Built as a water tower after royal illnesses, this strange 1877 structure is now a luxury retreat on the Sandringham estate

There’s a quirky tower rising from the treetops at Sandringham that looks more like something from a storybook than a relic of Victorian engineering. That’s Appleton Water Tower, rising above the trees on the Sandringham Estate in Norfolk: an eight-sided, red-brick creation topped with ornamental flourishes and once overshadowed by a vast, 32,000-gallon cast-iron tank.