Image: The Royal UK
On her sixth birthday in 1932, Princess Elizabeth, who would later become Queen Elizabeth the Second, received a present that most children could only dream about, a small house of her very own. It offers a charming glimpse of a quieter royal childhood, before the events of 1936 changed everything for her family. The website describes it as a gift from the people of Wales, presented for her sixth birthday in 1932. Princess Elizabeth was born on 21 April 1926 at 17 Bruton Street in Mayfair, London, the home of her maternal grandparents, the Earl and Countess of Strathmore. In its grounds stood Y Bwthyn Bach, the Little Cottage, a gift from the people of Wales for her sixth birthday in 1932. The princess’s earliest years were spent at 145 Piccadilly, the London house her parents took shortly after her birth, and at White Lodge in Richmond Park. In 1930, her sister, Princess Margaret Rose, was born, and the royal website describes the family of four as very close.
Named Y Bwthyn Bach, which means the Little Cottage, it stood in the grounds of Royal Lodge in Windsor Great Park, the country home her parents took over when she was six. The young princess therefore had a small house of her own within the family’s countryside retreat.
Princess Elizabeth was given her own small house in the grounds of Royal Lodge, the country home in Windsor Great Park that her parents had taken over when she was six years old, according to the official royal website. The gift came from the people of Wales. Its name, Y Bwthyn Bach, is Welsh for the Little Cottage. For a young princess whom her family did not expect to become monarch, it was a remarkable present. The website offers no further description of the building, so details such as its rooms and furnishings are not recorded there. She was the first child of the Duke and Duchess of York, who later became King George VI and Queen Elizabeth. When she was six years old, her parents took over Royal Lodge in Windsor Great Park as their own country home. She also spent time at the homes of her paternal grandparents, King George V and Queen Mary, including Windsor Castle, Balmoral Castle and Sandringham House. Her mother’s parents, the Earl and Countess of Strathmore, had homes she visited too, including Glamis Castle in Angus, Scotland, and Saint Paul’s Walden Bury in Hertfordshire. Royal Lodge later became their own country home.
