Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor arrest: History of his royal homes – from Wood Farm to Royal Lodge
Following the arrest of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, police searches were being carried out at both Wood Farm and Royal Lodge.
Unmarked police cars were seen at his temporary home on the Sandringham estate in Norfolk.
Plainclothes officers were also at his former home in Windsor Great Park.
Earlier this month, Andrew moved from his home in Windsor to Sandringham Manor.
Here’s a look at the history of the royal houses:
Wood Farm
Andrew temporarily moved into Wood Farm on the King’s private Sandringham estate in Norfolk this month after leaving Royal Lodge, waiting for his new home, Marsh Farm, to be ready nearby.
Her father, Prince Philip, the late Duke of Edinburgh, spent much of his retirement at Wood Farm.
The late Queen once said that her husband “loved” the property and that part of its appeal was that “the sea is so close”.
Located in Wolferton, the facility is located in the far reaches of the vast 20,000-acre estate.
Originally a large farmhouse, it was converted into two cottages and, over the years, used as a regular, unofficial weekend retreat by the royal family, particularly for their annual shooting parties.
Philip is said to have organized the installation of a new kitchen in his modestly furnished country house.
Andrew’s ex-wife Sarah Ferguson was often there alone as a guest of the late Queen over the Christmas period following her split from Andrew in the 1990s.
While the duchess’s children, Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, joined their royal relatives for the festivities at nearby Sandringham House, “Fergie” was exiled to Wood Farm and was not invited.
In his autobiography he described it as “a cozy, open-beamed cottage two miles from the ‘big house'”.
After chatting to the Queen at an event at Sandringham to mark the Platinum Jubilee in 2022, the lodge’s retired maid Teresa Thompson said: “The whole royal family loves Wood Farm because it’s off the road, small and friendly. You don’t have a lot of officials and household people, just close staff.”
“And they can literally relax in the family home, which is wonderful and I had a wonderful 22 years there, it was without a doubt the best time of my life.”
This was where George V’s youngest son, Prince John, moved with his nurse in 1917.
An epileptic, John was isolated from the rest of his family and died of a violent seizure at Wood Farm two years later, at the age of 13.
Royal Pavilion
In the so-called Royal Lodge siege, Andrew has faced mounting pressure to give up his 30-room mansion after it was revealed last year that he had been paying “peppercorn” rent for decades.
She eventually agreed to leave the estate at Windsor Great Park in Berkshire to buy a new home at the King’s private Sandringham estate in the New Year, with Charles personally funding her with an annual salary.
The 19th-century, Grade II-listed Royal Lodge is set in 98 acres of private grounds.
From 1815 it was used as a hunting lodge by the Prince Regent, later George IV.
King William IV had it almost completely destroyed and rebuilt in 1830.
By 1840 it was used as benevolent accommodation for senior members of the royal family.
In the 1930s, it became the rural retreat of Andrew’s grandparents, the Duke and Duchess of York, the Queen Mother and King George VI, and their children, Queen Elizabeth II. Elizabeth and Princess Margaret learned to swim in a pool when they were young.
Part of the Crown Estate, it remained the Queen Mother’s favorite Windsor residence for 50 years, and she died there in 2002.
Andrew later took over the house and used it as his main residence for more than 20 years, after which his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson also moved in.
It was previously a distinctive Windsor pink but Andrew began renovations, including painting it white, after signing a 75-year lease in 2003.
A copy of the lease revealed he had paid £1 million in rent and had since paid rent of just “a peppercorn” a year “on demand”.
