Editing Hunstanton (section)

==History==
[[File:Hunstanton Town Hall and Le Strange statue (geograph 5686415).jpg|thumb|left|[[Hunstanton Town Hall]] and the statue of Henry Styleman Le Strange]]
[[File:St. Edmund's Memorial Chapel, Hunstanton.jpg|thumb|left|Remains of St Edmund's Memorial Chapel in 2016]]
Hunstanton is a 19th-century resort town, initially known as New Hunstanton to distinguish it from the adjacent village of that name. The new town soon exceeded the village in scale and population.

The original settlement, now [[Old Hunstanton]], probably gained its name from the [[River Hun (Norfolk)|River Hun]], which runs to the coast just to the east. It has also been argued that the name originated from "Honeystone", referring to the local red [[carrstone|carr stone]]. The river begins in the grounds of Old Hunstanton Park, which surrounds the moated [[Hunstanton Hall]], the ancestral home of the Le Strange family. Old Hunstanton village is of prehistoric origin and lies near to the head of [[Peddars Way]]. In 1970, evidence of [[Neolithic]] settlement was found. The quiet character of the village remains distinct from its busy sibling and complements it with clifftop walks past a redundant [[Old Hunstanton Lighthouse|lighthouse]] and the ruins of St Edmund's Chapel, built in 1272.

In 1846, [[Henry L'Estrange Styleman Le Strange]] (1815–1862),<ref>Source: Hunstanton Civic Society</ref> decided to develop the area south of Old Hunstanton as a bathing resort. He brought a group of like-minded investors into building a railway line from [[King's Lynn]]. In 1861, Le Strange, as principal landowner, became a director of the railway company. By 1862 the line had been built. Le Strange died that year at the age of 47, leaving his son Hamon to reap the rewards of his efforts. The [[Lynn and Hunstanton Railway]] became one of the most consistently profitable in the country.

Le Strange moved the ancient village cross from Old Hunstanton to a new site in 1846. In 1848 the first main building, the Royal Hotel (now the ''Golden Lion''), was built by Victorian architect, [[William Butterfield]], a friend of Le Strange. Overlooking a sloping green and the sea, and for several years standing alone, it earned the nickname "Le Strange's Folly". In 1850 Le Strange, an amateur architect and painter, appointed a land agent to survey the site and prepare a plan. Le Strange drew and painted a map and a perspective of the scheme, showing shops, a station and a church. He consulted William Butterfield on the design. Their shared passion was for an "Old English" style of architecture for domestic buildings, owing much to medieval precedents and the earnest [[Gothic Revival architecture|Victorian Gothic Revival]]. Hunstanton came to exemplify a 19th-century estate seaside town. Most of the fabric and character of that development survives.

In 1915, during the [[First World War]], Hunstanton was the headquarters of the West Norfolk training programme of the [[Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders]], as they prepared for [[active service]] on the [[Western Front (World War I)|Western Front]].<ref>[[Mary Mackie]]: ''Hunstanton's Highland Heroes: West Norfolk 1915'' (King's Lynn: Morningside Publishers, 2018) {{ISBN|0-95759-782-7}}.</ref> Among them were regimental [[Great Highland bagpipe|bagpipe]]r [[Iain Eairdsidh MacAsgaill]] (1898-1934),  and poet [[Dòmhnall Ruadh Chorùna]] (1887-1967).

Hunstanton was hit badly by the [[North Sea flood of 1953]]. The wall of water on the night of 31 January – 1 February killed 31 people, 16 of them [[United States military]] personnel and their families. There were 35 more victims in neighbouring [[Snettisham]] and [[Heacham]].<ref>''Eastern Daily Press'' memorial issue, 1 February 2013 [http://www.edp24.co.uk/features/the-floods-of-1953-village-and-towns-struck-by-tragedy-1-1833265 Retrieved 8 September 2018.]</ref>