20 Facts About Sandringham Estate

In 1836 Sandringham Estate was bought by John Motteux, a London merchant, who already owned property in Norfolk and Surrey.

Sandringham Estate led an extravagant life, and by the early 1860s, the estate was mortgaged and he and his wife spent most of their time on the Continent.

Sandringham Estate is recorded in the Domesday Book as "sant-Dersingham" and the land was awarded to a Norman knight, Robert Fitz-Corbun after the Conquest.

Sandringham Estate undertook extensions to the hall, employing Samuel Sanders Teulon to add an elaborate porch and conservatory.

The Prince of Wales had been impressed by one he had seen at Trentham Hall, and the alley at Sandringham Estate was modelled on an example from Rumpenheim Castle, Germany.

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Royal couple's developments at Sandringham were not confined to the house; over the course of their occupation, the wider estate was transformed.

Sandringham Estate is commemorated in the clock tower, which bears an inscription in Latin that translates as "the hours perish and will be charged to our account".

Sandringham Estate was considered one of the best shots in England, and his collections of shotguns and stamps were among the finest in the world.

The estate and village of Sandringham suffered a major loss when all but two members of the King's Own Sandringham Company, a territorial unit of the Fifth Battalion of the Royal Norfolk Regiment, were killed at Suvla Bay during the Gallipoli Campaign.

Sandringham Estate's brothers were each left £750,000 while Edward was bequeathed no monetary assets beyond the revenues from the Duchy of Cornwall.

Sandringham Estate never returned to Sandringham; and, his attention diverted by the impending crisis arising from his attachment to Simpson, within two months of his only visit to the house as King, he had abdicated.

Sandringham Estate's mother was at church at Sandringham on Sunday 3 September 1939, when the outbreak of the Second World War was declared.

Sandringham Estate's face was tired and strained and he ate practically nothing.

Sandringham Estate was never fully well again and died at Sandringham during the early morning of 6 February 1952.

Sandringham Estate's body was placed in the Church of St Mary Magdalene, before being taken to Wolferton Station and transported by train to London, to lie in state at Westminster Hall.

From his retirement from official duties in August 2017 until his death in April 2021, the Duke of Edinburgh spent much of his time at Wood Farm, a large farmhouse on the Sandringham Estate used by the Duke and the Queen when not hosting guests at the main house.

Fittings and furnishings were criticised; the biographer of George V, Kenneth Rose, wrote that, "except for some tapestries given by Alfonso XII, Sandringham Estate had not a single good picture, piece of furniture or other work of art".

The house has an extensive holding of works by Faberge, the world's largest, assembled by Queen Alexandra and later members of the family, which includes representations of farm animals from the Sandringham estate commissioned by Edward VII as presents for his wife.

The Sandringham estate has a museum in the former coach house with displays of royal life and estate history.

Sandringham Estate died at Wood Farm, his home for the last two years of his life, on 18 January 1919.