The history of Hunstanton 2

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Hunstanton Bed and Breakfast - Bed and Breakfast in Hunstanton - B&B Hunstanton Bed and Breakfast

Bed and breakfast accommodation, Hunstanton, Norfolk

BED & BREAKFAST ACCOMMODATION IN HUNSTANTON

Bed and breakfast accommodation Hunstanton

       emaining firmly in touch with modern trends, Henry knew that crucial to the success of his new town was the extension of the railway beyond King’s Lynn, fifteen miles to the south west. But after an initial flying start the Railway age had spluttered to a halt. The depressed economy of the country had led to a collapse of railway stocks and a halt to the building of any new lines Attracting the investment necessary to make the Hunstanton project a reality was proving impossible without the vital connection to the rail network. Even renaming the New Inn as The Golden Lion did not do the trick.

Henry Le Strange was also a talented artist with a keen interest in church music and architecture and he spent time now pursuing these other passions of his. He worked for several years on a series of paintings to decorate the ceiling of Ely Cathedral. Despite his

immense wealth and privilege Henry spent long uncomfortable hours laying on his back at the top of scaffolding, often in the perishing cold,breathing in the dangerous fumes of the paints and solvents, while he carefully and painstakingly worked to produce the fine paintings which are admired to this day.

Despite the gloomy outlook Henry continued to work on the project, laying out roads and marking out building plots. He even decided, rather wistfully, on the site for the railway station. Together with William Butterfield he drew up plans for grand terraces of housing, designed in his favourite Gothic revival style and all to be built using the attractive locally quarried carrstone.

And then, in 1856, the idea of a branch line connecting King’s Lynn with the, as yet unbuilt, resort of Hunstanton St Edmunds, became a distinct possibility. With this the whole project was once again kick started into life. Before the building of the line could proceed however, the money to finance construction had to be raised. With Henry driving things forward the land required was quickly found (mostly donated by Henry himself) and the Lynn Hunstanton Railway Company was formed by Henry along with several other wealthy businessmen and landowners. The company eventually came up with the £85000 required so that, on 13th November 1861, work was finally able to began.

The works progressed quickly and smoothly and as the railway constructors neared Hunstanton the area around the new station became a huge and bustling building site. With little over a month to go before the great day when the King’s Lynn to Hunstanton St Edmunds branch line would officially be opened, Henry Le Strange dined with his sister in law at her house in Portland Place, London.

     enry, one would imagine, must have spoken excitedly over dinner of all that was happening on his Norfolk estate and of how his vision for a brand new seaside resort was fast becoming a reality. But with the evening drawing to a close, and as he was rising to leave and return to his own house, he had suddenly collapsed to the floor. A doctor was summoned but on his arrival found that Henry was dead. He had died from a massive heart attack at only 47 years of age.

All involved in the Hunstanton project were stunned at the news. Nonetheless, just 37 days later, at 10.05 am on the 3rd of October 1862, the first train steamed into the brand new Hunstanton St Edmunds station. The line had been completed in just ten months, on time and on budget. Tragically though, the man whose dream it had all been was not present to witness the event. But along with the dignitaries greeting the trains arrival were Henry’s widow, Jamesina, and their six children. The eldest of these was Hamon and he inherited the titles and the estate, ironically at the same age as his father had before him.

Just as Henry had foreseen, the railway was an instant success. With Hamon taking over from where his father’s untimely death had left it, the Hunstanton St Edmunds project continued unabated. The roads and imposing terraces that Henry had designed were developed and the town began to grow, as planned, around the railway station and two sides of the triangular Green. The houses that were built were

constructed, to Henry’s specification, in the attractive, honey coloured sandstone known locally as Carrstone. This rock, which forms the lower layer of Hunstanton’s distinctive striped cliffs, is still quarried, as it has been for a thousand years, where it comes to the surface at nearby Snettisham.