Early history Sandringham is recorded in the
Domesday Book of 1086 as "sant-Dersingham" (the sandy part of Dersingham) and the land was awarded to a
Norman knight, Robert Fitz-Corbun after the
Norman Conquest. The local antiquarian Claude Messent, in his study
The Architecture on the Royal Estate of Sandringham, records the discovery of evidence of the pavements of a Roman villa near
Appleton farm. In the 15th century it was held by
Anthony Woodville, Lord Scales, brother-in-law to
Edward IV. In the
Elizabethan era a manor was built on the site of the present house, which, by the 18th century, came into the possession of the Hoste Henley family, descendants of Dutch refugees. In 1771 Cornish Henley cleared the site to build a Georgian mansion, Sandringham Hall. In 1834, Henry Hoste Henley died without issue, and the estate was bought at auction by John Motteux, a London merchant. Motteux was also without heirs and bequeathed Sandringham, together with another Norfolk estate and a property in Surrey, to the third son of his close friend,
Emily Lamb, the wife of
Lord Palmerston. At the time of his inheritance in 1843, Charles Spencer Cowper was a bachelor diplomat, resident in Paris. On succeeding to Motteux's estates, he sold the other properties and based himself at Sandringham. He undertook extensions to the hall, employing
Samuel Sanders Teulon to add an elaborate porch and conservatory. Cowper's style of living was extravagant – he and his wife spent much of their time on the Continent – and within 10 years the estate was mortgaged for £89,000. The death in 1854, from cholera, of their only child Mary Harriette, led the couple to spend even more time abroad – mainly in Paris – and by the early 1860s Cowper was keen to sell the estate.
Edward VII In 1861 Queen Victoria's eldest son and heir,
Albert Edward, the future King Edward VII, was approaching his twentieth birthday. Edward's dissipated lifestyle had been disappointing to his parents, and his father,
Prince Albert, thought that marriage and the purchase of a suitable establishment were necessary to ground the prince in country life and pursuits and lessen the influence of the "
Marlborough House set" with which he was involved. Albert had his staff investigate 18 possible country estates that might be suitable, including
Newstead Abbey in Nottinghamshire and
Houghton Hall in Norfolk. The need to act quickly was reinforced by the
Nellie Clifden affair, when Edward's fellow officers smuggled the actress into his quarters. The possibility of a scandal was deeply concerning to his parents. Sandringham Hall was on the list of the estates considered, and a personal recommendation to the Prince Consort from the
prime minister Lord Palmerston, stepfather to the owner, swayed Prince Albert. Negotiations were only slightly delayed by Albert's death in December 1861—his widow declared, "His wishes – his plans – about everything are to be my law". Edward visited in February 1862, and a sale was agreed for the house and just under of land, which was finalised that October. Queen Victoria only twice visited the house she had paid for. Over the course of the next forty years, and with considerable expenditure, Edward was to create a house and country estate that his friend
Charles Carington called "the most comfortable in England". The price paid for Sandringham, £220,000, has been described as "exorbitant". This is questioned by Helen Walch, author of the estate's recent (2012) history, who shows the detailed analysis undertaken by the Prince Consort's advisers and suggests that the cost was reasonable. However, the house was soon found to be too small to accommodate the Prince of Wales's establishment following his marriage in March 1863 and the many guests he wished to entertain. In 1865, two years after moving in, the prince commissioned
A. J. Humbert to raze the original hall and create a much larger building. Humbert was an architect favoured by the royal family—"for no good reason", according to the architectural historian
Mark Girouard—and had previously undertaken work for Queen Victoria at
Osborne House and at
Frogmore House. The new red-brick house was complete by late 1870; the only element of the original house of the Henley Hostes and the Cowpers that was retained was the elaborate conservatory designed by Teulon in the 1830s. Edward had this room converted into a billiard room. A plaque in the entrance hall records that "This house was built by Albert Edward Prince of Wales and
Alexandra his wife in the year of our Lord 1870". The building was entered through a large
porte-cochère straight into the main living room (the saloon), an arrangement that was subsequently found to be inconvenient. The house provided living and sleeping accommodation over three storeys, with attics and a basement. The Norfolk countryside surrounding the house appealed to Alexandra, as it reminded her of her native Denmark. Within a decade, the house was again found to be too small, and in 1883 a new extension, the Bachelors' Wing, was constructed to the designs of a Norfolk architect,
Colonel R. W. Edis. Edis also built a new billiard room and converted the old conservatory into a bowling alley. The Prince of Wales had been impressed by one he had seen at
Trentham Hall in
Staffordshire, and the alley at Sandringham was modelled on an example from
Rumpenheim Castle, Germany. In 1891, during preparations for Edward's fiftieth birthday, a serious fire broke out when maids lit all the fires in the second-floor bedrooms to warm them in advance of the prince's arrival. Edis was recalled to undertake rebuilding and further construction. As he had with the Bachelors' Wing, Edis tried to harmonise these additions with Humbert's house by following the original
Jacobethan style, and by using matching brickwork and
Ketton stone. The house was up to date in its facilities, with the modern kitchens and lighting using gas from the estate's own plant and water being supplied from the
Appleton Water Tower, constructed at the highest
point on the estate. The tower was designed in an
Italianate style by Robert Rawlinson, and Alexandra laid the foundation stone in 1877. The Prince's efforts as a country gentleman were approved by the press of the day; a contemporary newspaper expressed a wish to "
Sandringhamize Marlborough House – as a landlord, agriculturist and country gentleman, the Prince sets an example which might be followed with advantage". The royal couple's developments at Sandringham were not confined to the house; over the course of their occupation, the wider estate was also transformed. Ornamental and kitchen gardens were established, employing more than 100 gardeners at their peak. Many estate buildings were constructed, including cottages for staff, kennels, a school, a rectory and a staff clubhouse, the Babingley. Edward also made Sandringham one of the best sporting estates in England to provide a setting for the elaborate weekend shooting parties that became Sandringham's defining rationale. To increase the amount of daylight available during the shooting season, which ran from October to February, the prince introduced the tradition of
Sandringham time, whereby all the clocks on the estate were set half an hour ahead of
GMT. This tradition was maintained until 1936. Edward's entertaining was legendary, and the scale of the slaughter of
game birds, predominantly pheasants and partridges, was colossal. The meticulously maintained game books recorded annual bags of between 6,000 and 8,000 birds in the 1870s, rising to bags of more than 20,000 a year by 1900. The game larder, constructed for the storage of the carcasses, was inspired by that at
Holkham Hall and was the largest in Europe. , now closed – it was used by the royal family and their guests to reach Sandringham House for over 100 years|alt=view of red-brick, two-storey signal box Guests for Sandringham house parties generally arrived at
Wolferton railway station, from the house, travelling in royal trains that ran from
St Pancras Station to
King's Lynn and then on to Wolferton. The station served the house from 1862 until its closure in 1969. Thereafter, the Queen and others staying at the house have generally travelled by car from King's Lynn. Edward established the Sandringham
stud in 1897, achieving considerable success with the racehorses
Persimmon and
Diamond Jubilee. Neither his son nor his grandsons evinced as much interest in horses, although the stud was maintained; however, his great-granddaughter, Elizabeth II, tried to match Edward's equestrian achievements and bred several winners at the Sandringham Stud. On 14 January 1892, Edward's eldest son and heir,
Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence and Avondale, died of pneumonia at the house. He 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".
George V In his will Edward VII left his widow £200,000 and a lifetime interest in the Sandringham estate. Queen Alexandra's continued occupancy of the "big house" compelled George V, his wife, Queen Mary, and their expanding family to remain at York Cottage in the grounds, in rather "cramped" conditions. Suggestions from courtiers that Queen Alexandra might move out were firmly rebuffed by the King; "It is my mother's house, my father built it for her". The King also lacked the sociability of his father, and the shortage of space at York Cottage enabled him to limit the entertaining he undertook, with the small rooms reportedly reminding him of the onboard cabins of his naval career. |alt=stone plaque showing George V in right profile The new King's primary interests, aside from his constitutional duties, were shooting and stamp collecting. He was considered one of the best shots in England, and his collections of shotguns and stamps were among the finest in the world. Deeply conservative by nature, George sought to maintain the traditions of Sandringham estate life established by his father, and life at York Cottage provided respite from the constitutional and political struggles that overshadowed the early years of George's reign. Even greater upheaval was occasioned by the outbreak of the
First World War, a dynastic struggle that involved many of his relatives, including the
German Kaiser and the
Russian Emperor, both of whom had previously been guests at Sandringham. 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. The story of the battalion was the subject of a
BBC drama, ''
All the King's Men''. A memorial to the dead was raised on the estate; the names of those killed in the Second World War were added subsequently. Following
Queen Alexandra's death at Sandringham on 20 November 1925, the King and his family moved to the main house. In 1932, George V gave the first of the
royal Christmas messages from a studio erected at Sandringham. The speech, written by
Rudyard Kipling, began, "I speak now from my home and from my heart to you all". George V died in his bedroom at Sandringham at 11:55 p.m. on 20 January 1936, his death hastened by injections of morphine and cocaine, to maintain the King's dignity and to enable the announcement of his death to be made in the following day's
Times. The King's body was moved to
St Mary Magdalene's Church, a scene described by the late King's assistant private secretary,
"Tommy" Lascelles. "Next evening we took him over to the little church at the end of the garden. We saw the lych-gate brilliantly lit [and] the guardsmen slung the coffin on their shoulders and laid it before the altar. After a brief service, we left it, to be watched over by the men of the Sandringham Estate." Two days later, George's body was transported by train from Wolferton to London, and to its lying in state at
Westminster Hall.
Edward VIII On the night of his father's death, Edward VIII summarily ordered that the clocks at Sandringham be returned to
Greenwich Mean Time, ending the tradition of
Sandringham time begun by his grandfather more than 50 years earlier. Edward had rarely enjoyed his visits to Sandringham, either in his father's time or that of his grandfather. He described a typical dinner at the house in a letter to his then mistress
Freda Dudley Ward, dated 26 December 1919; "it's too dull and boring for words. Christ how any human beings can ever have got themselves into this pompous secluded and monotonous groove I just can't imagine". In another letter, evenings at the "big house"—Edward stayed at York Cottage with his father—were recorded as "sordidly dull and boring". His antipathy to the house was unlikely to have been lessened by his late father's will, which was read to the family in the saloon at the house. His brothers were each left £750,000 while Edward was bequeathed no monetary assets beyond the revenues from the
Duchy of Cornwall. A codicil also prevented him from selling the late King's personal possessions; Lascelles described the inheritance as "the Kingship without the cash". Edward's concerns regarding his income led him immediately to focus on the expense associated with running his late father's private homes. Sandringham he described as a "voracious
white elephant", and he asked his brother, the
Duke of York, to undertake a review of the management of the estate, which had been costing his father £50,000 annually in subsidies at the time of his death. The review recommended significant retrenchments, and its partial implementation caused considerable resentment among the dismissed staff. After the night of his father's death at Sandringham, Edward spent only one further night of his reign at the house, bringing
Wallis Simpson for a shooting party in October 1936. The party was interrupted by a request to meet with prime minister
Stanley Baldwin, and having arrived on a Sunday, the King returned to
Fort Belvedere the next day. He 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. On his abdication, as Sandringham and
Balmoral Castle were the private property of the monarch, it was necessary for King George VI to purchase both properties. The price paid, £300,000, was a cause of friction between the new King and his brother.
George VI George VI had been born at Sandringham on 14 December 1895. A keen follower of country pursuits, he was as devoted to the estate as his father, writing to his mother, Queen Mary, "I have always been so happy here". The deep retrenchment he had proposed when commissioned by his brother to review the estate was not enacted, but economies were still made. His mother was at church at Sandringham on Sunday 3 September 1939, when the outbreak of the
Second World War was declared. The house was shut up during the war, but occasional visits were made to the estate, with the family staying at outlying cottages. After the war the King made improvements to the gardens surrounding the house but, as traditionalist as his father, he made few other changes. December 1945 saw the first celebration of Christmas at the house since 1938.
Lady Airlie recorded her impressions at dinner: "I sat next to the King. His face was tired and strained and he ate practically nothing. Looking at him I felt the cold fear of the probability of another short reign". George was a heavy smoker throughout his life and had an operation to remove part of his lung in September 1951. He was never fully well again and died at Sandringham during the early morning of 6 February 1952. He had gone out after hares on 5 February, "shooting conspicuously well", and had planned the next day's shoot before retiring at 10.30 p.m. He was discovered at 7.30 a.m. in his bedroom by his valet, having died of a
coronary thrombosis at the age of 56. His 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.
Elizabeth II As with her predecessors, the house remained one of the two homes owned by the Sovereign in her private capacity, rather than as
head of state, the other being
Balmoral Castle. Following King George VI's death,
Queen Elizabeth II's custom was to spend the anniversary of that and of her own
accession privately with her family at Sandringham House, and, toward the end of her reign, to use it as her official base from
Christmas until February. In celebrating Christmas at Sandringham, the Queen followed the tradition of her last three predecessors, whereas her great-great-grandmother, Queen Victoria, held her celebrations at
Windsor Castle. The taxation arrangements of the monarch meant that no
inheritance tax was paid on the Sandringham or Balmoral estates when they passed to the Queen, at a time when it was having a deleterious effect on other country estates. On her accession, the Queen asked her husband, the
Duke of Edinburgh, to take on the responsibility for the management of the estate. The Duke worked to move towards self-sufficiency, generating additional income streams, taking more of the land in hand, and amalgamating many of the smaller tenant farms. In January 1957, the Queen received the resignation of Prime Minister
Sir Anthony Eden at the house. Eden's wife,
Clarissa, recorded the event in her diary, "8 January – Anthony has to go through a Cabinet and listening to
Harold prosing for half an hour. Then by train to Sandringham. Many photographers. We arrive into the hall where everyone is looking at the television." At the end of that year, the Queen made her first televised Christmas broadcast from Sandringham. In the 1960s, plans were initiated to demolish the house and replace it with a modern residence by
David Roberts, an architect who worked mainly at the
University of Cambridge. The plans were not taken forward, but modernisation of the interior of the house and the removal of a range of ancillary buildings were carried out by
Hugh Casson, who also decorated the
Royal Yacht, Britannia. In 1977, for her silver jubilee, the Queen opened the house to the public. Following the tradition of a kennels at Sandringham established by her great-grandfather, when Queen Alexandra kept more than 100 dogs on the estate, the Queen preferred cocker spaniels and black
labrador retrievers, over the yellow type favoured by her father, and the terriers bred by her earlier predecessors. 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. In February 2022 the Queen celebrated the 70th anniversary of her accession at Sandringham. The Queen made her last visit to Sandringham in early July 2022 for five days, after completing her
Platinum Jubilee celebrations.
Charles III On the
death of his mother in September 2022, the Sandringham estate passed to
King Charles III. Following in the tradition of Queen Elizabeth II, the King and
Queen host members of the royal family at Sandringham over Christmas, including attending church services at St Mary Magdalen together on Christmas Day. ==Architecture and description==