Sandringham is the private and reportedly favorite residence of Queen Elizabeth. Unlike Buckingham Palace, the Palace at Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh, and Windsor Castle, Sandringham is actually owned by the Queens’s family and receives no state moneys for its upkeep. (For you grammar students: Yes, monies is also correct and more common, but I have always used the acceptable moneys.) The same is true of Balmoral Castle in rural Scotland. The others are held in trust by and administered by the state. Sandringham is located near the ocean, not far from King’s Lynn, a city of 43,000 in Norfolk. It was about an hour’s drive on two lane roads for us from Cromer.
Sandringham House is open to the public only from April until October. When October arrives, preparations begin for the Queen and Price Phillip’s arrival shortly before Christmas. There is lots to do as the rooms open to the public are the ones actually used by the Royal Family during their stay. It is Elizabeth’s tradition to remain at Sandringham until after February 6th, the day her father, King George VI, died here in 1952.
We walked the grounds on this overcast day and then visited the portion of the house that is open to the public. One really wants to take pictures inside, but photography is forbidden in the house. (Maybe there is a dungeon where transgressors are locked up?) Photographs are permitted on the grounds, in the museum, and in the church. The parish church of St Mary Magdalene, Sandringham, is a country church of exceptional historic interest, with memorials to many members and relations of the Royal Family from Queen Victoria onwards. It is used regularly as a place of worship by the Royal Family and Estate staff. The estate at one time had its own fire engine but the Queen donated the equipment to the town of Sandringham, which now services the estate in case of fire. (Saving a buck or pound here and there.) The Queen’s dogs are all buried here with memorial stones set in the garden walls. (You can have a lot of dogs in a 75 year reign.) There is also a statue of Estimate, the Queen’s Irish-bred horse who won the Queen’s Vase at Royal Ascot as a three year old in 2012 and returned to win the Gold Cup as a four year old in 2013.
A Little History Lesson
The house stands within a 20,000 acres estate in the Norfolk Coast Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The original house on the site was Georgian, constructed in 1771. In 1862, the estate was purchased for Edward VII, then Prince of Wales, as a country home for himself and his soon-to-be wife, Alexandra of Denmark. Between 1870 and 1900, the house was almost completely rebuilt in a style described “frenetic Jacobean”. Edward also developed the estate, creating one of the finest shoots in England. The house has passed through three further generations of the British royal family, with two kings, George V and George VI dying at Sandringham.
Following Edward’s death in 1910, the estate passed to his second son and heir, George V, who described the house as “dear old Sandringham, the place I love better than anywhere else in the world.” It was the setting for the first ever Christmas broadcast in 1932. George V died at the house on 20 January 1936. As the private property of the monarch, the estate passed to his son, Edward VIII and, at his abdication, was purchased by Edward’s brother, George VI. King George was as devoted to the house as his father, writing to his mother Queen Mary, “I have always been so happy here and I love the place”. He died at the house on 6 February 1952.
The estate then passed to Elizabeth II. In 1957 the Queen gave her first televised Christmas message from the house. In the 1960s, plans were drawn up to demolish the house entirely and replace it with a modern structure but these were never acted upon. In 1977, the year of her Silver Jubilee, the Queen opened the house and estate to the public. (Bringing money for its upkeep, one assumes.)
Click on the gallery below to bring up a scrollable window with full size pictures – the gallery preview shows just thumbnails of the pictures
After a few hours on the grounds, we headed home with a stop at Morrison’s (no Sainsbury in Cromer) for a few provisions.
As Mel Brooks said, “It’s Good to be the king” – OR queen 👑 !
And surprise! I thought she only had Corgis all those years, had never expected her to be a Labrador kind of Queen!
Lovely pictures, keep them coming. The mist looks great, weather here turning HOT, will be 109 by Sunday. Enjoy your sweater and jacket weather there!
We can’t wait for season 3 of The Crown to come back.
Just when you think you have seen all the royal digs and gardens, amazing! Safe travels to your new place. Got your email Elaine, thanks! XO