I met a large group of Minerva members on a beautifully crisp Autumn morning to enjoy a private ‘before-hours’ tour of Blenheim Palace, birth place of Winston Churchill. We entered through the imposing Flagstaff Gate and made our way around to the impressive entrance of the Palace where our guides, Lorraine and Alistair, met us. We were informed in whispers that the palace staff had been up until 4am the night before decorating the palace for Christmas! An impressive feat and well worth it as we entered through the enormous wooden doors and into the Great Hall to be greeted by the sight of two magnificent Christmas trees.

The Great Hall is an imposing space with a ceiling painted by Sir James Thornhill, and carvings in stone by Grinling Gibbons, better known for his woodcarvings. Here also the Blenheim Standard is held aloft and we were informed that it is sent as quit-rent to the Queen, at Windsor, each year as ‘rent’ for Blenheim on every anniversary of the Battle. Should the Duke miss this date he and his family would be evicted! Throughout the Palace there are many portraits of the Dukes of Malborough with their families, from the 1st Duke to date, by artists as varied as Joshua Reynolds and John Singer Sargent. The three State Rooms contained magnificent tapestries depicting Malborough’s (John Churchill) victories in battle. A spectacular military mind – he didn’t lose a battle in his whole career. As you can see in one of these rooms, at the end of the Battle of Blenheim, the 1st Duke sent a message written on the back of a food bill to tell the Duchess and the Queen of his victory, and this very note is on display.

Following our tour we were escorted into the beautifully decorated India Room where very welcome coffee and pastries were awaiting us. We were free to explore the grounds and the Palace in more detail in our own time after the visit, which was a great opportunity to look at things in more detail. The grounds are well worth a wander round and include water terraces, an Italian Garden, arboretum, a rose garden, a very pretty Japanese Garden and an enormous man made lake. There were fine monuments and fountains aplenty! Well worth a visit – and particularly enjoyable in the company of Minerva members!

Mrs Wendy Davey (nee Webb)

Streatham & Clapham 1936-1949