| BLADON
- As a boy, Winston Churchill often visited his parents' graves in the
small parish cemetery of Bladon in Oxfordshire. In accordance with his
will, Britain's World War II leader was buried beside them and other family
members when he died in 1965. But since then, surviving family members
have grown unhappy with disorderliness of the site. Now the grave has been
restored and surrounding area renovated with 600,000 from Britain's National
Lottery. The 16 family gravestones packed together on a sometimes muddy
slope have been reset in a series of steps: Churchill's headstone has been
replaced by an understated piece in Portland stone carved with his name
and that of his wife Clementine and stone steps have replaced an ugly concrete
path. New benches will allow some of the 20,000 people a year who visit
the grave to sit and contemplate. |
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