Our Visit to Churchill's Grave

Today is the anniversary of the state funeral and burial of Sir Winston Churchill.  I would have liked to have gone to the formal ceremony on the Thames in London.  However, we live only a few miles from the Churchill family cemetery at St. Martin's Church, in the small Cottswold village of Bladen, and, since we had not yet visited his grave, we decided to do that instead.  We didn't know whether there would only be a few people there or whether there would be a crowd.

What we found was delightful.  We managed to squeeze our little Honda up the narrow road to the church gate.  We were uncertain where to park, but a very friendly lady pointed us to the clergy parking space, which, of course, suited us just fine.  It turned out that she was one of the ladies in charge of the church today, with the expectation of greeting visitors to Churchill's grave.  As we walked into the church yard, there was only a handful of people at the grave, so we decided to have a look inside the church.

The interor of St. Martins, Bladen.

The church was quite lovely.  The lady explained to us that the interior of the church had been wholly redone during the Victorian period, so it was all of a piece - not a hodgepodge of bits from different centuries.  The layout reminded us very much of St. Luke's, Blue Ridge.  Inside the church, there were a few people visiting and being greeting by the locals.  On one side of the church, in the back, there is a display of Churchill memorabilia, pictures, CD's, etc. for sale to support the church.  It requires £150 a day to run the church building!

I knew going in that they were raising money to install a Churchill window in the building.  This is the church's website, where you can find pictures of this lovely window.  I decided, since we were there, to make a small contribution.  We also got to sign the guestbook for the church on this very momentous occasion.

One of the enjoyable things about the church, was the lady whom we had met and continued to speak with.  She explained that she and her friends at the church were Southern sympathizers.  She told us that Shelby Foote had visited their church, and how glad she was that he wrote in a balanced way about the War Between the States - obviously caring about the Southern side of the story.  You can imagine I was most pleased.  She said that, because of the Churchill family connection, the choir - of which she is a member - are often called upon to sing The Battle Hymn of the Republic.  She said she really hates to do that - and that they remember 4 July as Vicksburg Day as well!  Simply splendid!  :-)

After spending time in the church, we went to the graveside.  I had brought along a Union Jack flag to place at his grave.  Sheila did the honours.

Sheila places our flag at the Churchill grave.

After she placed it, a young man walked up to us and commented on how brilliant it was that we had done that.  He got to talking to us, asking us where we were from and why we were in Oxford.  We had noticed that someone from a radio station was interviewing people at the graveside, and it turned out that he was one of the team.  He asked if I wouldn't mind doing a little interview.

Before the interview, the BBC interviewer (I suspect it was the local BBC Oxford radio station) asked about me and when he found out we were wardens of the Kilns, he was definitely interested in the interview.  So, at the cue, I spent a few minutes answering his questions about who we were and why we were there today.  I told him how I remembered Churchill's death and it was like the passing of an age of security and good in the world.  It was also great to give a plug for The Kilns in answer to his queries; lots of people around here don't know about the house.  But now more do.

While waiting for the interview, I got to talk with a gentleman who was the constable at the church on the day of the funeral.  You may know that the Churchill family wanted the funeral to be private.  The locals in Bladen strictly complied with their wishes, but when the family departed, an enormous crowd of tens of thousands of people converged on the church.  This gentleman stood at the gate all that day to try to help control the flow.  He had a devil of a time getting home that night because of the people and the cars.  His wife thought she'd pop over and see the grave at midnight - they lived in the town - but she had to cue up even then.  People were coming to see the grave through the night, waiting for hours in the cold.  There were no lights in the area to help the people see.  Bladen is a small residential village.  So, the fire department from the neighbouring town of Woodstock set up generators and set up lights on the north and south sides of the graveyard for the people.  And it went on for days.

Here's a very short video I took of the scene.  You'll see the church and a small group of people standing about, with the BBC crew there (it was so funny; the young lady with them simply stood there holding a large clock to help them keep track of time!).  If you look carefully, you'll see our flag by the grave briefly wave before a man stands in front of it.  And then you'll see Sheila.

So!  Our trip to Bladen on this day had some surprising features to it.  We even got to be part of the commemoration in our own little way.  Thank the Lord.

When we were done at Bladen, we had an errand to run in Woodstock, so we went by Blenheim Palace to have lunch at their new cafe.  Here's a picture of an amazing cake they had for sale and of Sheila sitting at our table.

No, we did not get a piece! :-)

You can see the Blenheim Palace stencils on the glass.  Instead of the cake we shared a Greek salad and an egg salad with water cress sandwich, plus two coffees.  We were so good! 

So, on this the 50th anniversary of the burial of the greatest Englishman of history, we were able to visit both the place of his burial and the place of his birth.  Pretty amazing.  I'm so glad that I was feeling well enough today to go.