Scans of my really old photos of Blenheim Palace from the early 1990s. Think it might have been in the summer of 1993 (I simply can't remember when it was). I was aged between 9 and 11 at the time possibly.
Taken on a compact film camera (no digital back then and no screen to see how it came out).
One of the fountains at the palace.
All I remember about the place is that it was the birthplace of Winston Churchill and ancestral home of his family. Constructed for John Churchill, between 1705 and 1724. It is a monumental country house in Woodstock, Oxfordshire. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is the only non-episcopal country house in England to hold the title "palace".
Its construction was originally intended to be a gift to John Churchill, the 1st Duke of Marlborough from a grateful nation in return for military triumph against the French and Bavarians at the Battle of Blenheim. However, it soon became the subject of political infighting, which led to Marlborough's exile, the fall from power of his Duchess, and irreparable damage to the reputation of the architect Sir John Vanbrugh. Designed in the rare, and short-lived, English baroque style, architectural appreciation of the palace is as divided today as it was in the 1720s.[1] It is unique in its combined usage as a family home, mausoleum and national monument. The palace is also notable as the birthplace and ancestral home of Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill.
It is a Grade I listed building.
Country house. 1706-29, by Sir John Vanbrugh and Nicholas Hawksmoor for the Duke
and Duchess of Marlborough; carvings by Grinling Gibbons and interiors by
Laguerre, Thornhill et. al. Limestone ashlar, with rusticated corner towers and
details; lead roofs; stone stacks. House has 4 corner towers, and Great Court to
north flanked by Stable Court to east and Kitchen Court to west. Baroque style.
Two storeys. Sashes to all windows. North front has central 9-bay facade,
articulated by giant order of Corinthian pilasters; 3-bay pedimented portico;
carving of the Marlborough Arms in tympanum, figures of Britannia and chained
slaves on pediment and centurions on parapet by Grinling Gibbons; huge cleft
open pediment set behind portico, with clerestory windows to Hall ranged to
rear. Quadrants, articulated by Doric engaged columns, link facade to corner
towers which have banded rustication, arched windows and bracketed cornices;
superstructure to each tower has curved flying buttresses and pinnacles of
rever
