This year’s Friends summer outing was to the magnificent Ditchley Park in Oxfordshire, the Palladian mansion house built in the early 1720s for George Henry Lee, 2 nd Earl of Lichfield. First port of call for the Friends was an elegant light lunch at nearby Heythrop Park, a property built for Charles Talbot, 1 st Duke of Shrewsbury at the beginning of the 18 th century. Then it was on to the main attraction … Ditchley Park is less than 10 miles as the crow flies from Blenheim Palace and came in handy as a stopover for the guests of John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough. Another link with this most famous of families came during the Second World War when Winston Churchill relocated from Chequers to hold wartime working weekends on more than a dozen occasions. He was at Ditchley Park when Hitler’s deputy Rudolf Hess arrived in Scotland, supposedly on a peace mission. Ditchley Park is of special interest to the Friends of Lydiard Park as there is a connection with the St John fa...