The Little Church at Sandringham

Whilst Maurice was on holiday the other week,we decided to take a drive down to Sandringham,I had been before, but he hadnt so, on a nice sunny morning off we went ...

The thoughts of people all over the world turn towards Sandringham at Christmas when the queen arrives. Here it is that she and her family can be free from the glare of public life and enjoy themselves in peace,walking,shooting,riding,going to Church and wandering freely through the woods and fields enjoying the heather, the trees and the sea.
Sandringham is the winter home of her Majesty the Queen and her family from early December through to February obviously the younger ones dont  stay the whole time, I can imagine much too-ing and fro-ing ! But when they are all together for Christmas, there are about twenty three of them,
Our first visit was to the little Church,'The Church of St Mary Magdalene' up the steps with the handrail, and the lychgate,that we see on TV at Christmas time, when the family worship there on Christmas morning.
There to the right is the grave of the little Prince John, fifth son of King George V and Queen Mary (our Queens uncle).there was a delightful programme on TV, which was repeated again recently, about the life of this little prince, and how he lived his life in a house nearby, on the estate, because he suffered from epilepsy, sadly he died at about fourteen and was buried in the Church yard. another grave stone marks the resting place of Prince Alexander, the tiny son of King Edward and Queen Alexandra
We enter the church by the south door, first looking up at the statue of the guardian angel, above the porch, around the walls of the church are memorial tablets, to all the recent Kings and their Queens, the most recent being one of the Queen Mother. Behind us now is the bell tower in which, is the charming little baptistry,at the base of the tower, and contains a Florentine marble font which was given by KingEdward VII, it was used at the public service in December1990 for the baptism of Princess Eugenie.Walking down the aisle, and on your left the eye is drawn to the magnificent pulpit, which was presented to Queen Alexanda on the occasion her 80th birthday, in December1924.It is built of oak and panelled with solid silver. Near to the pulpit is a silver processional cross, Spanish in origin, and over 460 years old, it was presented by Mr Wanamaker in   1918,Queen Alexandra placed it in the church,in memory of the men from the Sandringham estate who died in the great war of 1914-18,and apparently owing to the beautiful workman ship, the cross is extremely heavy, and difficult to carry in a procession.
Mr Rodman Wanamaker was a great admirerof King Edward VII and of his workfor the cause of peace,He presented the magnificient solid silver alter and bronze alter rails to  Queen Alexandra on May 6 1911,the first aniversary of the death of King EdwardVII

Obviously you are not allowed to take cameras into the church so I hope my words have managed to portray the splendour and sincerity of the church where our Queen and her family worship  ,I will tell you about the house and the museum another time ,I hope you enjoy this ....

With Love Jan xx