Well, here we are down in Kent, I drove down yesterday morning to spend the Easter weekend with Jenny’s daughter and family.

This morning we decided to stay close to home due to the glorious weather we are having and the anticipated increase in holiday traffic, so headed over to Chartwell in Westerham, just a short drive from home. We arrived mid-morning and the car park was absolutely crammed pack full, fortunately the National Trust opened up one of their overflow car parks to enable us to park safely.

The plan was and we did take part in the Easter Egg hunt around the kitchen gardens and estate with Jenny’s grandchildren. We have visited Chartwell several times now and never had a good look around the gardens and estate surrounding this beautiful house. Needless to say our three grandchildren had a wonderful time looking for and solving the clues prior to claiming there Easter Egg prize. Cadbury’s the sponsor of the Easter Egg Trail must have given away several thousands of eggs over the Easter period at Chartwell alone.

The present kitchen garden dates from the mid-1920s when the surrounding brick wall was built. Churchill was an enthusiastic amateur bricklayer and a plaque on these walls states 'The greater part of this wall was built between the years 1925 & 1932 by Winston with his own hands'. As a large country house, Chartwell almost certainly always had a kitchen garden to provide fresh fruit and vegetables to the family.  When Churchill bought the house in 1922 the kitchen garden was probably situated where the croquet lawn now lies.

As with any kitchen garden it provided an essential and practically self-sufficient source of produce for the Churchill family and stock was often sent up to Churchill's London home.

The area fell into disrepair during the war years but when Churchill retired from office in 1955 he was able to spend more time at Chartwell.  In 2003 the National Trust devised a master plan to reinstate the kitchen garden using old diaries from Churchill's last Head Gardener Victor Vincent as well as invoices and paintings as guides.

After an exhausting  Easter Egg hunt in and around the gardens we made our way to the cafeteria for a well-earned rest and refreshment before the short journey home.