Hunstanton Hall, Old Hunstanton,

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...

, England is a

country house An English country house is a large house or mansion in the English countryside. Such houses were often owned by individuals who also owned a town house. This allowed them to spend time in the country and in the city—hence, for these peopl ...

dating originally from the 15th century. The gatehouse, now detached from the main building, is dated 1487. The wings were built in the seventeenth century and there are Victorian additions. The house was the ancestral home of the L'Estrange family, resident from the time of Domesday until after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. During the early 20th century,

P. G. Wodehouse Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, ( ; 15 October 188114 February 1975) was an English author and one of the most widely read humorists of the 20th century. His creations include the feather-brained Bertie Wooster and his sagacious valet, Jeeve ...

, a friend of Charles Le Strange, was a frequent visitor and the hall features in his novel '' Money for Nothing'' (1928) and his collection of short stories ''

Very Good, Jeeves ''Very Good, Jeeves'' is a collection of eleven short stories by P. G. Wodehouse, all featuring Jeeves and Bertie Wooster. It was first published in the United States on 20 June 1930 by Doubleday, Doran, New York, and in the United Kingdom on 4 J ...

'' (1930). The hall has also been suggested as a model for

Blandings Castle Blandings Castle is a recurring fictional location in the stories of British comic writer P. G. Wodehouse, being the seat of Lord Emsworth (Clarence Threepwood, 9th Earl of Emsworth), home to many of his family and the setting for numerous ta ...

. The building suffered two major fires, in 1853 and 1947. In 1948, the hall was sold and converted into apartments. Hunstanton Hall is a

Grade I listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

History

According to

William Dugdale Sir William Dugdale (12 September 1605 – 10 February 1686) was an English antiquary and herald. As a scholar he was influential in the development of medieval history as an academic subject. Life Dugdale was born at Shustoke, near Coleshi ...

's ''Baronage of England'' Guy L'Estrange arrived with

William the Conqueror William I; ang, WillelmI (Bates ''William the Conqueror'' p. 33– 9 September 1087), usually known as William the Conqueror and sometimes William the Bastard, was the first House of Normandy, Norman List of English monarchs#House of Norman ...

as an officer in the service of Flaald and was granted lands in Norfolk. The accuracy of Dugdale's account of the family's early history has been questioned as it appears to derive from an English version of the French romance of

Fulk FitzWarin Fulk FitzWarin (1160x1180 – c. 1258), variant spellings ( Latinized ''Fulco filius Garini'', Welsh ''Syr ffwg ap Gwarin''), the third (Fulk III), was a prominent representative of a marcher family associated especially with estates in Shrops ...

. By the 15th century the family were established as significant local magnates,

Hamon le Strange Sir Hamon le Strange (1583 – 31 May 1654) was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1614 and 1626. He supported the Royalist cause in the English Civil War. His family were Norfolk gentry long based at ...

(1583-1654) undertaking the construction of the Jacobean wings of the hall between 1625 and 1640. He served as MP for

and was a committed

Royalist A royalist supports a particular monarch as head of state for a particular kingdom, or of a particular dynastic claim. In the abstract, this position is royalism. It is distinct from monarchism, which advocates a monarchical system of governm ...

. His wife, Alice was a notable early estate manager; her accounts and records of life, income and expenditure at Hunstanton were published by the Norfolk Record Society in 2015.

Henry L'Estrange Styleman Le Strange Henry L'Estrange Styleman Le Strange (1815–1862), in early life Henry Styleman, was an English decorative painter. He is now remembered as the developer of the town of Hunstanton, Norfolk, as a coastal resort. Life Born on 25 January 1815, he w ...

(1815-1862) founded the town of Hunstanton as a Victorian seaside resort. In the early 20th century,

, a friend of Charles Le Strange, was a regular guest at the hall. A number of his works used the hall as the basis for fictional houses, in particular, Rudge Hall in the 1928 novel, '' Money for Nothing''. Some critics have also suggested Hunstanton as the basis for

, although other country houses have stronger claims. The hall was certainly the basis model for Anchorstone Hall in

L. P. Hartley Leslie Poles Hartley (30 December 1895 – 13 December 1972) was a British novelist and short story writer. Although his first fiction was published in 1924, his career was slow to take off. His best-known novels are the '' Eustace and Hilda'' ...

's first novel, ''The Shrimp and the Anemone'', published in 1944. The hall is now subdivided as apartments. Public access is limited.

Architecture and description

Hunstanton Hall is a moated house, mainly of two storeys. The principal construction materials are

clunch Clunch is a traditional building material of chalky limestone rock used mainly in eastern England and Normandy. Clunch distinguishes itself from archetypal forms of limestone by being softer in character when cut, such as resembling chalk in lo ...

and

carrstone Carrstone (or carstone, also known as Silsoe, heathstone, ironstone or gingerbread) is a sedimentary sandstone conglomerate formed during the Cretaceous period. It varies in colour from light to dark rusty ginger. Used as a building stone it can be ...

. Its building history is complex, with elements dating from the 15th, 17th and 19th centuries. Two major fires, in the mid-19th and mid-20th centuries, led to structural losses and reconstruction. The first hall dates from the late 15th century. Its only remaining element is the gatehouse, dating to the 1480s. The entrance archway is of 1623–1624, of the same building period as the Jacobean ranges of 1625–1640. There are later Victorian additions, mainly as a result of the 1853 fire.

Nikolaus Pevsner Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner (30 January 1902 – 18 August 1983) was a German-British art historian and architectural historian best known for his monumental 46-volume series of county-by-county guides, ''The Buildings of England'' (1 ...

and Bill Wilson, in their ''Norfolk 2: North-West and South'' volume of the

Buildings of England The Pevsner Architectural Guides are a series of guide books to the architecture of Great Britain and Ireland. Begun in the 1940s by the art historian Sir Nikolaus Pevsner, the 46 volumes of the original Buildings of England series were publish ...

series, note the involvement of Thomas Thorpe and William Edge in the Jacobean rebuilding. The later Victorian work, much in a

High Victorian Gothic High Victorian Gothic was an eclectic architectural style and movement during the mid-late 19th century. It is seen by architectural historians as either a sub-style of the broader Gothic Revival style, or a separate style in its own right. Promo ...

style, has been tentatively attributed to

Frederick Preedy Frederick Preedy (2 June 1820 – 28 March 1898) was an architect and glass painter in England. Life Preedy was born in Offenham near Evesham in Worcestershire and died at his son's home in Croydon. During his early life his family moved from ...

Listing designations

Historic England Historic England (officially the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England) is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. It is tasked wit ...

is the statutory body with responsibility for the listing of buildings in England. It uses a three-tier rating system, classifying listed buildings into three categories; Grade I, the highest grade, for buildings of “exceptional interest”, Grade II*, the next grade, for buildings of “more than special interest”, and Grade II, the lowest grade, for buildings of “special interest”. The hall, including the gatehouse, is a

. The 17th century porch and the entrance archway are also listed Grade I. The Stable Court, Stable Cottage,

Game Larder A game larder, also sometimes known as a deer or venison larder, deer, venison or game house, game pantry or game store, is a small domestic outbuilding where the carcasses of game, including deer, game birds, hares and rabbits, are hung to matur ...

, and barn, are all listed Grade II, as are the pairs of Gate piers. The Octagon, a garden summerhouse which features in one of Wodehouse's works, is listed Grade II*. The gardens and parkland surrounding the hall are listed Grade II on the

Register of Historic Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England The Register of Historic Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England provides a listing and classification system for historic parks and gardens similar to that used for listed buildings. The register is managed by Historic England ...

Notes

References

Sources

* * {{cite book , last1 = Pevsner , first1 = Nikolaus , last2 = Wilson , first2 = Bill , authorlink1 = Nikolaus Pevsner , title = Norfolk 2: North-west and South , series = The Buildings Of England , year = 2002 , url = https://www.worldcat.org/title/norfolk-2-north-west-and-south/oclc/1101266459?referer=br&ht=edition , publisher =

Yale University Press Yale University Press is the university press of Yale University. It was founded in 1908 by George Parmly Day, and became an official department of Yale University in 1961, but it remains financially and operationally autonomous. , Yale Universi ...

, location = New Haven, US and London , isbn = 978-0-300-09657-6 , oclc = 1101266459 Grade I listed houses Grade I listed buildings in Norfolk