Tag: brick laying

Charting Churchill: Garden Wall at Chartwell, Westerham

Garden Wall at Chartwell, Westerham 2014 by Leslie Hossack

Garden Wall at Chartwell, Westerham 2014

© Leslie Hossack

During the 1930s, Winston Churchill spent a great deal of time at his country home Chartwell where he wrote a number of articles and books. In 1929, he hired Maurice Ashley as his research assistant. For four years Ashley worked with Churchill, focusing on the Duke of Marlborough. The first volume of Marlborough: His Life and Times was published in 1933.

Years later, at the 1989 Churchill Society International Convention in London, Dr. Maurice Ashley gave an address called As I Knew Him: Churchill in the Wilderness. Ashley remarked: “A typical day when Churchill was working at Chartwell began with his taking breakfast in bed. There he read his newspapers and letters and would dictate answers and directions to one of his secretaries (two were usually on duty during the day). Then he went into the garden to engage in building and other activities. He came in around twelve o’clock and I was called in to help with work on his book on Marlborough… As I have already mentioned, when I was with him he would spend as much as five hours a day in the garden at Chartwell building wall after wall, occasionally painting, feeding the ducks, walking around the estate, supervising the work done there.”

After dinner, Churchill would go upstairs at about 10:00 pm to work again on his book, assisted by his secretary, Mrs. Violet Pearman, and Maurice Ashley. Ashley would later recall that when he left at about 3:00 am, Churchill would read in bed, getting about four hours steep. At the end of a day he would often say: “I laid about 200 bricks and have written 2,000 words.”

A tablet on one of the Chartwell garden walls reads: THE GREATER PART OF THIS WALL WAS BUILT BETWEEN THE YEARS 1925 AND 1932 BY WINSTON WITH HIS OWN HANDS.

The image featured above is part of the limited edition collector’s portfolio created by Leslie Hossack. She presents locations that chart Sir Winston Churchill’s personal and political life, from his birth at Blenheim Palace in 1874 until his death in London in 1965. THE CHURCHILL PHOTOGRAPHS are part of Hossack’s larger body of work that explores Nazi architecture in Berlin, Stalinist structures in Moscow, contested sites in Jerusalem, a Cold War bunker in Ottawa, NATO’s Headquarter Camp in Kosovo, and buildings linked to the Japanese Canadian internment during World War II.

To view more photographs, please visit Leslie’s website.  lesliehossack.com

Charting Churchill: The Lake at Chartwell

The Lake at Chartwell, Westerham 2014 by Leslie Hossack

The Lake at Chartwell, Westerham, Kent 2014

© Leslie Hossack

By the beginning of the 1920s, Winston Churchill was firmly established in his career. He was a long-time member of the House of Commons and had held three cabinet posts: Secretary of State for War, January 9th 1919 to February 14th 1921; Secretary of State for Air, January 9th 1919 to April 1st 1921; and Secretary of State for the Colonies, February 14th 1921 to October 19th 1922.

However, 1921 was a very difficult year for the family. In January, Clementine’s grandmother, Blanche, the Countess of Airlie, died; in April, her brother, Bill Hozier, committed suicide; and in June, Winston’s mother, Jennie, Lady Randolph Churchill, died. Then, most tragically, Marigold, the Churchills’ two-year-old daughter, died in August of 1921.

A year later, in September 1922, Clementine gave birth to Mary, the Churchills’ last child, and Winston purchased Chartwell, a country home located 25 miles from London. This would remain his beloved retreat for over 40 years, until his death in 1965. At Chartwell, Winston indulged a variety of interests, including exotic butterflies, ornamental fish and black swans. He was actively involved in planning the many water features on the property, such as the lake, shown above. He loved roses and enjoyed the different varieties planted at Chartwell, and he personally built most of the brick walls surrounding the gardens. Bricklaying became another of Winston’s passions.

The image featured above is part of the limited edition collector’s portfolio created by Leslie Hossack to mark the 50th anniversary of the death of Sir Winston Churchill. She presents locations that chart Churchill’s personal and political life, from his birth at Blenheim Palace in 1874 until his death in London in 1965. THE CHURCHILL PHOTOGRAPHS are part of Hossack’s larger body of work that explores Nazi architecture in Berlin, Stalinist structures in Moscow, contested sites in Jerusalem, a Cold War bunker in Ottawa, NATO’s Headquarter Camp in Kosovo, and buildings linked to the Japanese Canadian internment during World War II.

To view more photographs, please visit Leslie’s website.  lesliehossack.com