Chartwell

Chartwell - Winston Churchill’s Home

Chartwell House image courtsey: places-to-go.org.uk

Name of the manor. ...Chartwell.

Purchased on...............1922.

Bought by...................Sir Winston Churchill.

Land area....................32 Hectares.

Price............................Rs.95,000.

Chartwell image courtsey: nationaltrust.org.uk

Present status..............Owned and maintained by The National Trust. A charity organization with about three and a half million members.

Description.

Chartwell image courtsey: nationaltrust.org.uk

“Five reception rooms, 19 bed and dressing rooms, eight baths, large studio and heated swimming pool” As per the agent’s prospectus. When the manor was proposed to sell (later Churchill changed his mind and an anonymous group of Churchill’s friends bought it and presented to Churchill, where he lived up to his death.

Not a day to be wasted.

Chartwell image courtsey: nationaltrust.org.uk

“A day away from Chartwell is a day wasted” Winston Churchill.

A man’s home reveals his heart and Chartwell is no exception. A thorough bred home to a thorough bred man. Throughout the house and grounds are vivid reminders of its owner who had no days to be wasted so he lived in it till his death. Chartwell near westerham in Kent, where the vitality of Churchill still lives and all its nook and cranny reverberates with the multifarious capabilities of its previous boss.

A canvas 32 hectares wide.

Chartwell image courtsey: nationaltrust.org.uk

Chartwell had been compared to a painting created by none other than Sir Winston Churchill (emerged as the greatest Brit in a survey conducted by BBC in 2002) who purchased this manor (large country houses with lot of land gardens orchards etc) of Victorian Architecture with a Tudor influence in 1924 (Tudor relating to English royal dynasty starting with Henry the seventh to Elizabeth -1 (1485 – 1603), where as Victorian is comparatively recent - between 1837 - 1901).

Relentless upgradation.

Chartwell image courtsey: nationaltrust.org.uk

Churchill relentlessly got engaged in modifications, extensions and beautifications of the manor to prune it in to his way of thinking. The years of planning and hard work have its markings in the look and appearance of this building and the land – a definitely Churchill appeal. Rooms and staircases lead off one another with practically no two on the same level, externally, the house presents a curious composition of pitched roofs, dormers and chimneys, topped by a flagstaff from which Sir Winston’s banner as Warden of the Ports flew.

A bell before lunch!

Clementine Hozier image courtsey: wikipedia.org

The bell-tower also played a part in everyday life at the house. There was no knowing where on the estate Churchill might be at the vital moment of lunchtime. The ringing of the bell brought him stumping indoors.

Statesman, artist, and architect.

Sir Winston Churchill image courtsey: artfiles.art.com

Churchill was not just a good artist bur a good architect as well, when he quirked his blessed brush to create marvelous pieces of art, where as in the garden his brushes were earth-moving machinery, spade, mattock and mason’s trowel! And excellent land-scape emerged from his machineries.