Editing Chartwell (section)

== History ==

=== Early history to 1922 ===
The earliest recorded mention of the land dates to 1362 when it was sold by a William At-Well.{{sfn|Buczacki|2007|p=106}} The origin of the name is the Chart Well, a spring to the north of the current house, Chart being an [[Old English]] word for rough ground.{{sfn|Buczacki|2007|p=105}} The site had been built upon at least as early as the 16th century, when the estate was called Well Street.{{sfn|Garnett|2008|p=13}} [[Henry VIII]] was reputed to have stayed in the house during his courtship of [[Anne Boleyn]] at nearby [[Hever Castle]].{{sfn|Garnett|2008|p=12}} Elements of the [[Tudor era|Tudor]] house are still visible; the [[Historic England]] listing for Chartwell notes that 16th- (or possibly 17th-) century brickwork can be seen in some of the external walls.<ref name="listed">{{National Heritage List for England |num=1272626 |desc=Chartwell |access-date=11 November 2012}}</ref> In the 17th and 18th centuries, the house was used as a farmhouse and its ownership was subject to frequent change.{{sfn|Garnett|2008|p=13}} On 22 September 1836, the property was auctioned at [[Cheapside]], advertised as "a suitable abode for a genteel family".{{sfn|Buczacki|2007|p=107}} In 1848 it was purchased by John Campbell Colquhoun, a former MP; the Campbell Colquhouns were a family of Scottish landowners, lawyers and politicians.{{sfn|Buczacki|2007|p=110}} The original farmhouse was enlarged and modified during their ownership, including the addition of the [[stepped gable]]s, a [[Scottish baronial]] genuflection to the land of their fathers.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.victorianweb.org/art/architecture/homes/styles.html|title=Styles in Domestic Architecture|last=Banergee|first=Jacqueline| date=21 August 2016|website=The Victorian Web|access-date=5 August 2017}}</ref> By the time of the sale to Churchill, it was, in the words of Oliver Garnett, author of the 2008 guidebook to the house, an example of "Victorian architecture at its least attractive, a ponderous [[Red brick|red-brick]] country mansion of tile-hung gables and poky [[oriel window]]s".{{sfn|Garnett|2008|p=13}} Tilden, in his "highly unreliable"{{sfn|Bettley|1987|p=2}} memoirs, ''True Remembrances'', wrote of "creating Chartwell out of the drabness of [[Victorian era|Victorian]] umbrageousness".{{sfn|Tilden|1954|p=115}}

=== Churchill at Chartwell ===

==== 1922 to 1939 ====
[[File:Chartwell House.JPG|thumb|right|Chartwell – Clementine Churchill's "magnificent aerial bower" to the left]]
Churchill first saw Chartwell in July 1921, shortly before the house and estate were to be auctioned.{{sfn|Buczacki|2007|p=100}} He returned the same month with his wife Clementine, who was initially attracted to the property, although her enthusiasm cooled during subsequent visits.{{sfn|Buczacki|2007|p=101}} In September 1922, when the house had failed to sell at auction, he was offered it for £5,500. He paid £5,000, after his first offer of £4,800, made because "the house will have to be very largely rebuilt, and the presence of dry rot is a very serious adverse factor", was rejected.{{sfn|Gilbert|1975|p=793}} The seller was Captain Archibald John Campbell Colquhoun, who had inherited the house in June 1922 on the death of his brother.{{sfn|Gilbert|1977|p=2027}} Campbell Colquhoun had been a contemporary of Churchill's at [[Harrow School]] in the 1880s. On completion of the sale in September 1922, Churchill wrote to him; "I am very glad indeed to have become the possessor of "Chartwell".<ref name="listed" /> I have been searching for two years for a home in the country and the site is the most beautiful and charming I have ever seen".{{sfn|Gilbert|1977|p=2027}} The sale was concluded on 11 November 1922.{{sfn|Garnett|2008|p=11}}

The previous 15 months had been personally and professionally calamitous. In June 1921, [[Lady Randolph Churchill|Churchill's mother]] had died, followed three months later by his youngest child, Marigold.{{sfn|Garnett|2008|p=11}} In late 1922, he fell ill with appendicitis and at the end of the year lost his Scottish parliamentary seat at [[Dundee (UK Parliament constituency)|Dundee]].{{sfn|Soames|1998|pp=263–265}}

[[Philip Tilden]], Churchill's architect, began work on the house in 1922 and the Churchills rented a farmhouse near Westerham, Churchill frequently visiting the site to observe progress.{{sfn|Soames|1998|p=269}} The two-year building programme, the ever-rising costs, which escalated from the initial estimate of £7,000 to over £18,000, and a series of construction difficulties, particularly relating to damp, soured relations between architect and client,{{sfn|Bettley|1987|p=15}} and by 1924 Churchill and Tilden were barely on speaking terms.{{sfn|Garnett|2008|p=18}}{{efn|Tilden's relations with Clementine were no warmer; in 1923, after they had fallen out over the installation of a kitchen range, Clementine suggested Tilden might move to [[Tokyo]] to assist in its reconstruction after an [[1923 Great Kantō earthquake|earthquake]].{{sfn|Tinniswood|2016|p=351}}}}{{efn|Tilden’s undoubted skills did not prevent him making practical mistakes, and falling out with many of his clients. [[Thomas Jones (civil servant)|Thomas Jones]], visiting [[Bron-y-de]], the Surrey country house Tilden designed for [[David Lloyd George]] in 1926, noted; “Tilden forgot to put a [[scullery]] at Churt: what he forgot at Chartwell I did not discover because he was a subject to be avoided.”{{sfn|Toye|2007|p=232}}}} Legal arguments, conducted through their respective lawyers, continued until 1927.{{sfn|Buczacki|2007|p=152}} Clementine's anxieties about the costs, both of building and subsequently living at Chartwell also continued. In September 1923 Churchill wrote to her, "My beloved, I beg you not to worry about money, or to feel insecure. Chartwell is to be our ''home'' (and) we must endeavour to live there for many years."{{sfn|Soames|1998|p=273}} Churchill finally moved into the house in April 1924; a letter dated 17 April to Clementine begins, "This is the first letter I have ever written from this place, and it is right that it should be to you".{{sfn|Soames|1998|p=281}}

In February 1926, Churchill's political colleague [[Samuel Hoare, 1st Viscount Templewood|Sir Samuel Hoare]] described a visit in a letter to the [[Media proprietor|press baron]] [[Lord Beaverbrook]]; "I have never seen Winston before in the role of landed proprietor,&nbsp;... the engineering works on which he is engaged consist of making a series of ponds in a valley and Winston appeared to be a great deal more interested in them than in anything else in the world".{{sfn|Gilbert|1976|p=145}} As Hoare's presence indicated, Churchill's holidays were very rarely pure vacations. [[Roy Jenkins]], in his study, ''The Chancellors'', contrasted Churchill's approach to holidaying with that of his then boss, [[Stanley Baldwin]]. "Churchill went to Chartwell or elsewhere to lengthen the stride of his political work, but not greatly to reduce its quantity; far from shutting himself off, he persuaded as many as possible of his colleagues and henchmen to visit him, to receive his ever-generous hospitality."{{sfn|Jenkins|1999|p=324}} In January 1928, [[James Lees-Milne]] stayed as a guest of Churchill's son [[Randolph Churchill|Randolph]]. He described an evening after dinner; "We remained at that round table till after midnight. Mr Churchill spent a blissful two hours demonstrating with decanters and wine glasses how the [[Battle of Jutland]] was fought. He got worked up like a schoolboy, making barking noises in imitation of gunfire, and blowing cigar smoke across the battle scene in imitation of gun smoke".{{sfn|Gilbert|1976|p=265}} On 26 September 1927, Churchill composed the first of his ''Chartwell Bulletins'', which were lengthy letters to Clementine, written to her while she was abroad. In the bulletins, Churchill described in great detail the ongoing works on the house and the gardens, and aspects of his life there. The 26 September letter opens with a report of Churchill's deepening interest in painting; "[[Walter Sickert|Sickert]] arrived on Friday night and we worked very hard at various paintings&nbsp;... I am really thrilled&nbsp;... I see my way to paint far better pictures than I ever thought possible before".{{sfn|Soames|1998|p=309}}

Churchill described his life at Chartwell in the later 1930s in the first volume of his history of the [[Second World War]], ''The Gathering Storm''. "I had much to amuse me. I built&nbsp;... two cottages,&nbsp;... and walls and made&nbsp;... a large swimming pool which&nbsp;... could be heated to supplement our fickle sunshine. Thus I&nbsp;... dwelt at peace within my habitation".{{sfn|Churchill|1948|p=62}} Bill Deakin, one of Churchill's research assistants, recalled his working routine. "He would start the day at eight o'clock in bed, reading. Then he started with his mail. His lunchtime conversation was quite magnificent,&nbsp;...absolutely free for all. After lunch, if he had guests he would take them round the garden. At seven he would bathe and change for dinner. At midnight, when the guests left, ''then'' he would start work&nbsp;... to three or four in the morning. The secret was his phenomenal power to concentrate."{{sfn|Gilbert|1976|p=730}}{{efn|A contributory factor was Churchill's habit of taking to his bed after lunch, an opportunity not accorded to his subordinates. [[Alan Don]], secretary to [[Cosmo Gordon Lang]], the [[Archbishop of Canterbury]], recorded in his diary a meeting between the archbishop and the prime minister on 1 August 1940; "[Lang] saw W.C. at 5 p.m. - the latter had just got out of bed and was as usual smoking a large cigar. He gets up as fresh as paint and works at full steam until the early hours of the morning. His habit of going to bed between lunch and tea is rather disconcerting to his colleagues."{{sfn|Don|2020|pp=347-348}}}} In his study of Churchill as author, the historian Peter Clarke described Chartwell as "Winston's word factory".{{efn|Clarke records Churchills's approach to writing; "(at night) the day's literary work would really begin...materials for the current chapter would be laid out on a long, raised table. Either Violet Pearman or [[Grace Hamblin]] would be on hand for dictation. 'Well, we must have done three thousand words', he would say, normally at about 2 a.m. and the duty secretary could be sent home. An hour or two later, the great wordsmith would also retire."{{sfn|Clarke|2012|pp=167–169}}}}{{sfn|Clarke|2012|p=274}}

[[File:MunichAgreement.jpg|thumb|left|Chartwell was the base from which Churchill waged his campaign against [[Neville Chamberlain]]'s policy of [[appeasement]]]]
In the opinion of [[Robin Fedden]], a diplomat, and later Deputy General Secretary of the National Trust and author of the Trust's first guidebook for Chartwell, the house became "the most important country house in Europe".{{sfn|Fedden|1974|p=3}} The historian Graham Stewart, in his study of [[Conservative Party (UK)|Tory Party]] politics, ''Burying Caesar'', described it as "a sort of [[Jacobitism|Jacobite]] court of [[Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye|St Germain]]".{{sfn|Stewart|1999|p=321}}{{efn|[[James II of England|James II]] had been granted the [[Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye]] after his flight from England in 1688, and it remained a gathering place for [[Jacobitism|supporters]] of the restoration of the [[Stuart monarchy]].{{sfn|Corp|2004|p=173}}}} A stream of friends, colleagues, disgruntled civil servants, concerned military officers and foreign envoys came to the house to provide information to support Churchill's struggle against [[appeasement]].{{efn|Chartwell had always provided Churchill with a venue for political discussion. Earlier in the 1930s, Churchill conducted much of the planning for the work of the [[India Defence League]] at the house. Graham Stewart notes the "regularity in which Chartwell was used as the meeting forum" for opponents of the [[National Government (1931–1935)|National Government's]] [[Government of India Act 1935|Government of India Bill]].{{sfn|Stewart|1999|p=196}}}} At Chartwell, he developed what Fedden calls, his own "little Foreign Office&nbsp;... the hub of resistance".{{sfn|Fedden|1974|p=10}} The Chartwell visitors' book, meticulously maintained from 1922, records 780 house guests, not all of them friends, but all grist to Churchill's mill.{{sfn|Roberts|2008|p=42}} An example of the latter was [[Maurice Hankey, 1st Baron Hankey|Sir Maurice Hankey]], Clerk of the [[Privy Council (United Kingdom)|Privy Council]], who was Churchill's guest for dinner in April 1936. Hankey subsequently wrote, "I do not usually make a note of private conversations but some points arose which gave an indication of the line which Mr Churchill is likely to take in forthcoming debates (on munitions and supply) in Parliament".{{sfn|Gilbert|1976|p=723}} A week later, [[Reginald Leeper]], a senior [[Foreign Office]] official and confidant of [[Robert Vansittart, 1st Baron Vansittart|Robert Vansittart]], visited Churchill to convey their views on the need to use the [[League of Nations]] to counter German aggression. Vansittart wrote, "there is no time to lose. There is indeed a great danger that we shall be too late".{{sfn|Gilbert|1976|p=726}}

Churchill also recorded visits to Chartwell by two more of his most important suppliers of confidential governmental information, [[Desmond Morton (civil servant)|Desmond Morton]] and [[Ralph Wigram]], information which he used to "form and fortify my opinion about the Hitler Movement".{{efn|Churchill recorded Morton and Wigram's contributions in ''The Gathering Storm'', the first volume of [[The Second World War (book series)|his history of the Second World War]]. "I formed a great regard for (Morton). He was a neighbour of mine, dwelling only a mile away from Chartwell, and became one of my most intimate advisers till our final victory was won. Wigram saw as clearly as I did, but with more certain information, the awful peril which was closing in upon us."{{sfn|Churchill|1948|p=63}}}}{{sfn|Churchill|1948|pp=62–63}} Their sharing of data on German rearmament was at some risk to their careers; the military historian [[Richard Holmes (military historian)|Richard Holmes]] is clear that Morton's actions breached the [[Official Secrets Act 1911|Official Secrets Act]].{{sfn|Holmes|2009|p=101}} Chartwell was also the scene of more direct attempts to prepare Britain for the coming conflict; in October 1939, when reappointed [[First Lord of the Admiralty]] on the outbreak of war, Churchill suggested an improvement for [[Anti-aircraft warfare|anti-aircraft shells]]; "Such shells could be filled with [[zinc ethyl]] which catches fire spontaneously&nbsp;... A fraction of an ounce was demonstrated at Chartwell last summer".{{sfn|Gilbert|1993|p=228}}{{efn|In addition to those made by Morton and Wigram, the historian [[Andrew Roberts (historian)|Andrew Roberts]] records visits to Chartwell by Vansittart himself, [[Heinrich Brüning]], the anti-Nazi former German chancellor, and the socialist French politicians [[Léon Blum]] and [[Pierre Cot]]. The information he obtained from these and other sources made Churchill the best "informed politician in Britain about the capacities and limitations of both Britain's armed forces and Germany's".{{sfn|Roberts|2019|pp=365-366}}}}

In 1938, Churchill, beset by financial concerns, again considered selling Chartwell,{{sfn|Churchill|1997|pp=155–156}} at which time the house was advertised as containing five reception rooms, nineteen bed and dressing rooms, eight bathrooms, set in eighty acres with three cottages on the estate and a heated and floodlit swimming pool.{{efn|In his study of Churchill and his son Randolph, ''Churchill & Son'', Josh Ireland records the running costs of Chartwell in the mid-1930s as being £10,000 per year.{{sfn|Ireland|2021|p=98}}}} He withdrew the sale after the industrialist [[Henry Strakosch]] agreed to take over his share portfolio, which had been hit heavily by losses on [[Wall Street]], for three years and pay off significant associated debts.{{sfn|Garnett|2008|p=28}} In September 1938, the Russian Ambassador, [[Ivan Maisky]], made his first visit and recorded his impressions of Chartwell: "A wonderful place! A two-storey house, large and tastefully presented; the terrace affords a breathtaking view of Kent's hilly landscape; ponds with goldfish of varying size; a pavilion-cum-studio with dozens of paintings - his own creations - hanging on the walls; his pride and joy, a small brick cottage which he was building with his own hands".{{efn|Sensing Maisky's discomfort at the opulence of his estate, Churchill sought to put him at his ease; "You can observe all this with an untroubled soul! My estate is not a product of man's exploitation by man: it was bought entirely on my literary royalties". Maisky noted in his diary, "[his] royalties must be pretty decent!"{{sfn|Maisky|2015|p=124}}}} His impression of his host was somewhat less favourable; asked what special occasion would lead Churchill to drink a bottle of wine dating from 1793 from his cellar, Churchill had replied - "We'll drink this together when Great Britain and Russia beat Hitler's Germany". Maisky's unspoken reaction was recorded in his diary, "Churchill's hatred of Berlin really has gone beyond all limits!"{{sfn|Maisky|2015|pp=124-125}}

==== 1939 to 1965 ====

Chartwell was mostly unused during the Second World War.{{efn|Churchill's own History describes only two visits during the war. The first, in April 1942, saw Churchill inspect a Young Soldiers battalion detailed to Chartwell for his personal protection, and write to the [[Secretary of State for War]] and the [[Chief of the Imperial General Staff]] demanding to know why the battalion reported as being short of [[Bren gun]]s and [[Universal Carrier|carriers]].{{sfn|Churchill|1951|p=774}} The second, in 1943, was interrupted by the unexpected arrival of Ivan Maisky, who drove down from London to deny charges made by the [[Polish government-in-exile]] of Russian responsibility for the [[Katyn massacre]].{{sfn|Churchill|1951|p=680}}}}{{efn|[[John Martin (civil servant)|John Martin]], appointed Churchill's Principal Private Secretary in May 1941, also recorded the second of these visits in his diary, "April 16, 1943: ...at [[Pelham Place, London|Pelham Place]]. Picnic lunch in the garden. To Chartwell with PM. Thence to [[Chequers]]".{{sfn|Martin|1991|p=101}} This is the only mention of Chartwell in the diary which begins on 21 May 1940, on Martin’s becoming one of Churchill’s Private Secretaries and concludes on 30 June 1945 with the following entry, “Although it was not easy to work for Churchill, it was tremendous fun”.{{sfn|Martin|1991|p=196}}}}{{sfn|Reynolds|2004|p=3}} Its exposed position in a county so near to [[German-occupied France]] meant it was vulnerable to a German airstrike or commando raid.{{efn|[[Commander]] [[Tommy Thompson (Royal Navy officer)|Tommy Thompson]], Churchill's [[aide-de-camp]] from 1939-1945, recorded that the house's siting on the Wealden Ridge, and the proximity of the series of lakes, meant that it could easily be identified by [[aerial reconnaissance]].{{sfn|Pawle|1963|p=83}}}}{{sfn|Pawle|1963|p=83}} As a precaution the lakes were covered with brushwood to make the house less identifiable from the air.{{sfn|Fedden|1974|p=10}} A rare visit to Chartwell occurred in July 1940, when Churchill inspected aircraft batteries in Kent. His Principal Private Secretary at the time, Eric Seal, recorded the visit; "In the evening the PM, Mrs C and I went off to Chartwell. One of the features of the place is a whole series of ponds, which are stocked with immense goldfish. The PM loves feeding them".{{efn|Recording a post-war visit, the historian [[A. L. Rowse]] described the goldfish; "I have never seen such fat, spoiled fishes: they were addressed as 'darlings'—as Rufus the poodle had been—and came to the rattle of his cane".<ref name="auto">{{Cite web|url=https://winstonchurchill.hillsdale.edu/visit-to-chartwell/|title="There was Once a Man": A Visit to Chartwell, 1955|first = A. L.|last=Rowse|publisher=The Churchill Project|date=29 February 2016}}</ref>}}{{sfn|Gilbert|1983|p=654}} The Churchills instead spent their weekends at [[Ditchley House]], in [[Oxfordshire]], until security improvements were completed at the Prime Minister's official country residence, [[Chequers]], in [[Buckinghamshire]].{{sfn|Gilbert|1983|p=900}} At dinner at Chequers, in December 1940, [[Jock Colville|John Colville]], Churchill's [[Private Secretary|assistant private secretary]] recorded his master's post-war plans, "He would retire to Chartwell and write a book on the war, which he had already mapped out in his mind chapter by chapter".{{sfn|Gilbert|1983|p=943}}

[[File:PanzersJune1941.jpg|thumb|left|German Panzers at Tobruk, June 1941. Closed up during the war, Chartwell remained Churchill's bolthole at times of crisis]]
Chartwell remained a haven in times of acute stress{{sfn|Gilbert|1983|p=1113}}—Churchill spent the night there before the [[fall of France]] in 1940.{{sfn|Hastings|2010|p=19}} Summoned to London by an urgent plea from [[Lord Gort]] for permission to retreat to [[Dunkirk evacuation|Dunkirk]], Churchill broadcast the first of his wartime speeches to the nation; "Arm yourselves, and be ye men of valour...for it is better for us to perish in battle than to look upon the outrage of our nation..."{{sfn|Hastings|2010|p=20}} He returned again on 20 June 1941, after the failure of [[Operation Battleaxe]] to relieve [[Siege of Tobruk|Tobruk]], and determined to sack the Middle East commander, [[General Wavell]]. [[Jock Colville|John Colville]] recorded Churchill's deliberations in his diary; "spent the afternoon at Chartwell. After a long sleep the P.M. in a purple dressing gown and grey felt hat took me to see his goldfish. He was ruminating deeply about the fate of Tobruk and contemplating means of resuming the offensive".{{sfn|Colville|1985|pp=402–403}} Churchill continued to pay occasional, short, visits to the house; on one such, on 24 June 1944, just after the [[Normandy landings]], his secretary recorded that the house was "shut up and rather desolate".{{sfn|Gilbert|1986|p=837}}

Following [[VE Day]], the Churchills first returned to Chartwell on 18 May 1945, to be greeted by what the horticulturalist and garden historian [[Stefan Buczacki]] describes as, "the biggest crowd Westerham had ever seen".{{sfn|Buczacki|2007|p=226}} But military victory was rapidly followed by political defeat as Churchill lost the [[1945 United Kingdom general election|July 1945 general election]]. He almost immediately went abroad, while Clementine went back to Chartwell to begin the long process of opening up the house for his return{{sfn|Soames|1998|p=533}}—"it will be lovely when the lake camouflage is gone".{{sfn|Soames|1998|p=538}} Later that year, Churchill again gave thought to selling Chartwell, concerned by the expense of running the estate. A group of friends, organised by [[Lord Camrose]], raised the sum of £55,000 which was passed to the National Trust allowing it to buy the house from Churchill for £43,800. The excess provided an endowment.{{efn|Details of the sale of the house were not made public and sources provide somewhat differing views as to the sums involved. Josh Ireland suggests that the Camrose consortium paid £85,000 for the estate, with £35,000 going to the National Trust as an endowment, and the remaining £50,000 going to Churchill.{{sfn|Ireland|2021|p=276}}}}{{sfn|Lough|2015|p=320}} The sale was completed on 29 November.{{sfn|Gilbert|1988|p=304}} For payment of a rent of £350 per annum, plus rates,{{sfn|Gilbert|1988|p=304}} the Churchills committed to a 50-year lease, allowing them to live at Chartwell until their deaths, at which point the property would revert to the National Trust.{{sfn|Garnett|2008|p=6}} Churchill recorded his gratitude in a letter to Camrose in December 1945, "I feel how inadequate my thanks have been, my dear Bill, who (...) never wavered in your friendship during all these long and tumultuous years".{{sfn|Reynolds|2004|p=20}} 
[[File:Plaque on wall at Chartwell - geograph.org.uk - 1421613.jpg|thumb|right|Plaque at Chartwell recording the names of those who raised the funds for the purchase of the house by the National Trust in 1945]]

In 1953, Chartwell became Churchill's refuge once more when, again in office as prime minister, he suffered a debilitating [[stroke]].{{efn|When Churchill was returned to the premiership in 1951, Chartwell was again closed up as the effort of running 10 Downing Street, the prime minister's official country house [[Chequers]], and Chartwell was too great for Lady Churchill. [[Anthony Montague Browne]], Churchill's last [[Private Secretary]], recalled a discussion at Downing Street in the early 1950s: "WSC – 'I shall go to Chartwell next weekend'. CSC – 'Winston, you can't! It's closed and there will be no one there to cook for you.' WSC – 'I shall cook for myself. I can boil an egg. I've seen it done.'"{{sfn|Browne|1995|pp=117–118}}}} At the end of a dinner held on 23 June at [[10 Downing Street]], for the Italian Prime Minister [[Alcide De Gasperi]], Churchill collapsed and was barely able either to stand or to speak.{{sfn|Gilbert|1988|pp=846–847}} On the 25th, he was driven to Chartwell, where his condition deteriorated further. Churchill's doctor [[Baron Moran|Lord Moran]] stated that "he did not think the Prime Minister could possibly live over the weekend".{{sfn|Gilbert|1988|p=849}} That evening Colville summoned Churchill's closest friends in the press, [[Lord Beaverbrook]], Lord Camrose and [[Brendan Bracken]] who, walking the lawns at Chartwell, agreed to try to ensure a press blackout to prevent any reporting of Churchill's condition.{{sfn|Gilbert|1988|p=852}} Colville described the outcome, "They achieved the all but incredible success of gagging [[Fleet Street]], something they would have done for nobody but Churchill. Not a word of the Prime Minister's stroke was published until he casually mentioned it in the [[House of Commons of the United Kingdom|House of Commons]] a year later".{{sfn|Colville|1985|p=669}} Secluded and protected at Chartwell, Churchill made a remarkable recovery and thoughts of his retirement quickly receded.{{sfn|Colville|1985|p=673}} During his recuperation, Churchill took the opportunity to complete work on ''Triumph and Tragedy'', the sixth and final volume of his [[The Second World War (book series)|war memoirs]], which he had been forced to set aside when he returned to Downing Street in 1951.{{sfn|Reynolds|2004|p=441}}

On 5 April 1955, Churchill chaired his last [[Cabinet of the United Kingdom|cabinet]], almost fifty years since he had first sat in [[10 Downing Street#Cabinet Room|the Cabinet Room]] as [[President of the Board of Trade]] in 1908.{{sfn|Gilbert|1988|p=1112}} The following day he held a tea party for staff at Downing Street before driving to Chartwell. On being asked by a journalist on arrival how it felt no longer to be prime minister, Churchill replied, "It's always nice to be home".{{sfn|Gilbert|1988|p=1125}} For the next ten years, Churchill spent much time at Chartwell, although both he and Lady Churchill also travelled extensively.{{efn|Churchill was a lifelong opponent of physical exercise, Jock Colville recording his comment on it, made during his master's last years at Chartwell: "I get my exercise as a [[pallbearer]] to my many friends who exercised all their lives".{{sfn|Roberts|2019|p=953}}}} His days there were spent writing, painting, playing [[bezique]] or sitting "by the fish pond, feeding the [[Ide (fish)|golden orfe]] and meditating".{{sfn|Garnett|2008|p=35}} Of his last years at the house, Churchill's daughter, [[Mary Soames]], recalled, "in the two summers that were left to him he would lie in his 'wheelbarrow' chair contemplating the view of the valley he had loved for so long".{{sfn|Gilbert|1988|p=1345}}

Catherine Snelling served Churchill as one his last secretaries. In the oral histories of a number of such secretaries compiled by the Churchill Archive, she recalled the dwindling number of visitors Churchill received at the house in his later years. They included Clementine's cousin, [[Edward Stanley, 4th Baron Stanley of Alderley|Sylvia Henley]], [[Violet Bonham Carter]], daughter of [[H. H. Asquith]] and a lifelong friend, [[Harold Macmillan]] and [[Bernard Montgomery]].{{sfn|Stelzer|2019|p=290}} On 13 October 1964, Churchill's last dinner guests at Chartwell were his former [[Principal Private Secretary to the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom|principal private secretary]] [[Leslie Rowan|Sir Leslie Rowan]] and his wife. Lady Rowan later recalled, "It was sad to see such a great man become so frail".{{sfn|Gilbert|1988|p=1357}} The following week, increasingly incapacitated, Churchill left the house for the last time. His official biographer [[Martin Gilbert]] records Churchill was, "never to see his beloved Chartwell again".{{sfn|Gilbert|1988|p=1357}} After his death in January 1965, Lady Churchill relinquished her rights to the house and presented Chartwell to the National Trust.{{sfn|Garnett|2008|p=6}} It was opened to the public in 1966, one year after Churchill's death.{{sfn|Buczacki|2007|p=278}}

=== National Trust: 1966 to the present ===
[[File:Chartwell, Churchills' statue.jpg|thumb|right|[[Oscar Nemon]]'s statue of Churchill and Lady Churchill at Chartwell]]
The house has been restored and preserved as it looked in the 1920–30s; at the time of the Trust's purchase, Churchill committed to leaving it, "garnished and furnished so as to be of interest to the public".{{sfn|Buczacki|2007|p=279}} Rooms are decorated with memorabilia and gifts, the original furniture and books, as well as honours and medals that Churchill received.<ref name="listed" /> Lady Churchill's long-time secretary, [[Grace Hamblin]], was appointed the first administrator of the house.{{sfn|Garnett|2008|p=35}} Earlier in her career, Miss Hamblin had undertaken the destruction of the [[Sutherland's Portrait of Winston Churchill|portrait of Churchill]] painted by [[Graham Sutherland]]. The picture, a gift from both Houses of Parliament on Churchill's 80th birthday in 1954, was loathed by both Churchill and Lady Churchill{{sfn|Clubbe|2016|p=6}} and had been stored in the cellars at Chartwell before being burnt in secret.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/winston-churchill/11730850/Secret-of-Winston-Churchills-unpopular-Sutherland-portrait-revealed.html|title=Secret of Winston Churchill's unpopular Sutherland portrait revealed|last=Furness|first=Hannah|date=10 July 2015|website=The Daily Telegraph|access-date=5 August 2017|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170731185510/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/winston-churchill/11730850/Secret-of-Winston-Churchills-unpopular-Sutherland-portrait-revealed.html|archive-date=31 July 2017|df=dmy-all}}</ref>

The opening of the house required the construction of facilities for visitors and a restaurant was designed by [[Philip Jebb]], and built to the north of the house, along with a shop and ticket office.{{sfn|Buczacki|2007|p=283}} Alterations have also been made to the gardens, for ease of access and of maintenance. The [[Great Storm of 1987]] caused considerable damage, with twenty-three trees being blown down in the gardens.{{sfn|Buczacki|2007|p=285}} Greater destruction occurred in the woodland surrounding the house, which lost over seventy per cent of its trees.{{sfn|Garnett|2008|p=70}}

Chartwell has become among the National Trust's most popular properties; in 2016, the fiftieth anniversary of its opening, 232,000 people visited the house.{{efn|The most recent visitor numbers, for 2018, were 246,336.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.alva.org.uk/details.cfm?p=423|title=Association of Leading Visitor Attractions 2018|publisher=ALVA|website=www.alva.org.uk|access-date=24 August 2019}}</ref>}}<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.alva.org.uk/details.cfm?p=423|title=Visits made in 2016 to visitor attractions in membership with ALVA|publisher=Association of Leading Visitor Attractions|access-date=5 August 2017}}</ref> In that year the Trust launched the ''Churchill's Chartwell'' Appeal, to raise £7.1M for the purchase of hundreds of personal items held at Chartwell on loan from the Churchill family.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/sep/05/national-trust-buy-churchills-chartwell-country-house-heirlooms|title=National Trust hopes to buy Churchill's country house heirlooms|author=Press Association|date=4 September 2016|website=The Guardian|access-date=5 August 2017}}</ref> The items available to the Trust include Churchill's [[Nobel Prize in Literature]] awarded to him in 1953.{{efn|In 2005 the Trust organised an exhibition at Chartwell, to commemorate the fortieth anniversary of his death and the opening of the house. The accompanying catalogue, ''Churchill: Gifts for a hero'', focussed on over thirty presents given to Churchill in his lifetime including the {{lang|fr|[[Croix de la Libération]]}}, his honorary US citizenship, and a large number of [[cigar box]]es.{{sfn|Walters|2005|pp=11,15,38,39}}}}<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/features/churchills-highest-literary-honour|title=Churchill's highest literary honour|author=<!--Not stated-->|publisher=The National Trust|access-date=5 August 2017}}</ref> The citation for the award reads, "for his mastery of historical and biographical description as well as for brilliant oratory in defending exalted human values".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1953/|title=The Nobel Prize in Literature 1953|author=<!--Not stated-->|publisher=The Nobel Foundation|access-date=5 August 2017}}</ref> The medal is displayed in the museum room on the first floor of Chartwell, at the opposite end of the house to the study, the room where, in the words used by [[John F. Kennedy]] when awarding him [[honorary citizenship]] of the United States, Churchill "mobilized the English language and sent it into battle".{{efn|As Churchill was too unwell to travel to the United States to receive his honorary citizenship, it was accepted on his behalf by his son, [[Randolph Churchill|Randolph]]. In his reply, Churchill spoke of the wartime alliance between Britain and the USA; "Our comradeship and our brotherhood in the war were unexampled. We stood together, and because of that fact the free world now stands".{{sfn|Churchill|2007|p=503}}}}<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nysun.com/new-york/how-churchill-mobilized-the-english-language/87862/|title=How Churchill Mobilized the English Language|first = Gary|last=Shapiro|date = 12 June 2012|website=The New York Sun|access-date=5 August 2017}}</ref>