After much planning by Outings Organiser, Chris Perkins, beset with several delays over a year, the day dawned on Thursday 28 September for the self-drive trip to Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire.
Sixteen in total made the easy drive, all arriving ahead of schedule and had to wait for Chris and Carolyn who then obtained the wrist bands that were to gain us entry into this magnificent edifice built to celebrate the victorious battle of Blenheim in 1704. Queen Anne, in 1705, made a gift to the Duke of Marlborough, of Woodstock Park and a promise of £240.000 to build a substantial house as a gift from a grateful Crown.
Well known as the birthplace of Winston Churchill, this building and grounds is a splendid place to visit but the first call was in the Oxfordshire Pantry which housed a shop and café but most importantly also had toilets. After that it was left up to ourselves where to visit first. Probably most headed into the house for a tour of the magnificent state rooms with wonderful tapestries and paintings which was aided by an audio guide. Nick Waring was surprised that his guide started the commentary in Russian before selecting English from the six languages available.
In the lower part of the palace was the Churchill exhibition which was a spectacle of his life with facsimiles of letters to his wife Clementine, his writings, several of his paintings and the famous speech of “blood, toil, tears and sweat”.
The park land is so large that it was not possible to include much of this within our time although many did reach the formal gardens that faced the Great Lake.
The following photographs give an indication of the richness of the contents of the palace.
Probus Club of Basingstoke 
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