Memorial Garden at Blenheim Palace

An article published in the Oxford Mail, 25^th November, 2014, covers the story of a Memorial Garden being created at Blenheim Palace, Woodstock, Oxfordshire.

A memorial garden marking the 50th anniversary of Sir Winston Churchill’s death will be created at his birthplace of Blenheim Palace. Work has begun on creating the garden that will be completed by June next year to coincide with half a century since the wartime Prime Minister died.

The memorial, designed by landscape architect Kim Wilkie, will be placed next to the Temple of Diana, where Sir Winston proposed to Clementine Hozier in 1908.

The 12th Duke of Marlborough, Jamie Spencer-Churchill, said the project was the brainchild of his father, John Spencer-Churchill, before his death last month.

The Duke, a distant relative of Sir Winston, said: “My father cared deeply about the creation of a memorial garden here at Blenheim Palace to celebrate the life of his cousin and godfather. He had spent a lot of time discussing every detail of the design and I am very much looking forward to working with Kim to ensure it is completed as he would have wished.”

Sir Winston was born at the palace on November 30, 1874, and spent much of his childhood there. He used it and its surroundings as inspiration for paintings.

During the Second World War he served as Prime Minister from 1940 to 1945, and again as Conservative Premier from 1951 to 1955.

Sir Winston died on January 24, 1965 and is buried at St Martin’s Church in nearby Bladon, which can be seen from the palace.

The garden will feature a mixture of plants, flowers and a winding footpath with features representing Sir Winston’s life. It is 90m long, mirroring the years of his life, and each metre will relate to an event, such as his first day at Harrow School, aged 13.

The path will have banners of snowdrops, crocuses, poppies, cornflowers and coreopsis weaving along at different times of the year. A bust statue of Sir Winston on a stone bench will be placed on the path overlooking a lake below.

Mr Wilkie said: “Churchill was enormously fond of Blenheim Palace and it is an honour to design a memorial for the great man within the palace grounds he loved so much.”