Queen will spend her 96th birthday in beloved Prince Philip's quaint home

The Queen will spend her 96th birthday on Thursday at Sandringham in the ‘modest’ farmhouse Prince Philip made his home during his retirement

  • The Queen will spend her birthday this week at late husband Philips’s home
  • Sandringham estate has been a favourite of the monarch since she was young
  • She is expected to celebrate in a low-key way – as is typical for the 96-year-old
  • Prince Charles has taken over the running of the expansive estate in recent years

The Queen is to spend her 96th birthday tomorrow at her beloved late husband’s home at Sandringham.

The monarch will travel to the Norfolk estate by helicopter today and stay at Wood Farm – the ‘modest’ farmhouse that Prince Philip made his home following his retirement from public life – until early next week.

It is expected she will be visited by family and friends over the next few days to celebrate in a typically ‘low-key’ way.

The monarch will travel to the Norfolk estate by helicopter today and stay at Wood Farm – the ‘modest’ farmhouse that Prince Philip made his home following his retirement from public life

The monarch will travel to the Norfolk estate by helicopter today and stay at Wood Farm – the ‘modest’ farmhouse that Prince Philip made his home following his retirement from public life

While in Norfolk, she is likely to spend time visiting her Royal Stud and being driven around her 20,000-acre estate, which was extensively modernised by Philip and more recently Prince Charles, who has taken over its running.

Buckingham Palace is not planning any kind of major public engagement to mark her birthday but there will be tributes from family members and the organisations she has been involved with.

Her short holiday will be taken as an encouraging sign given her recent health and mobility issues which have seen her forced to pull out of a string of engagements.

She has no major confirmed engagements in her diary and is not even sure what events to mark her Platinum Jubilee in June she will be in a position to commit to.

The Queen has strong emotional ties to Sandringham, which was adored by her late father George VI.

She would often join the Duke of Edinburgh, who lived at the farmhouse from 2017 after retiring, enjoying quiet time away from the spotlight as a relatively ordinary married couple.

The prince lived in the five-bedroom property, which he modernised and added a new kitchen to, from 2017 after retiring from public life.

Although the arrangement seemed strange to some, the Queen felt strongly that her husband had earned his freedom and privacy after decades of dutiful royal service.

And it made the time they spent there all the more precious.

The Queen is the longest reigning British monarch in history and the longest serving female monarch in the world.

source: dailymail.co.uk