A Sandringham Water Tower stay turned into an unexpectedly eventful royal-adjacent weekend for one writer who booked into the restored Victorian tower on the estate grounds, only to be ambushed by corgis (and possibly a prince) on the way out.
The tower, originally constructed in 1877 to supply fresh water to Sandringham House and the surrounding estate, has been restored and opened as an overnight accommodation for two, available exclusively through Oliver’s Travels. Rates start from £159 a night, with weekly bookings beginning at £1,500, according to Travel Daily Media. And as Yahoo Travel reports, the turret suite joins two other guest accommodations on the estate available through the same booking group, making the Water Tower one of a small and rather special collection of places where you can genuinely sleep within the Sandringham gates.
What a Sandringham Water Tower Stay Actually Looks Like
The property arrives at dusk looking, by the writer’s own account, like something from a children’s book. Inside, historic photographs of the royal family line the entrance, alongside memorabilia including a bottle presented to the King on the occasion of his coronation from The Reffley Society. A set of Emma Bridgewater mugs illustrated with Sandringham scenes proved a particular draw, while the bedroom and living room, both painted in duck egg blue and filled with tartan blankets and rustic furniture, had reportedly been curated by Annabel Elliot, Queen Camilla’s younger sister and interior designer.
Getting to the top takes considerably longer than expected. The reward is a view across Sandringham’s 20,000 acres, taken in while sipping the King’s own apple juice as nearby cattle settled in for the evening. The 32,000-gallon cast-iron tank sits at the tower’s crown, a reminder of just how much Victorian engineering is keeping this romantic retreat aloft.
The peaceful scene was briefly shattered when a text arrived from the Tatler features director alerting the writer to breaking news about the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. A picture of Queen Mary of Teck looked on from the wall as the laptop came out. Such is the particular atmosphere of the Sandringham Water Tower stay: history and headlines, stacked on top of each other.
The Tour, the Tatler Copies and the Corgi Encounter
The following day brought a tour of Sandringham House itself, available to visitors when the King is not in residence. The route begins along the same path the royal family walks to Mary Magdalene Church on Christmas Day. In the gardens, guides explain how Charles has planted many new trees where Queen Elizabeth II preferred a clear sightline from the Jacobean windows, and that the gardening team has grown by ten under his reign. The tour guide noted that the team often knows the King has paid a surprise visit only when they find freshly pruned debris left behind: he cuts, but he does not tidy up.
Inside the house, the writer spotted two copies of Tatler in one of the rooms and asked the tour guide whether this confirmed the King’s readership. The response: ‘We can’t confirm or deny,’ delivered with what was described as a glint in the eye.
The day ended with a Sandringham Gin and tonic, made using botanicals grown in the estate gardens, before the party boarded a golf buggy back to the main gates as rain began to fall. They were, they believed, the last visitors left inside the grounds. Then a group of corgis ran to their feet (described as Queen Elizabeth II’s last remaining corgis) followed by a man in a hat calling them back. The tour guides, when asked whether the man was Andrew Mountbatten Windsor, offered their now-familiar line: ‘We can’t confirm or deny.’
It was not the royal encounter the writer had planned for, she had arrived hoping to spot James, Earl of Wessex, who had recently been hired as a farmhand on the estate, but an encounter of sorts it undoubtedly was. The Water Tower is available to book now through Oliver’s Travels, at £159 a night, corgis not guaranteed.
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