Charles Penny was born at Handley in Dorset around 1828. He started work at the age of 9 as a bricklayer's lad and by his early teens was employed by his father to mind a turnpike gate. He later claimed that on one occasion he had opened the gate for Queen Victoria and thought how nice it would be to be the gardener of a King!
At the age of 16 he was apprenticed in the gardens of Lord Rivers at Rushmoor and four years later he apprenticed himself for three years at Wheeler's Nursery at Warminster. In his own words he then 'went to prison' for 12 months having taken charge of the gardens of the Governor of Salisbury Gaol. It was about this time that he married Elizabeth, a Somerset woman six years older than he, and went to Wilton where he was foreman under the Countess of Pembroke for nearly six years.
Then followed a move to Stockton where he stayed for almost 20 years, at first as a gardener and bailiff to a Mr Biggs and later as estate manager for Lord Aldenham. He then succeeded in gaining the appointment as head gardener to the Prince of Wales at Sandringham, a post he filled for 17 years.
Upon retirement in 1890 he moved to Salthill, near Lough, for four years before ending his days in a most picturesque cottage facing the green at Eversley in Hampshire.
[Our thanks to Lady de Bellaigue, Registrar, Royal Archives at Windsor Castle for much of this information.]