Sandringham - The Queen's Norfolk Retreat

Today we will wander around Sandringham, the Queen's only private residence, the other residences, Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle and Balmoral Castle belong to the State.



Sandringham Estate, the Norfolk retreat of HM the Queen consists of 600 acres of beautiful parkland, much of it open to the public. The house is surrounded by 60 acres of stunning gardens and has been the private home of 4 generations of British Monarchy.



The house was built in 1870 by the Prince and Princess of Wales, later

King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra.



For this post we will be walking around the home gardens only. For more information and history click on the following link.



http://www.sandringhamestate.co.uk/Hmg.asp?S=2&V=1&P=3





We enter through the tourist gate and turn left along this beautiful wooded path

We soon glimpse the house through a gap in the trees on the right hand side

We continue to walk around the gardens having toured the house where of course one is unable to take any photos. We hear and read so much about the Royal family getting together here to spend Christmas together and I was surprised at how small the dining room is. I was trying to imagine the whole family sitting around it. Not small in the sense of an ordinary home of course but certainly compared with our large stately homes across the country. I also enjoyed the main hall knowing that this was where everyone opened their presents on Christmas Eve and where games were played and dancing took place.

These photos are of the back of the house

There's that poor man again carrying coats and backpack

The Prince of Wales designed these gardens too

Having enjoyed the gardens we are now taking a wagon and horse ride around some of the estate.

This is Park House, the childhood home of Diana, the Princess of Wales. The Spencer family moved from here when Earl Spencer inherited Althorp, his own family estate. In 1983 the Queen offered the house to the Leonard Cheshire Foundation and it is now a hotel for disabled people.

This house on the estate I believe was used as a hunting lodge by one of the Monarchs

The church of St. Mary Magdalen

Built in the 16th century and a regular place of worship for the Royal Family and estate staff

These 2 pictures are from the Sandringham website. I was not a 'blogger' at the time of my visit so only took garden photos. However when we visited the church on the estate we were amazed at it's internal beauty. Certainly it could hold it's own with any of the great cathedrals of Europe. The whole altar and sanctuary area was carved in gold and was breath taking.

Here we have a little peep inside

Sandringham has it's own home farm with produce sold in the beautiful shop on the estate. My favourite is the organic apple juice (from whatever kind of apple you choose) and on visiting both here and Windsor I have come away with a whole case