Chartwell

Listen for a moment. Somewhere below you, water is moving. It runs slowly through a chain of ponds and lakes, down a long green valley towards the Weald of Kent. The air smells of cut grass and damp brick. On a clear day the view seems to go on forever, and this view is the reason the house exists in the form you see today.

This is Chartwell, the family home of Winston Churchill for about forty years. It sits in the quiet hills south of Sevenoaks, close to the village of Westerham. Many people know Churchill as a wartime leader with a cigar and a hard stare. Here, you meet a different man. He laid bricks, painted landscapes and fed his fish, and he did a great deal of his thinking and writing in these rooms.

First, the name. It comes from old local words. A "chart" was rough, open ground in this part of Kent, and a "well" was a spring. So Chartwell means, roughly, the spring on the rough hillside. That spring still feeds the water you can hear. Churchill loved water, and he spent years reshaping it into the lakes and pools that now step down the valley.

Churchill bought the estate in 1922. The house was old, damp and rambling, and his wife Clementine had serious doubts about it. She worried about the cost and about the amount of work it needed. He was not put off. He hired the architect Philip Tilden to rebuild much of the house, and the family moved in during 1924. The renovation took far longer and cost far more than planned, and the bills were a family worry for years.

Take a look at the house itself. It is red brick, with tile-hung walls and tall chimneys. Tilden opened it up so that large windows face the valley. Inside, the rooms do not feel like a palace. They feel like a well-used family home, full of books, photographs and gifts from around the world. The National Trust has kept many rooms close to how they looked when the family lived here, almost as if the Churchills had just stepped out.

Here is a surprise most visitors miss. Look at the brick walls around the garden. Churchill built long stretches of them with his own hands. He found bricklaying calming, and he worked on these walls for many years. In 1928 he even joined the bricklayers' trade union. Some members were not pleased, because Churchill was then a senior government minister. But the walls are still standing, and they are surprisingly neat.

The 1930s are often called his wilderness years. He was out of government, and many colleagues ignored his warnings about the rise of Nazi Germany. He spent much of this time at Chartwell. In his study, under a high beamed ceiling, he wrote books and articles late into the night. Writing paid the bills here. It also kept his voice in public life when few people wanted to listen.

During the Second World War, the family used the house much less. The valley and the lakes could be seen clearly from the air, so the house was thought to be an easy landmark for enemy planes. Churchill spent most of the war in London and at other official residences. After 1945 he came back, and Chartwell became his refuge once again.

Now walk down to the studio, a small building in the garden. Churchill took up painting in middle age, during a hard time in his political career. He went on to paint for the rest of his life. The studio walls are covered with his canvases, hung close together, frame against frame. You will see landscapes, still lifes and many views of Chartwell itself. The colours are bold and bright. He painted the way he did most things, with energy and confidence.

After the war, money became a problem again. In 1946 a group of his friends bought the estate and gave it to the National Trust. There was one condition. The Churchills could live here for the rest of their lives. Winston died in 1965. Clementine chose to leave the house soon after, and Chartwell opened to the public the following year.

In the garden, look for the Golden Rose Avenue. Churchill's children planted it in 1958 to mark their parents' golden wedding anniversary, fifty years of marriage. The roses are in shades of yellow and gold. Nearby are the ponds where Churchill loved to sit and feed his golden orfe, a kind of ornamental fish. He would call to them, and visitors and staff often remembered how much time he spent there.

There is one more resident to watch out for. Churchill had a ginger cat called Jock, and the family asked that a cat of the same kind should always live at Chartwell. The National Trust has kept that promise. There is still a marmalade cat named Jock here, with a white front and white paws. If you are lucky, you might find him asleep somewhere sunny.

On the lakes, you may also see black swans. These birds come from Australia, and Churchill was given black swans as a gift. Their descendants have become part of the character of this place. Out on the lawns, the scale feels gentle and personal. Nothing here is built to impress foreign visitors. It was built for a family, for long weekends, for work, rest and a good view.

So before you leave, find a place to stand where you can see down the valley. Look at the water, the brick walls and the soft line of the hills beyond. A man who carried enormous public weight came here to put it down for a while. As you walk back up the path, listen again for the water below you... still running from the spring that gave this house its name.