Platinum Jubilee: Why did the Queen spend Accession Day at Sandringham?
For more than 100 years, the Sandringham Estate in Norfolk has been a special place for the Royal family to spend time.
The Queen and her family spend several weeks there every year, usually over Christmas and up until at least 6 February - the date when the then-Princess Elizabeth acceded to the throne.
This year it will be particularly special as Queen Elizabeth II will return there to mark her Platinum Jubilee.
Why Sandringham?
It was the Queen's grandfather, King George V, who started the tradition of spending the holidays at the Norfolk estate.
The Royal family acquired the 24-hectare estate in 1862 when it was bought as a country home for Edward VII, then Prince of Wales, and his soon-to-be wife, Alexandra of Denmark.
King George V, described the house as "dear old Sandringham, the place I love better than anywhere else in the world".
It was also the place where he died, on 20 January 1936.
His son and Queen Elizabeth's father, George VI, also passed away in the house on 6 February, 1952.
She was on a tour of Kenya when the news of her father's death reached her, marking her accession to the throne, and she has made a tradition of being at Sandringham for the anniversary.
The estate was used for royal shooting parties, where King Edward VII, ordered that the clocks be set half an hour earlier than GMT in order to increase the amount of daylight there was for hunting.
This came to be known as "Sandringham time" and was kept from 1901 to 1936, when the clocks were returned to GMT time by King Edward VIII.
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The estate was passed on to Queen Elizabeth II, when The Duke of Edinburgh took overall responsibility for its management.
One of his principles has been to maintain the estate for future generations, so conservation has always been an important part of it.
When does the Queen stay at Sandringham?
Before the pandemic, the Queen had spent 32 Christmases in a row at Sandringham.
The Queen normally lives at Sandringham House from the Christmas holidays until February, arriving and leaving from the nearby King's Lynn train station.
Prince Philip, who retired in 2017, also spent a lot of time on the Sandringham Estate, living in the cottage Wood Farm within the grounds. But he stays in the main house with the Queen when she was there.
No other members of the royal family live at Sandringham House full time, but many of them do stay over the Christmas.
The Queen's Speech
In 1957, Queen Elizabeth II also gave her first televised Christmas message from Sandringham. It marked the 25th anniversary of her grandfather George V’s first royal Christmas broadcast on the radio.
“I wish you all, young and old, wherever you may be, all the fun and enjoyment and the peace of a very happy Christmas,” said the Queen.
Visiting the estate
During her Silver Jubilee in 1977, Queen Elizabeth II opened the house to the public.
Now, people can visit the estate’s 600 acres of gardens or learn more about royal life and the history of Sandringham at the estate museum.