The shop on King Charles’s Sandringham Estate (Image: Andrew Papworth/PA)
I’m as tight-fisted as they come when it comes to money, but even I couldn’t resist a bit of retail therapy when visiting King Charles’s very own shop. I was at the monarch’s royal estate in Sandringham, Norfolk, to talk to residents in nearby Wolferton about their controversial new neighbour, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, when I popped in for a quick nose around.
I wasn’t expecting to buy anything, but the moment I walked in, I must confess my desire to count the pennies was severely tested. If I had to sum it up, I would say that it is more like a museum than a shop. But unlike a museum, you can buy all the artefacts. The only thing that perhaps puts you off doing so is that everything is so meticulously presented that you feel like taking a jar of raspberry jam off the shelf somehow ruins the display.
The Sandringham shop is full of Norfolk produce (Image: Andrew Papworth)
One collection of items is displayed on a gorgeous cabinet unit that reads “home sweet home” across the top. You almost want to buy the furniture itself.
It’s like going to a farm shop, but a very boutique one. There’s a ton of local produce you can purchase, from coffee, tea, fruit juice and cake to cider, much of it lovingly made in Norfolk.
But for someone looking for a longer-lasting gift, there are beautiful wool rugs, books on royal history, mugs decorated with paintings of Sandringham, a God Save the King cushion, and more.
You can even leave dressed like King Charles if you want, with tweed scarves and flat caps inspired by the landscape and colours of Sandringham for sale.
The ‘home sweet home’ cabinet displaying a range of royal memorabilia (Image: Andrew Papworth)
But be careful – while you might be pleasantly surprised by the products, you will also be blown away by the prices.
In most shops you go in, everything is broadly in the same price bracket. You know that in John Lewis you’re paying a premium, whereas Primark is cheap and cheerful, for example.
The Sandringham Estate shop has an odd mix. Some things are amazingly cheap, while others are gobsmackingly expensive.
A jar of Sandringham jam, for example, is less than £5 – not the cheapest around, but less than many high-end products. And given you’re getting the royal name, it’s a nice little treat.
A variety of tweed items are on sale at the Sandringham shop (Image: Andrew Papworth)
Items such as Sandringham jam and fruit juice are more affordable (Image: Andrew Papworth)
But a Sandringham tweed cap, made by Johnstons of Elgin, in Scotland, is £59.99, and if you want Bumpa the Sandringham teddy bear, it’ll set you back £130.
The cap might be something you’d shell out extra for to benefit from better quality and fashion style, but in my opinion, the bear is difficult to justify at that price. That said, I imagine the bear is handmade and a collector’s item.
So did I buy anything? I bought a few gifts for loved ones, but I left the tweed cap behind. I don’t think it would’ve suited me anyway…
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‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.express.co.uk ’
