Sandringham in Norfolk

Anyone who has ever watched the news in the UK on Christmas Day morning will have seen the camera focussed on an old stone gateway, waiting for the appearance of the royal family. This is the church on the royal Sandringham Estate in Norfolk.

Date of visit: June 2016 | 6 minute read time

We had decided to spend our first four nights away at the Sandringham Caravan Club site which is located within the Royal Estate.

A friend thought we were mad going on such a long distance for a first trip. My Mum thought we were sensible for going on a short trip – she and my Dad drove to the south of France on their first ever caravan trip. They broke a jar of pickled beetroot on the way (not the best thing to spill) but purple staining aside they made it there and back without any other drama. My parents are still not sure why they took pickled beetroot with them.

Our maiden voyage

I had downloaded The Caravan Club checklist and with my clipboard in hand directed us through each item – re-checking every point until I drove everyone mad.

As we live in Hertfordshire, we’re only a couple of hours drive away from Norfolk, which is famously flat with reasonable roads. The worst part of the journey was negotiating our way out of our cul-de-sac road!

Our house was built in 1969 on a typical housing estate of the era, at a time when people owned one car if they were lucky. There are cars and vans littered everywhere along the tight bends of our narrow road but fortunately we made it through them and have since got this down to a fine art.

We were about 30 minutes into our trip, when we heard something every caravaner dreads – an unidentified scraping noise! We pulled over and were shocked to see that the jockey wheel had slid down and was scraping along the road. This was not to be the last time this would happen but fortunately no damage was done this time.

On site at Sandringham

Eventually we arrived on site and chose a pitch. The site is surrounded by trees and close to many attractions such as Sandringham House and parkland, Oxborough Hall, Hunstanton and Kings Lynn.

Immediately we noticed that everything was orderly and peaceful with immaculate facilities and helpful wardens. The bonus was a fish and chip van which was due to visit that evening!

We started to set up our new home for the next five nights and most things went smoothly with a few exceptions.

Our hose for filling our water tank didn’t fit the taps on site. We soon discovered that we had to buy a short white plastic tube from reception to channel the water into the tank. It worked but we’ve never encountered this again or used the tube since! It’s now one of a number of random ‘one-hit wonder items’ contained in the front box of our caravan.

TV reception was non-existent but you could plug an aerial cable into the bollard – another trip to reception to buy a cable which has been used many times since. Trees are a picturesque addition to many sites but they ruin the TV reception!

Awnings are often called a ‘divorce in a bag’ and we were determined that we would be a collaborative team putting ours up. We had inherited it from my Mum and Dad – they had helpfully labelled all the poles but we had no instructions! We worked it out eventually and managed to finish construction within an hour.

It was time for dinner and Spencer eagerly headed off to the fish and chip van. Half an hour passed and I wondered where he was. I tried to ring but then realised there was no mobile signal, so set off to track him down.

I arrived at the fish and chip van to find him surrounded by a small group of people who were laughing hysterically at everything he was saying. He can be amusing but the reactions of his audience implied he was the next big thing in stand-up – it was surreal!

Apparently the wait for food was long and he decided to start chatting to other people waiting. He wasn’t sure why they found what he said so amusing – perhaps this passes for entertainment in Norfolk? Was everyone going mad with hunger and tortured by the delicious smell of chips? It was worth the wait anyway – the food was delicious!

Out and about nearby

Sandringham House is the country retreat of the British Royal family and is part of a working Estate with a focus on conservation.

We didn’t bother going into the house but enjoyed the peaceful gardens and Harrison loved the statues!

Harrison standing facing a statue of Father Time in Sandringham House Gardens.

Spencer, Claire and Harrison in front of Sandringham House.

Claire standing at the gate of Sandringham Church.

Front lawn of Sandringham House with ornamental trees and lake.

We did venture into Hunstanton, a traditional British seaside resort complete with donkeys on the beach and amusements for rainy days, but didn’t stay for long as it was a bit too commercial for us.

We decided to visit Old Hunstanton beach instead – a lovely beach backed by dunes and cliffs. On this particular day it was also shrouded in the type of fog that looked like the ghosts of pirates would come swirling out of it.

Harrison decided to run off into the fog and through the rock pools with his trainers on! I ran after him and Spencer was left with a load of bags and beach stuff. I’m not sure why we took everything down to the beach with us – perhaps we were planning on sitting and watching the fog?

Eventually we came back up the beach to find that Spencer had gone back to the car and was waiting for me with a mug of tea. He has an uncanny knack of finding the nearest hot beverages wherever we go!

Our final visit was to Norfolk Lavender at Heacham – the local destination for all things lavender related! The lavender farm was started in 1932 with 13,000 plants and grows almost 100 acres of lavender, which is used in their product range.

Spencer is obsessed with lavender to the point that he insisted we fill the front garden of our previous home with it. It went out of control and we had to dig it up eventually. We still grow it now but safely contained in planters.

Unfortunately the lavender had been harvested when we visited in June. Despite this it was a still a good place to while away a few hours wandering in the gardens, drinking coffee and buying lots of lavender themed gifts!