Queen enjoys display of knitted Sandringham

The Queen was left impressed by the efforts of a pensioner who has painstakingly created a “knitted Sandringham” version of her Norfolk home.

Margaret Seaman, a 92-year-old great-great grandmother, has spent two years working on the woolly royal residence and during the pandemic was knitting up to 15 hours a day with the aim of fundraising for local hospitals.

When the Queen visited Sandringham recently she toured the display, now on show at her Norfolk home, and appeared to enjoy seeing it recreated in miniature.

The centre-piece is an 18ft-long Sandringham House featuring intricate architecture, chimneys and windows surrounded by knitted trees.

Other landmarks from the Queen’s estate are featured, including St Mary Magdalene Church, where the monarchy attend the Christmas Day service, and there are even knitted members of the royal family.

Mrs Seaman, a widow, said about the Queen viewing her knitted attraction: “That was absolutely wonderful, she seemed to enjoy it very much.”

The 92-year-old from Caister-on-Sea near Great Yarmouth remained tight lipped about further details of her meeting with the monarch but clearly enjoyed the experience.

She added: “I started it two years ago and knitted the main house the first year and then the second year while we were in lockdown I did the remaining buildings the church and the stables and the museum.

“Although we were in lockdown I was never bored, or never wished I could go out or anything, I was quite happy at home knitting Sandringham – I thoroughly enjoyed it.

“I live with my daughter since I lost my husband and I knit all day, she does everything else and looks after me and does all the cooking – and I knit between 12 and 15 hours a day.”

Mrs Seaman’s creation was available to view as a work in progress at the Forum in Norwich and has raised around £3,000 in donations from those impressed by the pensioner’s efforts.

The knitter is fundraising through a JustGiving page for projects at three Norfolk hospitals, including a dedicated breast cancer unit at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital, a maternity bereavement suite at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, King’s Lynn and a community improvement project at the James Paget University Hospital Gorleston-on-Sea.

Visitors to Sandringham will be able to make a make a donation to the projects and the knitted display forms part of a visit to Sandringham House until October 14.