Sandringham Is Ideal Home In The Country

Waikato Independent, Volume XLV, Issue 6233, 2 May 1949, Page 7

Sandringham Is Ideal Home In The Country

Nowhere is the King more typically head of an English family than at Sandringham, where he is now convalescing, comments The Recorder. Every Englishman, no matter what his status, likes a place in the country for weekends, even if it means'only a day's visit by hiking, cycling, or bus. Sandringham is the King's place in the country, and where he leads a village with his family, now augmented by his grandson Prince Charles. Unlike the State residence of Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle, Sandringham is the King's personal property. It was bought by the Prince Consort in 1861 for Edward VII., then Prince of Wales, fo r £220,000. The money came from the Duchy of Cornwall revenues, which had accumulated during the Prince's minority. n TUDOR PERIOD STYLE Ten years later the old mansion was pulled down and the present house erected. It is a Tudor residence of red brick faced with white stone, with pointed gables in the Elizabethan style. It stands in a 200-acre park. The whole estate totals some 15,000 acres. It is, run as a model estate on up-to-date lines, most of the improvements dating from the brief reign of Edward VIII, now Duke of Windsor. Queen Alexandra spent most of her widowhood at Sandringham, and after her death, King George V kept her boudior in precisely the, same con dition in which she left it. Even a tiny lace handkerchief rested on a side table a just where she had laid it. Fresh flowers were placed in the room every day. Today there is the complete village atmosphere about Sandringham. The shopkeepers are cutting the coupons from the royal household ration book. ROYAL RATION CARD Not the least interesting among those books is Prince Charles' green one, entitling him to the extra milk and the orange juice and other privileges enjoyed by babies and their mothers all over Britain. Mr Jordon, the Wolverton stationmast- ■ er, is particularly busy; and congregations at Sandringham parish church, which the royal household attends, show a distinct increase. And in the Feathers—v not yet State-controlled, there is plenty of talk about the doings up at the big house, and anxious inquiries about the King's steadily improving health. They want to see him about again with a gun.