Britain's Requisitioned Homes: Blenheim Palace

During World War II, the British government turned to the peerage and other wealthy individuals for the use of thousands of country manors and stately homes for a myriad of purposes from troop billets and hospitals to command centers and code-breaking facilities (think Bletchley Park). When word got out that these buildings were needed, a host of individuals and families rushed to offer their houses in the hopes of having a say on how it would be used. Barracks were the least desired, and it’s no wonder considering how much damage was done by the hordes of soldiers.

During Operation Pied Piper when children, the elderly, and pregnant women were evacuated from London, authorities realized arrangements were needed for schools. Blenheim Palace (formerly Blenheim Castle), the family ancestral home of Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s cousin, was one of the many properties converted to a school.

Originally intended as a gift to John Churchill, the first Duke of Marlborough, after his victories over 

France and Spain in the War of the Spanish Succession that culminated in the Battle of Blenheim, the home was constructed between 1702 and 1722. Unfortunately, political infighting sent the Duke and Duchess into exile for three years until after Queen Anne’s death in 1714. John and his wife found themselves back in favor with the Crown but were stuck footing the bill on the construction project.

During World War I, Blenheim was used as a 50-bed military hospital under the ninth Duke of Marlborough who’d married Consuelo Vanderbilt for an infusion of money into his nearly bankrupt dukedom. They would divorce in 1920, and he married a second American heiress, Gladys Deacon.

The property passed to the tenth duke in 1934, who at the onset of WWII, contacted Malvern College (a day and boarding public school), whose premises had been requisitioned by the Admiralty. The state rooms and Long Library became dormitories, and the Great Hall was converted to the dining room. The laundry became the laboratory and the stables the gym. Classes were held in bedrooms converted for such use as well as temporary wooden huts on the grounds.

In an interview with Country Life, Christopher Hussey, one of Britain’s foremost architecture writers, said “The accommodations of four hundred boys and a hundred staff of various degrees and duties taxed even Blenheim’s capacity and certainly had not been visualized by Blenheim’s architect.”

A few of the tasks to prepare the property included protecting the treasures in the state rooms that couldn’t be moved into storage, curtains covered with canvas, mahogany doors padded with felt, installing new boilers and bringing in additional cooking apparatus.

The school only remained at Blenheim for a year. By the time fall 1940 rolled around, the school and all its possessions had merged with Harrow outside of London. Shortly thereafter, MI5 moved in. In addition, the Women’s Land Army remained for the duration and transformed the palace’s 2,000 acres into agricultural land.

___________________________

Linda Shenton Matchett writes happily-ever-after historical Christian fiction about second chances

and women who overcome life’s challenges to be better versions of themselves. A native of Baltimore, Maryland, she was born a stone’s throw from Fort McHenry (of Star-Spangled Banner fame) and has lived in historical places all her life. She is a volunteer docent and archivist at the Wright Museum of WWII and a former trustee for her local public library. She now lives in central New Hampshire where she explores the history of this great state and immerses herself in the imaginary worlds created by other authors.

About A Lesson in Love

He thinks he’s too old. She thinks she’s too young. Can these teachers learn that love defies all boundaries?

Born and raised in London, Isobel Turvine knows nothing about farming, but after most of the students in her school evacuate during Operation Pied Piper, she’s left with little to do. Then her friend Margery talks her into joining the Women’s Land Army, and she finds herself working the land at a manor home in Yorkshire that’s been converted to a boys’ school. A teacher at heart, she is drawn to the lads, but the handsome yet stiff-necked headmaster wants her to stick to farming.

Left with an arm that barely works from the last “war to end all wars,” Gavin Emerson agrees to take on the job of headmaster when his school moves from London to Yorkshire, but he’s saddled with the quirky manor owner, bickering among his teachers, and a gaggle of Land Army girls who have turned the grounds into a farm. When the group’s blue-eyed, blonde-haired leader nearly runs him down in a car, he admonishes her to stay in the fields, but they are thrown together at every turn. Can he trust her not to break his heart?

Pre-order Link: https://amzn.to/3YHgUb0

Photo credits:

Blenheim Palace: Pixabay/Jenny Bowden

By Possibly Michael Dahl - https://collection.nam.ac.uk/detail.php?acc=2000-06-146-1 - National Army Museum, London, Public Domain

Interior: English Heritage/National Monuments Records