at their peak. Many estate buildings were constructed, including cottages for staff, kennels, a school, a rectory and a staff clubhouse, the Babingley. Edward also made Sandringham one of the best sporting estates in England to provide a setting for the elaborate weekend shooting parties that became Sandringham's defining rationale. To increase the amount of daylight available during the shooting season, which ran from October to February, the prince introduced the tradition of Sandringham Time, whereby all the clocks on the estate were set half an hour ahead of GMT. This tradition was maintained until 1936. Edward's entertaining was legendary, and the scale of the slaughter of game birds, predominantly pheasants and partridges, was colossal. The meticulously maintained game books recorded annual bags of between 6,000 and 8,000 birds in the 1870s, rising to bags of over 20,000 a year by 1900. The game larder, constructed for the storage of the carcasses, was inspired by that at Holkham Hall and was the largest in Europe. Guests for Sandringham house parties generally arrived at Wolferton railway station, 2.5 miles from the house, travelling in royal trains that ran from St Pancras Station to King's Lynn and then on to Wolferton. The station served the house from 1862 until its closure in 1969. Thereafter, the Queen and others staying at the house have generally travelled by car from King's Lynn. Edward VII established the Sandringham stud in 1897, achieving considerable success with the racehorses Persimmon and Diamond Jubilee. Neither his son nor his grandsons evinced as much interest in horses, although the stud was maintained; but his great-granddaughter, Elizabeth II, tried to match Edward's equestrian achievements and bred several winners at the Sandringham Stud. On 14 January 1892, Edward's eldest son and heir, Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence and Avondale, died of pneumonia at the house. He is commemorated in the clock tower, which bears an inscription in Latin that translates as "the hours perish and will be charged to our account". George V In his will Edward VII left his widow £200,000 and a lifetime interest in the Sandringham estate. Queen Alexandra's continued occupancy of the "big house" compelled George V, his wife, Queen Mary, and their expanding family to remain at York Cottage in the grounds, in rather "cramped" conditions. Suggestions from courtiers that Queen Alexandra might move out were firmly rebuffed by the King; "It is my mother's