Chequers | estate, England, United Kingdom | Britannica.com estate, England, United Kingdom Globe Theatre Chequers, formally Chequers Court, country house, administrative and historic county of Buckinghamshire , England , situated 30 miles (50 km) northwest of London, the official country residence of the prime ministers of Great Britain. The estate is about 1,500 acres (600 hectares) in extent. Chequers owes much of its present character to the remodeling, in 1565, of its predecessor. In the 19th century the exterior was plastered and the interior redecorated in neo-Gothic style. In 1917 Viscount Lee of Fareham made provision, with parliamentary approval, for the house to become a weekend retreat and place for prime ministers to entertain guests. Since 1921, when David Lloyd George became the first prime minister occupant, his successors have usually spent time there during their terms of office, and ministerial weekends at Chequers have become a part of British political life. Chequers, Ellesborough, Buckinghamshire, Eng.

prime minister the head of government in a country with a parliamentary or semipresidential political system. In such systems, the prime minister—literally the “first,” or most important, minister—must be able to command a continuous majority in the legislature (usually the lower house... Corrections? Updates? Help us improve this article! Contact our editors with your feedback. MEDIA FOR: You have successfully emailed this. Error when sending the email. Try again later. Edit Mode Submit Tips For Editing We welcome suggested improvements to any of our articles. You can make it easier for us to review and, hopefully, publish your contribution by keeping a few points in mind. Encyclopædia Britannica articles are written in a neutral objective tone for a general audience. You may find it helpful to search within the site to see how similar or related subjects are covered. Any text you add should be original, not copied from other sources. At the bottom of the article, feel free to list any sources that support your changes, so that we can fully understand their context. (Internet URLs are the best.) Your contribution may be further edited by our staff, and its publication is subject to our final approval. Unfortunately, our editorial approach may not be able to accommodate all contributions.

Submit Thank You for Your Contribution! Our editors will review what you've submitted, and if it meets our criteria, we'll add it to the article. Please note that our editors may make some formatting changes or correct spelling or grammatical errors, and may also contact you if any clarifications are needed. Uh Oh There was a problem with your submission. Please try again later. Close Date Published: August 14, 2008 URL: Access Date: January 18, 2017 Share David Cameron gives the Queen tour of Chequers | Daily Mail Online comments For the first time in almost two decades, the Queen visited Chequers yesterday. But if she was excited to be back, she hid it rather well behind her solemn expression. It was only the third visit the monarch has made to the Prime Minister’s country retreat, and her first since she accompanied Sir John Major in 1996. David Cameron – who is given a weekly audience at Buckingham Palace – arranged the trip so that he could ‘host her for a change’, No10 said.

The Queen was shown a wall of photographs of former Prime Ministers at the Buckinghamshire country residence Prince Philip also took an interest in the photographs, before heading outside to plant a tree Mr Cameron said he was 'delighted' to invite them to the Prime Minister’s country retreat after unearthing old photographs of a 1970 visit by US President Richard Nixon. After a tour of the house, the rare occasion was marked by the Duke of Edinburgh planting an oak tree in the grounds. RELATED ARTICLES Share Prime Ministers regularly use Chequers to host allies, world leaders and celebrities. But the Queen has not been to the grace-and-favour home near Ellesborough in Buckinghamshire for 18 years, and has only ever been invited by Tory Prime Minister. There were no trips under Gordon Brown, Tony Blair or Margaret Thatcher. The Queen last paid a visit when Sir John Major was prime minister in 1996.

After today's lunch Mr Cameron wrote on Twitter: 'Delighted to host Her Majesty the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh for lunch at Chequers today.' Tour: David Cameron showed the Queen around Chequers after lunch, with his wife Samantha looking on It was the first time the Queen has been to the Prime Minister's country retreat since 1996 A LUNCH MENU FIT FOR A QUEEN Starter Bread and butter pudding with icecream Cheese and biscuit A Downing Street spokesman said: ‘The last time the Queen visited Chequers in 1996 she planted an oak tree in the grounds and the Prime Minister thought this would be a nice thing to do on this occasion.’ The menu for today’s lunch included Scottish smoked salmon for starter, a main course of lamb with potato and vegetables and bread and butter pudding and icecream for dessert, followed by cheese and biscuits. According to chef Alan Lavender, who worked at Chequers from 1986 until 2010, Sir John served the Queen warm marinated salmon before presenting her with a jar of home-made Chequers chutney.

Her first visit was in October 1970 when she joined the then-PM Edward Heath and US president Richard Nixon. She was photographed outside the red bricked Tudor mansion with the PM, Nixon and his wife Pat. ‘The PM and the Queen see each other regularly and the Queen hosts the PM at the palace once a week,’ the Downing Street spokesman added. ‘The PM thought this would be a good opportunity to have lunch with him, to host her for a change when he had been at Chequers he found some old photos of previous visits by the Queen including a visit with President Nixon in 1970 and thought it would be nice to host her again.’ The Duke of Edinburgh planted an oak tree in the grounds, after the Queen did the same in 1996 Mr Cameron decided to invite the Royals for lunch after unearthing photographs of an earlier visit with Richard Nixon Before leaving Chequers, the Queen signed a visitors' book, with the Prime Minister and Duke of Edinburgh looking on At the time of the Nixon lunch several hundred people gathered at the main entrance of the estate, with a few holding anti-American placards calling for peace in Vietnam.

The guests dined on fillet of sole with lobster, smoked salmon, roast sirloin of beef and ice cream with mangoes, strawberries and peaches. Chequers and its 1,000 acre estate were bequeathed to the nation in 1917 by Sir Arthur Lee, an MP and director-general of food production. The Prime Minister's grace and favour country retreat regularly hosts world leaders and celebrities, but the Queen has only been twice during her reign Mr Cameron made the invitation after coming across old photographs of the Queen visiting in 1970 with Tory PM Edward Heath (left) and US President Richard Nixon Lloyd George became its first prime ministerial occupant in 1921. The Queen has dined at Downing Street numerous times. In July 2012, she and the Duke of Edinburgh joined Mr Cameron, Mr Brown, Mr Blair and Sir John for a lunch to mark her Diamond Jubilee. Traditionally, the Queen invites the Prime Minister to make an annual visit to Balmoral, her private residence in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, each September. Great British Houses: Chequers - The Country Home of Britain's Prime Minister - Anglotopia.net Issue #4 Now Shipping!

We received Issue #4 from the printer last week and have begun the process of shipping out. There’s almost 900 to send, so it will take a about 7-10 days to ship them all out. It will be with you soon! Related Issue #4 is Almost Done! We’re almost done with Issue #4 which is taking a bit longer than we planned to get ready. It’s with our copy editor now and we’ll be sending it to the printer this week. We expect to begin shipping out in 2-3 weeks. Related The London Annual Has Gone to Press! We have approved the final proofs for the London Annual and it’s going to press. We expect them in the office in a couple weeks at which point we’ll mail them out to all that pre-ordered. It has sold very well for us and we ordered extras but as with all our other magazine, quantities […] Now Taking Pre-Orders for the London Annual and Issue #4 We’re now taking pre-orders for a special one off magazine called the London Annual which will be a great guide to London in 2017 (this is not included in the subscription).

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Last time we used a third party shipping company […] Pre-order Issue #3 Now To make sure that you can get a copy of the next issue of the Anglotopia magazine, we recommend pre-ordering. We’re only getting 900 copies and 600 or so have already been reserved. We will likely sell out again. Click here to preorder. Related By Jonathan 3 Comments Chequers Court is the official country retreat of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Currently enjoyed by David Cameron, Chequers is a 16th century gothic mansion elegantly restored to its former glory by Reginald Bloomfield in the early 20th century. Once the jail of a banished royal, Chequers rich history dates back to Elizabethan times but its treasures are unfortunately not open to the public. Key Facts about the House Chequers is located near Ellesborough in Buckinghamshire, England. Chequers was built in the 16th century by William Hawtrey. There has been a house on the site of Chequers since the 12th century. Chequers has been the private country retreat of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom since 1921.

History of the House Chequers Court is known for its important role in British political life. Located just 41 miles from Downing Street this 16th century country house and estate was given to the nation of Great Britain in 1917 by Sir Arthur Lee and has been the official country seat and private retreat of the Prime Minister since 1921. Chequer’s origins are somewhat ambiguous. It is known that the house as it stands today was built, or at least extensively remodelled, by William Hawtrey in 1565. Hawtrey’s name appears in the reception room of the house and his initials and the date of 1565 are carved into the brickwork in various places on the house’s exterior. What sort of building stood on the site of Chequers before Hawtrey’s remodelling is largely unknown but the dating of building materials suggests that there has been a house on this site since the 12th century. The name ‘Chequers’ may come from the house’s first resident, Elias Ostiarius, whose name indicates that he was an usher of the Court of the Exchequer.

This original house passed through many generations of this family before being passed into the Hawtrey family line. In the same year Hawtrey completed his renovations, Chequers earned its place in the great tomes of English History when it became the prison of a banished royal, the great-granddaughter of Henry VIII, Lady Mary Grey. Queen Elizabeth I herself ordered Lady Mary Grey’s confinement herself when it was learned Lady Grey had married without her family’s consent. For two years, between 1565 and 1567, Hawtrey guarded Lady Grey in an attempt to ensure she would have no descendents who could, in future, challenge the throne. The room in which Lady Grey was confined has been kept in its original condition. Chequers passed through many families in subsequent years including the Wooleys, Crokes and Thurbanes and the Russells. John Russell, owner of Chequers in 1715, was the grandson of Oliver Cromwell.

In 1832, the house was still in the possession of the Russell family and it was Sir George Russell who commissioned architect William Atkinson to modernize the house in gothic style by removing Hawtrey’s original Tudor paneling and windows, plastering the exterior and redecorating the interior in a neo-gothic style. Chequers was briefly owned by the Astley family and leased by the wonderfully named Clutterbucks before being taken on a long lease by a Mr Arthur Lee and his wife, an American heiress, Ruth Lee. With the advice of Reginald Bloomfield and the work of Bertram Astley, the Lees brought Chequers back to its original Elizabethan style. The external Gothic additions made by the Russells were removed and the Tudor features reinstated and the interiors were remodeled using many imported and reproduction 16th and 17th century antiquities. In the East wing of the house sits the magnificent Hawtrey Room which Bloomfield restored with imported 16th century paneling and reproduction heraldic glass.

Above this room is the Great Parlour which features a chimney place brought by Lord Lee from one of his houses in Ipswich and an Elizabethan-style frieze and plasterwork. The Great Hall was also completely remodeled by Bloomfield who added a plaster ceiling copied from the residence of Paul Pindar, an alabaster fireplace and a 17th century screen that forms a passage on the south side. A few years before the outbreak of World War I the Lees purchased Chequers and allowed the house to be used as a hospital during wartime. Following the war the Lees, who were by this time the Lord and Lady of Fareham and childless, left the house to the nation. On 8 January 1921 the Lees handed over the house to then Prime Minister David Lloyd George.

A stained glass window in Chequers has the following inscription “This house of peace and ancient memories was given to England as a thank-offering for her deliverance in the great war of 1914–1918 as a place of rest and recreation for her Prime Ministers for ever.” During the Second World War, Winston Churchill declined to use Chequers as his country retreat due to security concerns and when not in London resided in Ditchley in Oxfordshire until late 1942 when security measures had been put in place. Chequers hosted the leaders of the 24th G8 summit’s spouses in 1998 and in 2014 was visited by Queen Elizabeth II. What Makes Chequers Very Famous? Chequers has played host to important political figures and celebrities from all over the world since it became the official country retreat of the Prime Minister in 1921. The family who donated Chequers to the nation, the Lord and Lady of Fareham, recognised the huge political change of the twentieth century and pre-empted a situation where the elected Prime Minister of Great Britain may not have the means to fund his own country house.

Chequers is symbolic of Lord and Lady Fareham’s vision of a fairer political system, where a lack of wealth or an aristocratic background would not disqualify potential future leaders. Further Research Inside Chequers, the prime minister's country home | The Week UK Inside Chequers, the prime minister's country home Aug 31, 2016 We take a look behind the closed doors of the Buckinghamshire estate where ministers are brainstorming Brexit Hulton Archive/Getty Images Description 1921: David Lloyd George, the first prime minister to use Chequers as the official country residence, meets there with French PM Aristide Briand and Marshall Foch Since 1921, British prime ministers have used the Chequers estate as their official country residence. Today, it is serving as the Cabinet's base for a " Brexit brainstorm ", as Theresa May and her ministers attempt to hash out a plan for negotiating Britain's exit from the EU. The gathering has been dubbed the "back to school" meeting by Sky News as it is the first Cabinet meeting since the summer recess. Other topics on the agenda will include everything from the upcoming Conservative Party conference to the potential expansion of Heathrow or Gatwick airport.

Situated in more than 1,000 acres of Buckinghamshire countryside, just outside of Aylesbury, Chequers is used both as a relaxing retreat for the prime minister of the day and a place to entertain high-profile visitors. Previous guests have included everyone from Richard Nixon to Claudia Schiffer. During their stay at the ten-bedroom house, the prime minister and his guests are looked after by a staff drawn from serving members of the armed forces. At the last count, there were 12 full-time employees, including a chef, reports the Daily Telegraph . Chequers, which is not open to the public, houses a number of important historical artefacts in its famous 'long room', including Oliver Cromwell's death mask and a journal kept by Lord Nelson. Gift to the nation A building has been recorded on the site since the 12th century, but it was after a project of extensive enlargement and remodelling in 1565 that the modern Chequers took shape. Over the years, the house was connected to many important events in English history.

Lady Mary Grey, sister of Lady Jane Grey, was briefly kept under house arrest at Chequers during the reign of Elizabeth I, while a later owner was a grandson of Oliver Cromwell. By 1917, changing social dynamics meant the prime minister could no longer be assumed to have his or her own country estate to entertain guests. That year, Chequers' owners, Sir Arthur Lee and his wife Ruth, proposed to sign the estate over to the government for the use of the PM. A stained glass window commissioned by the couple reads: "This house of peace and ancient memories was given to England as a thank-offering for her deliverance in the great war of 1914–1918 as a place of rest and recreation for her prime ministers for ever." David Lloyd George was the first PM to use the estate as his country residence, after the Lees' departure in 1921. Historically, Chequers has been a regular weekend retreat for prime ministers, although Gordon Brown broke with tradition by reserving his visits for summits and other official business.

'Chequers is why you get the job' Located only 41 miles from Downing Street, Chequers is a convenient escape from London when necessary, as well as a glamorous setting to welcome foreign dignitaries. But for some prime ministers, Chequers became a real home. Carol Thatcher has written of her mother's strong attachment to the house, which served as the family home for the 11 years that Margaret Thatcher was in power. Denis Thatcher, preferring the estate chef's dinners to beans on toast in the flat above 10 Downing Street, told his daughter: "Chequers is why you get the job." Sign up for our daily newsletter Newsletter Chequers, Buckinghamshire, England Chequers, Buckinghamshire, England history Chequers or Chequers Court, Buckinghamshire, England Chequers, or Chequers Court, is the country house retreat of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. The residence is located near Ellesborough, to the south of Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire, England, at the foot of the Chiltern Hills. Coombe Hill, once part of the estate, can be seen just behind.

It has been the private retreat of the Prime Minister since 1921. Origin of the name Chequers The original house probably gained its name in the 12th century because it may have been built or inhabited by an individual named Elias Ostiarius (or de Scaccario), who was acquiring land in the Ellesborough area at the time. The name "Ostiarius" meant an usher of the Court of the Exchequer. Elias Ostiarius' coat of arms included the chequer board of the Exchequer, so it is likely he named his estate after his arms and position at court. The house passed through generations of the De Scaccario family (spelt in many different forms) until it seems to have passed into the D'Awtrey family, whose name was eventually anglicised to Hawtrey. Another explanation sometimes offered is that the house is named after the chequer trees (Sorbus torminalis) that grow in its grounds. There is a reference to this in the book Elizabeth: Apprenticeship by David Starkey, which describes the early life of Elizabeth I.

History There has been a house on the site since the 12th century; however, little is known of the early history of the 16th-century mansion known today as Chequers. What is known is that William Hawtrey restored and enlarged the house in 1565. A reception room in the house bears his name today. It was this same William Hawtrey who, immediately after completing the house, guarded a royal prisoner at Chequers—Lady Mary Grey,[1] younger sister of Lady Jane Grey and great granddaughter of King Henry VII. She had married without her family's consent and was banished from court by Queen Elizabeth I and kept confined to ensure that she had no descendants.[2] Lady Mary remained at Chequers for a period of two years. The "cell" where she slept from 1565 to 1567 is still kept in its original condition. Through descent in the female line and marriages, the house passed through several families: the Wooleys, the Crokes and the Thurbanes. In 1715, the then owner of the house married John Russell, a grandson of Oliver Cromwell.

The house is well known for this connection to the Cromwells, and it still contains a large collection of Cromwell memorabilia. In the 19th century, the Russells (by now the Greenhill-Russell family) employed William Atkinson to make modern alterations to the house in the Gothic style. The Tudor panelling and windows were ripped out and battlements with pinnacles installed. Towards the end of the 19th century, the house passed through marriage to the Astley family. Instead of taking up residence, they let the house to the Clutterbuck family, who loved the house so much that when they left in 1909 they had a near replica built in Hertfordshire at Putteridge Bury. Following the Clutterbucks' departure, the house was taken on a long lease by Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Lee. Lee and his wife Ruth (an American heiress) wanted a country home, and Chequers suited their requirements. They commenced restoration; the Gothic "improvements" were removed and the Tudor style house seen today re-emerged from the scaffolding.

In 1912 following the death of the last of the house's ancestral owners (Henry Delavel Astley), Ruth Lee and her sister purchased the property and later gave it to Arthur Lee. During World War I the house became a hospital and then a convalescent home for officers. Following the end of hostilities and the reinstatement of Chequers as a home (now furnished with many 16th-century antiques and tapestries and the Cromwellian antiquities), the childless Lees formed a plan. While previous Prime Ministers had always belonged to the landed classes, the post-World War I era was bringing in a new breed of politician. These men did not have the country palaces of previous prime ministers to entertain foreign dignitaries, or a tranquil place to relax from the affairs of state. Hence, after lengthy discussions with then Prime Minister David Lloyd George, Chequers was given to the nation as a country retreat for the serving Prime Minister by the Chequers Estate Act 1917. Arthur and Ruth Lee, by this time Lord and Lady Lee of Fareham, left Chequers on 8 January 1921 after a final dinner at the house.

A political disagreement between the Lees and Lloyd George soured the hand-over, which went ahead nevertheless. A stained glass window in the long gallery of the house commissioned by Lord and Lady Lee of Fareham bears the inscription: This house of peace and ancient memories was given to England as a thank-offering for her deliverance in the great war of 1914–1918 as a place of rest and recreation for her Prime Ministers for ever. The property houses one of the largest collections of art and memorabilia pertaining to Oliver Cromwell in the country. It also houses many other national antiques and books held in the famous 'long room', including a diary of Admiral Lord Horatio Nelson. However, the collection is not open to the public. Nearby Coombe Hill was part of the estate until the 1920s when it was given to the National Trust. Coombe Hill and the Chequers Estate are part of the Chilterns Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, designated in 1965. During the early part of World War II, it was considered that security at Chequers was inadequate to protect the Prime Minister, Winston Churchill.

He therefore used Ditchley in Oxfordshire until late 1942, by which time the approach road, clearly visible from the sky, had been camouflaged and other security measures had been put in place.[3][4] Downing Street and Chequers are about 41 miles (66 km) apart. Footnotes Jump up ^ ), Georgina Bertie (Lady; Bertie, Richard (1845). "Five generations of a loyal house. Pt. 1, containing the lives of R. Bertie and his son Peregrine, lord Willoughby". Jump up ^ Hawtrey 1903, pp. 30–1. Jump up ^ Winston Churchill Jump up ^ History Lives at Ditchley and Bletchley – The Churchill Centre References Chequers: The House and its History: The Prime Minister's Country House and its History by Norma Major with photos by Mark Fiennes (1996) Harper Collins, reprinted hardcover ISBN 978-0-00-470875-1 and paperback ISBN 978-0-316-85844-1.

Hawtrey, Florence Molesworth (1903). The History of the Hawtrey Family I. London: George Allen. Retrieved 11 February 2013. External links Chequers, the house Mum fell in love with... The Iron Lady 30 years on by Carol Thatcher | Daily Mail Online Chequers, the house Mum fell in love with... The Iron Lady 30 years on by Carol Thatcher comments It is almost 30 years to the day since I first set foot in Chequers, but the memories are undimmed. In May 1979, in those weeks after Mum became Prime Minister, my brother Mark drove me there in his sports car, pulling up at the entrance just in time for dinner. Ahead of us, down the gun-barrel-straight Victory Drive, lined with magnificent beech trees given by Churchill, was a gracious, discreet rose-red brick and grey stone Tudor building. After four hard years tunnelling away in opposition, this was pure, sunlit bliss for our family.

Taking it easy: For once, Mum relaxes with the Sunday papers - and with her shoes kicked off By stately home standards, of course, Chequers is modest, with only ten bedrooms. But, as my mother later wrote: 'I do not think anyone has stayed long at Chequers without falling in love with it.' My parents adored the place and treasured the weekends they spent there during her 11 years in power. My late father Denis declaimed to anyone within earshot: 'Chequers is why you get the job [of PM].' The house - outside Great Missenden in Buckinghamshire - has been the official country residence of the Prime Minister since the end of the First World War. A building has occupied the site since the 12th Century, but the current one dates from the 16th. I liken Chequers to a boutique hotel, albeit with top-level security and that adrenaline buzz that comes from being at the centre of Government. It is, simply, the perfect weekend retreat, in complete contrast to the terrace house with the shiny black front door off Whitehall.

No matter how stressful the past five days in Downing Street had been, just getting into the chauffeur-driven prime ministerial car on Friday evening to head for Chequers was a tonic. RELATED ARTICLES Share this article Share Ten days after the 1979 Election win, my mother held a belated and low-key victory lunch party on a marvellously bright Sunday. On that occasion I took a photograph of Mum and the late Lord Thorneycroft - then Conservative Party chairman - sipping coffee at one end of the orangerie that housed a delectable indoor swimming pool. Knowing my mother wouldn't take a dip because of the threat to the hairdo, I looked forward to doing many lengths in a virtually private pool. No such luck. Mum discovered it cost £5,000 a year to heat, so the boiler was turned off. Even the pool didn't escape a wave of her thrifty wand. These days I rarely have a conversation with my mother without Chequers getting a mention, especially our Christmases there. The house was tailor-made for a traditional British Christmas - exactly the sort favoured by Mrs Thatcher.

Every year, Mark and I would dump our presents under the massive tree in the Great Hall with its stupendously lofty ceilings and ornate carved wooden gallery as carols played on the hi-fi. Cards from overseas, royalty, heads of state and businessmen were arranged on a grand piano. Visitors delighted in examining the signatures of the great and the good. A handwriting expert would have been in their element analysing those who could achieve joined-up writing while other autographs looked a touch loopy. Days of sunlit bliss: Mum, Dad, Mark - and me in a hand-me-down dress from Mum The Christmas menu never varied - chilled melon followed by roast turkey and then Christmas pudding, brandy sauce and mince pies. Flight Sergeant Alan Lavender, the Chequers chef, famously kept a low profile, only emerging on Christmas day for his star turn - the carving of the turkey in the wood-panelled dining room. He was one of a marvellous staff drawn from the Army, Navy and Air Force who attended to every waking wish of the individual who is No 1.

When Michelle Obama was questioned recently about her new life in the White House, she said simply: 'If you want pie, there's pie.' So it was with Chequers. The redoubtable Wing Commander Vera Thomas, the caretaker, indulged my parents constantly. Her instructions to staff were simple: 'If the Prime Minister or Mr Thatcher want moose on toast at midnight, they get it.' Moose was never required, but there were plentiful supplies of chocolate, for which my mother had a weakness. Denis was equally spoiled in the food department - perhaps as compensation for the reheated meals or beans on toast he got during the week in the flat above Downing Street. The attention to detail was almost military: the Radio Times had always to be left open at the appropriate day, the Sunday newspapers were arranged on the sideboard in precise symmetry - so much so that we struggled to put them back in exactly the same positions. Mark and I were slightly in awe of the staff, making sure we were scrubbed up and well turned out so as not to embarrass Mum. Occasionally our down-to-earth attitudes puzzled them.

When I asked to keep an empty nine-litre salmanazar of champagne as a souvenir from Dad's 70th birthday party in 1985, there were quizzical looks from the staff. They weren't used to a Prime Minister's family asking for the empties. For Sunday lunch parties, my parents would wait to greet guests in the Hawtrey Room, adjacent to the front door and decorated in cheerful raspberry and cream hues. Blazing log fires wafted a cosy aroma of wood smoke through the house. Convivial banter and political gossip made up the hubbub until Mum was informed: 'Luncheon is served, Prime Minister.' We would all troop through for the roast. Even eating required political nuancing. After the Chernobyl disaster in 1986, there was much talk about whether Welsh lamb had been contaminated. To demonstrate her conviction that it was absolutely fine, my mother insisted on its frequent appearance on Sunday lunch menus. I envisaged departing guests pulling over in the nearest lay-by in one of Buckinghamshire's leafy lanes to check they weren't glowing with radioactivity.

Golden retreat: Chequers, above, looking like a French chateau Those same lay-bys were often used before lunch by guests who had overestimated the travelling time and didn't want to commit the social gaffe of arriving too early. Dad put a stop to this by priming guests to come on in whenever they got there because 'my woman doesn't like me to start drinking before the guests arrive'. I have no idea whether this imprecation was passed to Princess Margaret, the guest for a splendid Sunday lunch in 1983. Mark and I managed to squeeze on to the end of the table for a menu of trout, roast saddle of lamb, fruit salad and cheese. Fellow guests included Norman Tebbit, Cecil Parkinson and Michael Heseltine along with Antony Jay, the writer of Yes, Minister, my mother's favourite TV programme. After the Princess left, we adjourned for coffee to the Long Library upstairs. Mum then slipped seamlessly back into campaigning mode for the coming General Election, talking ebulliently of 'attack strategies'. When everyone had gone, however, she became wistful. Gazing out of the window at the pastoral scene, she was reminded that Chequers was only a tied cottage.

It came with the job and the keys had to be handed back one day. 'When I'm a private person - if we lose - I've had the best four years of one's life,' she said. She paused and looked around the beautiful room. 'You do think, "Perhaps I won't be here again."' One of the most history-changing lunches to take place in the dining room was for Mikhail Gorbachev and his wife Raisa in December 1984. Gorbachev, yet to become Soviet leader, ate sole in shrimp sauce, fillet of beef and oranges in caramel. My mother was impressed by Gorbachev, famously declaring: 'This is a man I can do business with.' Dad was equally complimentary. 'It was extraordinary,' he said later. 'At the time one doesn't say that it was history in the making, but I realised that this was something pretty special.' He was spot on. Gorbachev succeeded Konstantin Chernenko as Soviet leader three months later, heralding the start of perestroika and the fall of the Berlin Wall. The official 'team' photograph of Gorbachev's visit is well known.

Less so is my photo of the view from those steps across the quadrangle, through the gate to the house and the crunchy gravel drive which wound around an island of beautifully manicured lawn with a statue at its epicentre. Such history was never far away. Indira Gandhi, the Indian prime minister, had slept in the four-poster I occasionally occupied. In her prime: Chilly political times as Mum waits in front of the fire in the Hawtrey Room to welcome Sunday lunch guests Sometimes, when we had a full house of guests, I was persuaded to move to a room under the eaves called the Prison Room. It was so named because Lady Mary Grey - the younger sister of Lady Jane Grey - was held there in 1565 after she had been banished from court by Elizabeth I for marrying below her station. Chequers, of course, isn't any old country pad off the M40 north-west of London. The machinery of state and security still turns, but discreetly. On one occasion after dinner I headed for the front door to go to my car to find a book - only to be stalled by a member of staff so alarms could be turned off and dogs held at bay.

When I was walking the grounds the day we had Nancy Reagan for lunch in 1981, a couple of burly American security men popped out of a hedge and demanded to know my identity. 'Look, I just live here,' was the best I could blurt out in a defensive tone, twinged with indignation. Once, I offered my mother a spin in my new car - a modest little runaround allotted a parking space to the side of the house while Mark's shiny sports car enjoyed pride of place at the front. The poor police must have had an almighty shock when she piled into my passenger seat and I set off. I could almost hear their collective sigh of relief when I did a U-turn and headed back. The grandeur of Chequers suits formal entertaining, but it is equally good for kicking off one's shoes and relaxing. I used to curl up on a comfy sofa on a weekend afternoon while Dad was practising his chipping and putting out on the lawn and Mum toiled away in the study. Dad also liked long walks, preferably those ending at licensed premises.

In fact, during the week when my mother was running the country, Denis often enquired of political and non-political cronies he bumped into around town: 'When are you coming down to the ranch?' My mother was never ever entirely off duty. There were times when she would look down Victory Drive, waiting for the car to arrive with the red boxes. Often if we were sitting in the White Parlour, a secretary would pop in with news of a phone call, and Mum would slip back into her power heels and march off in purposeful mode. Late-night phone calls were especially frequent during the Falklands conflict in 1982 because of the time difference between Britain and the South Atlantic. History lesson: My bedroom at Chequers with the bed Indira Gandhi once occupied While Mum was out of the room on the phone, Dad, Mark and I would throw one another tense glances, hoping it wouldn't be bad news about one of our ships. Chequers, however, managed to work its charm. On a beautiful spring day, she would stop work and walk with us, studying the trees and daffodils. At the rear of the house was a wonderful terrace that ran the length of the building.

Lavender grew prolifically and the sunken rose garden was delightful. Beyond, cows grazed in peaceful meadows before gently inclining hills. I have lovely memories of laughter and good times (even when the opinion polls were lousy) on that terrace. My mother's study and the dining room overlooked it and often when she surfaced from her work she'd ask whether it was warm enough to go out and the door would be unlocked. One memory will never leave me. The Sunday after the Brighton bomb in 1984 I arrived at Chequers having flown back from South Korea where I'd been on a journalistic assignment. I didn't go to my home from the airport, but hired a car and drove straight to Buckinghamshire. It was a fantastic Indian summer's day with a postcard blue sky. When I got there, Wing Commander Thomas told me the Prime Minister had just got back from church and was enjoying the sunshine on the terrace. I joined her and she described the horrific scenes at the Grand Hotel, saying: 'This is the day I wasn't meant to see.' We sat for a few minutes in silence, quietly giving thanks. Saturday nights were kept clear. No entertaining and the PM caught up with her red boxes and some sleep.

Sometimes she liked to watch a tape of Yes Minister and chip into the dialogue. Thatchers have always answered the telly back. Occasionally I'd hear Dad sounding off in an animated gear and find him watching a rugby match on the TV. He'd been a referee himself and loved nothing more than heckling an offside call or dodgy penalty decision. When a big film was released - especially one with a strong British input - Mum would request a copy and we'd watch. But she wasn't much of a cinemagoer. She was seated next to former Austrian bodybuilder and now Governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger at Ronald Reagan's burial in 2004, but I don't think she recognised him. When you are working your way up the greasy political pole, you don't spend a lot of time in West End movie houses. Drink to victory: Lord Thorneycroft and Mum have coffee by the indoor pool during her belated party to celebrate the 1979 Election In their 40 years of marriage, Chequers was the house my parents lived in the longest, and their fondness for it never diminished. But you can't buy Chequers, nor can you rent it.

It was given to the nation as a place of rest and recreation for Prime Ministers for ever. Her speechwriter, Ronnie Millar, remembers finding my mother sitting on a stool before the fire in the Great Parlour. 'Sitting there like that,' he told her, 'you look for all the world as though you belong to Chequers and Chequers belongs to you.' 'But it doesn't,' my mother replied realistically. We always knew leaving Chequers would be a wrench. After Mum resigned in November 1990, she spent one last weekend there with Denis, the culmination of an appalling few days in which she had been stabbed in the back by her own party. She asked me: 'Do you want to come to Chequers, darling? It will be the last time.' But I wanted them to have their privacy: 'No. I said goodbye to Chequers last weekend.' They spent their final lunch there with two friends at the small window table where they'd had their first meal. It was awkward and miserable, with no one sure what to say. Mum, staring out at the garden, broke a long silence. 'Look,' she said.

'There's a late rose.' One of the guests later described the scene to me poignantly: 'Denis and Margaret were walking hand-in-hand in tears along the gallery that overlooked the Great Hall.' Chequers is a hallowed place and this anniversary weekend I know just how extraordinarily fortunate I was to roll up there so many times - just because my mum was Prime Minister. Even now, her memories of the house come flooding back when we talk. It was never going to be for ever - we knew that - but perhaps that impermanence makes our recollections all the more vivid. • Carol Thatcher's Memoir, A Swim-On Part In The Goldfish Bowl is published by Headline at £18.99. To order your copy at the special price of £17.10 with free p&p call the Review Bookstore on 0845 155 0713.

Question: In which county is the Prime Minister’s country retreat Chequers?
Answer: Buckinghamshire