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Discover Churchill’s Stories from the Park and Formal Gardens

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As a child Winston wrote many letters from Blenheim Palace telling his mother, Lady Randolph, that he had been out in the Park and Gardens. He went for walks with Nanny Everest, learnt to ride his pony Rob Roy, and spent time catching butterflies and dragonflies. He also liked to make encampments under the trees with umbrellas ‘borrowed’ from the Palace.

I Winston proposed to Clementine Hozier in 1908 in the Temple of Diana. He had intended to propose in the Rose Garden, which was a garden created by his Grandfather the 7th Duke, but rain diverted them into the Temple. From mid-June in 2015 there will be a new memorial garden located just beside the Temple of Diana, that will allow visitors to walk through Winston’s remarkable life.

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C In 1920 Winston painted a picture of the garden then seen on the West Front of the Palace. The garden Winston painted no longer exists because the 9th Duke had the Water Terraces built from 1925 - 1931.

DOn the 4th August 1947, a rally was held on the South Lawn of the Palace, at which Winston addressed 60,000 members of the Conservative Party having received the Freedom of Woodstock from the Mayor, Mary, the 10th Duchess of Marlborough, on the 2nd August. Further information on this can be found in the Churchill Exhibition, located inside the Palace.

Accessibility:For wheelchair users wanting to access the viewing points on the route marked in black, do not use thecircular route, follow the path from G, past H and I. When at J turn back and follow the path back past I, H and G.

F During the times of the 7th and 8th Dukes of Marlborough (Winston’s grandfather and uncle) the Roundel did not exist, but the Exedra did. This has been replanted with a fountain as its centre piece. Winston loved the gardens at Blenheim Palace for their beauty and peace. When he left the trenches of the First World War in 1916 the first thing he wanted to do was come to Blenheim Palace to paint.

A When Sir Winston Churchill was a young man the Great Court was very different from today. There was an oval lawn in the middle and lawns either side of the gravel carriage way. The 9th Duke, in the early 1900s restored the Great Court to the original design of gravel, cobbles and terraces, which you see today.

B In one of his childhood letters to his parents from Blenheim Palace, Winston wrote to say he had caught his first fish in the Lake. Another time he wrote to say he had been out with Nanny Everest collecting primroses and hyacinths. Later in life he loved to sit in the Park and paint scenes around the Lake.

Winston’s grandfather, the 7th Duke of Marlborough, built his Italian Garden on the East Front of the Palace. It was this garden, as seen in the above image, that Winston knew as a child. As an adult Winston watched the progress as the 9th Duke’s Italian Garden was built in the early 1900s. It is this garden that forms the present Duke’s Private Garden.

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On one of his walks around the gardens with Nanny Everest, Winston saw a snake near the Cascades. He was disappointed that Nanny would not let him go near it.

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