Trust is to look at slavery links

An expert in colonialism will investigate links to slavery at National Trust homes and gardens across Kent as part of a “watershed” moment in the fight against racism. As Black Lives Matters protesters took to the county’s streets again, a study revealed 95 of the Trust’s 300 locations in the UK have connections to, or benefited from, the slave trade.

The 125-year-old body has yet to confirm which homes these are, but says a full list will be released later this month.

It owns 22 sites in Kent, including Chartwell - the country house near Westerham that was famously home to Winston Churchill for more than 40 years.

The wartime Prime Minister has been at the heart of recent debate, since BLM protestors toppled a statue of slave trader Edward Colston in Bristol.

Although famed for leading Britain’s fight against the Nazi regime, Churchill is accused of having been a racist and fierce imperialist, leading some protestors to argue a bronze effigy of the Prime Minister in London’s Parliament Square should be torn down.

The National Trust has declined to reveal which, if any, of its Kent properties have confirmed ties with colonialism.

Expert Dr Corinne Fowler has been tasked with examining Britain’s ‘Colonial Countryside’ and says visitors will be made aware of the historic exploitation that funded some of the trust’s 500 heritage properties.

Both Penrhyn Castle in north Wales and Speke Hall in Liverpool, for example, were built using money made on plantations.

“I think it can be a watershed moment,” the Leicester University professor told The Telegraph.

“The important thing is to tell the stories which are central and relevant to understanding these historic houses.

“If that makes it uncomfortable, then so be it. It’s not all about cream tea.”

Chartwell, the former home of Sir Winston Churchill, in Westerham. Above, statues of Churchill and wife Clementine