The King supports King’s Foundation student to preserve heritage craft with rare straw field on Sandringham Estate
His Majesty The King has set aside a field on the Sandringham Estate to grow a rare variety of heritage straw for King’s Foundation millinery graduate, Emily Hurst. She specialises in the endangered heritage skill of straw hat plaiting, which uses a special type of straw needed for this craft called Maris Widgeon. This particular type of straw is extremely difficult to source in the UK, due to the yield not being used commercially like it was in the past.
Emily graduated from the CHANEL and King’s Foundation Métiers d’Art Fellowship in Millinery, based at Highgrove Gardens in 2025, and was the first recipient of Royal Ascot’s annual millinery bursary.
After speaking to His Majesty about the challenges facing her craft at Highgrove in February 2024, The King generously offered Emily some space to grow the straw on the Sandringham Estate. The seeds were sown at Sandringham last summer and it was harvested last month using a World War II combine harvester, to cut the straw at ground level and preserve the length. This is the first time that The King has dedicated space on his private estate to support a student from The King’s Foundation.
Emily will use the straw to make a collection of handmade straw hats, using traditional heritage techniques, with the designs being inspired by Sandringham Estate and Highgrove Gardens.
Emily spent seven months studying on the CHANEL and The King’s Foundation Métiers d’Art Millinery Fellowship based at Highgrove. On site at Highgrove Gardens, we teach traditional skills such as millinery, embroidery and furniture making, helping to preserve these heritage skills and inspire the next generation of talent.
The straw will be used to create a very special collection of handmade straw hats which will be sold at the Highgrove Shop and Sandringham Estate Shop, with proceeds being donated to The King’s Foundation.
“I feel very lucky and fortunate that The King has been so generous in supporting my craft by growing a field of straw for me at the Sandringham Estate. I will be creating a collection of hats using traditional heritage skills which are at risk of being lost. These skills are ones that I developed whilst I was studying at Highgrove with The King’s Foundation and CHANEL, and I thank them for their continued support.”
Emily Hurst, Milliner and graduate of The King’s Foundation
“The King is a true champion of craft, and I am so looking forward to designing and making this new collection, which I hope he will like.”