Figure 1.--Fred Morgan and Thomas Blink painted this portrait of Queen Alexandra, probably about 1903. She is shown with her three eldest grandchildren (Prince Albert, Prince Edward, and Princess Mary). The portrait depicts thems playing with the dogs outsdide the kennels on the Sandringham estate. |
Sandringham was bought for the Prince of Wales in 1862 and it with Edward and his wife Alexandra tht Sandringham is best known. Sandringham is set in 25 hectares (over 60 acres) of grounds with an Estate of some 8,000 hectares (nearly 20,000 acres). Sandringham has been the private home of four generations of Sovereigns. The house was originally a Georgian structure. It was a rather undestinguished building. Its remote location far from London in Norfolk on the Wash did provide considerable privacy. While dubious at first Princess Alexandra came to love Sandringham. The Prince selected Humbert who had worked with father on Osborne and Balmoral. The main features of the new building were bay windows which helped lighten the interior. Samuel Saunders Teulon later made further rennovations, adding a wonderful porch and conservatory. It had by 1870 had been almost totally rebuilt. The new building was a red-brick, Victorian-Tudor mansion, designed with the family's comfor in mind. Despite the size of Sandringham and the spaciouness of the main rooms, the living quarters were quite cramped. Princes Eddie and George, for example, had very small bedrooms. The spacious grounds, however, provided room for Queen Alexandra's growing menagiere of horses, dogs, cats, farmyard turkeys, and other animals--including a large but gentle ram rescuded from an Egyptian butcher. The animals of course enchanted the children and in turn her grandchildren. The children of George V used to love to visit Sandringham and their grandparents. A stuffed baboon in the great hall with a tray for calling cards was another favorite of the chuldren. [Battiscombe, pp. 110-11.] Both but especially Queen Alexandria loved to dote on them. The atmopsphere was far different than at home, especially when their father was about. The kennels were a particular delight to the children. Since the death of Edward VII, Sandringham has been used as a popular holiday retreat for successive members of the Royal Family. It was at Sandringham that King George VI died in 1952. Since that time, Queen Elizabeth's custom has been to spend the anniversary of her father's death and her own Accession privately with her family at Sandringham. It is her official base until February each year. The house was first opened to the public in 1977, and there is a museum with displays of Royal life and Estate history.
Sandringham was bought for the Prince of Wales in 1862. It is set in 25 hectares (over 60 acres) of grounds with an Estate of some 8,000 hectares (nearly 20,000 acres). Sandringham has been the private home of four generations of Sovereigns. The house was originally a Georgian structure. It was a rather undestinguished building. Its remote location far from London in Norfolk on the Wash did provide considerable privacy. While dubious at first Princess Alexandra came to love Sandringham. The Prince selected Humbert who had worked with father on Osborne and Balmoral. The main features of the new building were bay windows which helped lighten the interior. Samuel Saunders Teulon later made further rennovations, adding a wonderful porch and conservatory. It had by 1870 had been almost totally rebuilt. The new building was a red-brick, Victorian-Tudor mansion, designed with the family's comfort in mind.
Sandringham was bought for the Prince of Wales in 1862 and it with Edward and his wife Alexandra tht Sandringham is best known. Despite the size of Sandringham and the spaciouness of the main rooms, the living quarters were quite cramped. Princes Eddie and George, for example, had very small bedrooms. The spacious grounds, however, provided room for Queen Alexandra's growing menagiere of horses, dogs, cats, farmyard turkeys, and other animals--including a large but gentle ram rescuded from an Egyptian butcher. The animals of course enchanted the children and in turn her grandchildren. The children of George V used to love to visit Sandringham and their grandparents. A stuffed baboon in the great hall with a tray for calling cards was another favorite of the children. [Battiscombe, pp. 110-11.] Both but especially Queen Alexandria loved to dote on them. The atmopsphere was far different than at home, especially when their father was about. The kennels were a particular delight to the children. Since the death of Edward VII, Sandringham has been used as a popular holiday retreat for successive members of the Royal Family.
Sandringham was run as the soul of domestic respectability. The Prince of Wales later the King apparently behaved himself at Sandringham. Depite his many daliances, he alway showed the greatesy respect to his wife. His mother Queen Victoria, however, looked on Sandringham with considerable distaste. Her letters are full of some very critical comments about the goings on at Sandringham which she saw as the cause of a host of problems including Alexandra's many miscairages. The Queen's greatest complaint was the very active social like at Sandringham and some of the individuals that were included in the many events. Alex saw this level of social life as necessary for her husband, i part because the Queen refused to give her husband any kind of meaningful role. It was also in part necessary in part because Victoria herself after Albert'd death refused any socializing at all. The increasingly open social life at Sandingham was in fact a beginning steo at bringing the British monarchy into the modern world.
George V grew up at Sandringham. He spent his bopyhood there and at Marlbourough House when the family visited London. It was at Sandrinham that he was tutored as a boy with his brother Prince Eddy. George V, and his growing family while his father and mother lived at Sandringham, took up residence in York Cottage on the Sandingham grounds. Even when his father King Edward VII died King George V kept his family at York Cottage. King Edward had left Sandringham to Queen Alexandra, but it made little sence for Alexandr to live at th "big house" while King George V and his family were crammed into York Cottage. The King could have purchased home near Sandingham, but he was too attached to York Cottage to do so.
George VI grew up in York Cottage on the Sandringham estate. York Cottage was located such a few paces from Sandringham House or the "big house". He and his brother were frequent visitors to their grand parents at the "big house". They grewup between two wirlds, the glittering social swirl of their grandparents and the dull rotine of thir parents. It was at Sandringham that King George VI died in 1952.
Since her father's death, Queen Elizabeth's custom has been to spend the anniversary of her father's death and her own Accession privately with her family at Sandringham. It is her official base until February each year. The house was first opened to the public in 1977, and there is a museum with displays of Royal life and Estate history.
Sandringham was bought for the Prince of Wales in 1862.
Battiscombe, Georgina. Queen Alexandra (Houghton Mifflin, Boston, 1969).
Bennett, Daphne. King Without a Crown: Albert Prince Consort of England, 1819-1861 (New York: J.B. Lippincott, 1977).
Woodham-Smith, Cecil. Queen Victoria: Her Life and Times (1972).
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