A 93-year-old who created a knitted version of the Queen’s Sandringham House said she “couldn’t stop shaking” when she learnt she had been included in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list.
Great-great grandmother Margaret Seaman, from Caister-on-Sea in Norfolk, has raised more than £100,000 for charities in the last seven years by displaying her woolly works.
She spent two years working on her Sandringham model and was knitting for up to 15 hours a day with the aim of fundraising for local hospitals during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The finished knitted Sandringham was displayed at the Queen’s Norfolk home, where it was viewed by the monarch who appeared to enjoy seeing it recreated in miniature.
![Knitted Sandringham exhibition – Norfolk](https://www.irishnews.com/resizer/v2/C6TBAZVB2NJGBBTH6W6XL32ZNU.jpg?auth=9a8de246240ac97d2461358e3cefe60a76e14926a5f745eddf33bca62a0ab7da&width=800&height=385)
The centre-piece, an 18ft-long Sandringham House, featured intricate architecture, chimneys and windows surrounded by knitted trees.
Other landmarks from the Queen’s estate featured, including St Mary Magdalene Church – where the monarchy attend the Christmas Day service, and there were even knitted members of the royal family.
Mrs Seaman previously crafted a model hospital called Knittingale – as Nightingale hospitals were set up around the country – to raise funds for the NHS.
She said she used 34 balls of wool, and knitted 59 figures to go inside the hospital – including doctors, nurses and patients.
![Knitted Sandringham exhibition – Norfolk](https://www.irishnews.com/resizer/v2/OZLUXPXB2NPZNHQLKKXW2IVBAQ.jpg?auth=e35b4551e76efc266dfd9229149e7486a3d8b623c8a7682120fbc81a6fb027d6&width=800&height=531)
The model also featured four wards, an A&E department, X-ray unit, fracture clinic, a cafe, a helicopter landing pad, car park and flower beds.
She has also created a knitted version of Great Yarmouth seafront.
Mrs Seaman is to be awarded a British Empire Medal in the Queen’s Birthday Honours for her services to her local community.
Mrs Seaman said: “It still amazes me that people are so interested in my knitting.
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“I just love a big challenge and I like to keep myself busy.
“I never dreamed it would lead to all this excitement.
“It all started about seven years ago when I started knitting for charity and I decided to knit things that were important to local people and to me.
“Fortunately, the Makers Festival at the Forum (in Norwich) gave me plenty of space.
![Knitted Sandringham exhibition – Norfolk](https://www.irishnews.com/resizer/v2/AUFYJKOKKJNSPGHXTJLOBZBAGY.jpg?auth=4c05af37fb600bf6f9e0815a3769537d54ed6aa61333fc078363d10b570e62e4&width=800&height=1024)
“It’s been one adventure after another and when I was invited to display my Knitted Sandringham at the real Sandringham, and I even met the Queen, which was a dream come true, I thought that would be that.
“But when the letter came through the door saying I had been named in the Jubilee Birthday honours I literally couldn’t stop shaking and I lost the power of speech.”
Jayne Evans, of the Norfolk Makers Festival- where Mrs Seaman’s creations have been displayed, said: “Margaret has wowed the crowds at our festival for years now, each time amazing us all with her creativity, vision, dedication and energy.
“She is a role model for both older people and younger generations and has become like a dear grandmother to me.
“Everyone at The Forum is thrilled that she is being awarded this honour.
“It’s well deserved.”