Blenheim Palace

Parliament voted the manor of Woodstock and the money for a house to John Churchill, first Duke of Marlborough, after his victory at Blenheim in 1704, and Vanbrugh built it between 1705 and 1722 in an English baroque so monumental that it caused a permanent quarrel: the Duchess Sarah hated it, the money ran out repeatedly, and Vanbrugh was eventually barred from the site. It is the only non-royal, non-episcopal country house in England called a palace. Capability Brown reshaped the park from 1763, damming the Glyme to make a lake that turned Vanbrugh's oversized bridge into something that finally looked right. Winston Churchill was born there in 1874, in a small ground-floor room, and is buried in the churchyard at Bladon within sight of the house. UNESCO listed it in 1987.

What you actually see

• The Vanbrugh baroque - a monumental house its own patron detested.
• The Brown landscape - a dammed lake that resolved the scale of the bridge.
• Churchill's birth room - a modest ground-floor bedroom, kept as an exhibit.
• The Long Library - a room of fifty-five metres with a Willis organ.

When to go

April to October for the park and gardens at their best; the palace opens year-round with a Christmas light trail in the park from November. The formal gardens and the maze are seasonal.

Honest expectations

Tickets are expensive, though they convert free to an annual pass, which the palace pushes. The site is very large and a full visit is a whole day with substantial walking. The house remains a family home and parts are closed.

Nearby

Woodstock village is at the gate; Oxford lies twelve kilometres south.