Last but not least on our Norfolk trip was Sandringham, country retreat of the Royal Family. Visitors are allowed in the house, gardens, and parkland, but our priority was the gardens.
They cover 60 acres and there's a little puzzle over which area to investigate first. Instead of heading directly towards the house, we first headed along a woodland walk which more or less follows the perimeter while affording glimpses of the house.
I'd particularly wanted to see these huge gates as among my parents photo collection is one taken from the opposite angle, outside the gardens; presumably the nearest the public could approach in the 1950s.
Close by the house are the cottage-style flower beds, designed by Geoffrey Jellicoe to give an open view but with privacy in the side-gardens.
The Topiary garden is a new creation, again mixing a formal framework with looser mixed planting within.
Heading round the house, we passed one of the ornamental lakes with a summer house sitting above a waterfall. This would have been a lovely place to have spent the whole day but this was the last day of out holiday and we had to get home.
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