but highly important collection of unpublished papers of the Chartwell architect Philip Tilden and I was allowed access to a critical group of closed papers in the Churchill archives relating to Churchills farms.

I had thought that being a lifelong admirer of Churchill might prove a handicap as I unfolded, layer by layer, a side to the man that was essentially unknown. Would I be disappointed and discover private feet of clay as this greatest of world statesmen dealt with estate agents, managed his mortgage, kept an eye on the grocers accounts, chose wallpaper, argued with architects, hired and fired servants, developed his garden and haggled with builders? On the contrary, I discovered an unexpected humanity and whilst through his letters I certainly came to know the Churchill the world knows, a man born to lead, an ever impatient and often intolerant man aware of his own destiny, a driven politician with an ego the size of a tank, I also found a gentler individual with human frailties and a measure of insecurity, an always loving if not always caring husband and above all, a man of total integrity. To my surprise, in the house-owning, home-making, garden building Churchill of my study I found a bit of everyman.

T hroughout my research and writing I have been deeply grateful for the kind support and interest of the late Lady Soames, the last surviving child of Winston and Clementine Churchill. She patiently responded to those queries to which only she could possibly know the answers and I was greatly touched by her kind welcome on my visits to her home. Nonetheless any errors of fact or interpretation about her parents lives that may remain are my responsibility. Lady Soames also generously gave permission for some important collections of closed papers in the Churchill Archives relating to the Churchill farms and farm accounts to be opened for my study.

I am greatly appreciative of the interest shown in my work by Churchills great grandson Randolph who has most kindly written a Foreword to this new edition.

Many archivists and librarians have been helpful to me but none more so than Allen Packwood and his staff in the Churchill Archives at Churchill College, Cambridge where I buried myself for a year. They were unfailingly efficient and displayed a pleasance, warmth of welcome and interest in my work not always to be found in such institutions. It was greatly appreciated.

Having set myself the goal of visiting all the Churchills homes, and those of many of their friends, I cannot express too highly my gratitude to the present owners, occupiers and tenants who have made this possible. They have opened doors, given personally guided tours, plied me with coffee (and in some instances served the most splendid lunches in the most splendid surroundings) and generously loaned precious and personal photographs and documents. In order to protect their privacy, however, I have not linked any of their names with their properties.

I am especially grateful to the owners of a collection of unpublished papers of the architect Philip Tilden which were made freely available to me and without which my study of the redevelopment of Chartwell would have been immeasurably less complete. Among others who loaned documents, I wish particularly to thank John Julius Norwich who generously gave me access to unpublished material that he later used in his autobiography.

I am also grateful to my son Brig Julian Buczacki who read the script with military precision, pointed out a few matters of military and historical inconsistency and took a special delight in questioning one or two examples of his fathers syntax.

The staff of the National Trust have been supportive and helpful throughout and I was hugely grateful to Carole Kenwright, lately Property Manager at Chartwell, for giving me free rein to explore the house and grounds at my leisure while Jon Simons, lately Head Gardener at Chartwell and his staff kindly and patiently responded to my queries, both horticultural and historical. While I was revising my script Katherine Barnett and Tim Parker, respectively Project Curator and Collections Manager and Gardens and Countryside Manager at Chartwell were unfailingly helpful in supplying me with up to date information.