Margaret Thatcher was so worried about the costs of running Chequers, the prime minister’s official country home, that she insisted the heating for the indoor swimming pool was kept off — except for special occasions.
The insight into Baroness Thatcher’s famously thrifty approach to spending is revealed in private papers from 1981 released this weekend from her archives at Churchill College, Cambridge.
“One of her first acts on taking possession of the house had been to turn off the heat for the pool on economy grounds,” the archive states. However, on one occasion that year “she switched it back on for the guests”, most of whom had been at the wedding that July of Prince Charles to Diana.
Guests who took a dip included Rosalind Runcie, wife of Robert Runcie, the Archbishop of Canterbury, who had conducted the wedding service, and Katherine Day, the Australian-born wife of Robin Day, the broadcaster. While the women had enjoyed a swim, another guest, Alastair Burnet, the ITN newsreader, wrote to Thatcher thanking her for the lunch but adding that he was “grateful for [her] not making the swimming compulsory”.
Laurence Olivier also attended and wrote that it had been “an extreme honour” to have been seated next to the prime minister. Olivier had earlier recommended his voice coach at the National Theatre, Kate Fleming, to help Thatcher modulate her tones.
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Other guests included the Reagans, and Walter Annenberg, former US ambassador to Britain, who in 1973 had donated the money for the pool in return for two visits made by Richard Nixon to Chequers.
“Margaret adored Chequers,” said Michael Dobbs, her chief of staff. “I’m not surprised she turned off the heating in the pool. She had always made a point of being a housewife, and the virtues of being careful with money. She was a great turner-off of the lights too.”
Dobbs said Thatcher loved Chequers more than any other place she lived in. “Chequers was one place she could relax a bit. She was fascinated too by its history.”