Column of Victory, Blenheim

The Column of Victory rises on the high ground of Blenheim's Great Park, across Queen Pool from the main drive, just outside Woodstock. Put up in 1727 to 1730 to celebrate the first Duke of Marlborough's victories, it is a fluted Doric column of limestone ashlar with a lead statue of the Duke on top. Historic England lists it at Grade II, and the park around it is registered Grade I.

History

The column celebrates the man for whom Blenheim was built. Queen Anne granted the royal manor of Woodstock to the first Duke of Marlborough in 1705, after his victory at Blenheim, and the palace, the bridge and the park followed.

Designers and builders

The listing says the column was erected by Lord Herbert, later the ninth Earl of Pembroke, to a design by Nicholas Hawksmoor, and that the idea came first from Sir John Vanbrugh; the register of parks credits Herbert with the design. Hawksmoor's drawings were inspired mainly by the column in the Piazza Navona in Rome. The masons were Townesend and Peisley, who also built Vanbrugh's Grand Bridge and the park walls.

The statue and the inscription

On top stands Sir Henry Cheere's lead statue of the Duke dressed as a Roman general, with Roman eagles at his feet. On the plinth is a long inscription in the Duke's praise, written by Lord Bolingbroke.

The avenue

The column is the centre of a much larger plan. The Ditchley Drive, which runs north across the Great Park, is aligned on it, and was lined by the avenue that Henry Wise laid out early in the eighteenth century, said to have been laid out in the formation of the Battle of Blenheim. A double avenue of limes was replanted on the line of Wise's avenue late in the twentieth century.

What to look for

• The statue: from below you see the Duke's Roman dress and the eagles; binoculars help.
• The plinth: Bolingbroke's carved inscription.
• The fluted shaft of limestone ashlar, a Doric column on the Roman model.
• The setting: the column stands across Queen Pool from the main drive, in the landscape of Capability Brown, who was called in in 1764 and flooded the river valley to make the lake.
• The line: stand with your back to it to see the Ditchley Drive avenue running away north.

Visiting

The Column of Victory stands in the private park of Blenheim Palace. You can see it free from the edge of Woodstock and from the public footpaths and bridleway that cross the park, which are open at all times. The palace, the gardens and the park's other roads need a Park and Gardens ticket, which cost £31 online for adults in 2026; the park opens daily from 9am to 6pm. Dogs must be on a lead in the park, where livestock graze. The paths are grass and estate tracks.

Getting there

Buses stop at Blenheim's main entrance in Woodstock, and ticket holders park free at the palace (OX20 1UL). Without a ticket, park in Woodstock and walk to the public footpaths. Stagecoach S3 and S7 buses run from Oxford city centre to Woodstock about four times an hour.

On foot, the Woodstock town walk looks out to the column from the embankment above Oxford Street, and Combe and Blenheim Park crosses the park north of the lake on a bridleway and public footpaths, with the column in view. Blenheim Park from Bladon comes into the park from the south and needs a ticket for its estate roads.

Nearby

Queen Pool lies below the column, and Blenheim Palace beyond it. In Woodstock, St Mary Magdalene and the Town Hall are a few minutes from the gate, and St Laurence's at Combe is on the far side of the park. For food and rooms, the Bear, the Feathers and the King's Arms are in the middle of the town.