Club Report

Vice chairman, Mrs Pat Woollatt, welcomed members of the West Wickham Woodlands' TG to the first meeting of 2005 and introduced the guest of the evening, Mrs Freda Wright, chairman of the NW Kent Federation of Townswomen's Guilds.

The vice chairman's first task was to tell the members of the sad death of Mrs Alice Tait, who had always been at the centre of the guilds activities and for the last 20 years had organised the craft section which had knitted a constant supply of hats, jackets and shawls for the premature babies' units at Farnborough and Mayday Hospitals.

The leisure section proposed to visit the Foundling Museum in Bloomsbury in February and a lunch has been arranged at the newly opened Chef Restaurant at Croydon College.

The speaker for the evening was Mr Peter Jones, who gave a fascinating talk, with slides, on Chartwell, the former home of Sir Winston Churchill, which is now run by the national Trust.

During the winter months, the staff, of whom Mr Jones is one, concentrate on cleaning and maintenance of the house and gardens. Originally the house, which was in a bad state of repair, together with several farms and outbuildings, was offered to Sir Winston for £6,000 but at that time he could not afford the price.

Eventually, in 1922, he agreed to buy the property, minus some farms and other land belonging to the estate for £5,000. As architect was employed to do the necessary rebuilding and redecoration at a cost of £7,500 but by the time the work was finished in 1924, the cost had climbed to £17,500. The family lived there until the war began in 1939, when it was decided it was too dangerous for them to stay.

The whole area was camouflaged with netting to protect it from air attack. When the war ended, Sir Winston was in financial difficulties and the house was put on the market. A group of Sir Winston's friends secretly formed a syndicate to raise enough money to buy the house and hand it over to the national Trust, with sufficient funds to maintain it in good repair for the rest of Sir Winston's life.

When he died, lady Churchill decided to live in London and Chartwell was opened to the public in 1965, before opening, the rooms were furnished and decorated in the style in which they were presented in the pre-war years.

Mr Jones showed slides of the great amount of work which the Churchill family had done in the gardens, among them the beautiful golden rose walk which the children had planted to commemorate their parents' Golden Wedding.

This was accompanied by a book of water colour paintings of each of the roses, painted by famous artists of the day. This book is on show permanently in the drawing room.

After refreshments, the vice chairman announced that starting with the February meeting, the guild would meet at 10am until 12.30 on the third Wednesday of the month. The federation chairman, Mrs Freda Wright thanked the members for a very happy evening and offered them her good wishes for the future.