Place:Hunstanton, Norfolk, England

source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names

source: Family History Library Catalog

the text in this section is based on an article in Wikipedia

Hunstanton is a seaside town in Norfolk, England and had a population of 4,229 at the 2011 UK census. It faces west across The Wash, making it one of the few places on the east coast where the sun can be seen setting over the sea. Hunstanton is 102 miles (164 km) north-northeast of London, 40 miles (64 km) northwest of Norwich and 69 miles (111 km) east of Nottingham.

Hunstanton is a 19th-century resort town, initially known as New Hunstanton to distinguish it from the adjacent old village from which it took its name. The new town soon exceeded the village in scale and population.

The original settlement of Hunstanton, now known as Old Hunstanton, probably gained its name from the River Hun, which runs to the coast just to the east of New Hunstanton. The river begins in the grounds of Old Hunstanton Park which surrounds the old moated 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. The quiet character of the village remains distinct from its busy sibling and complements it with clifftop walks past a privately owned redundant lighthouse and the ruins of St Edmund's Chapel, built in 1272.

In 1846, Henry Styleman Le Strange (1815–1862), decided to develop the area south of Old Hunstanton as a sea-bathing resort. He persuaded a group of like-minded investors to fund the construction of a railway line from King's Lynn to the town, to bring tourists and visitors. This was a great success – the Lynn and Hunstanton Railway became one of the most consistently profitable railway companies in the country. In 1861, Le Strange, as principal landowner, became a director of the railway company and by 1862 the line had been built. Hunstanton was ready to take off commercially. However, Le Strange died in the same year at the age of 47 and it was left to his son Hamon to reap the rewards of his efforts. The Le Strange family has been traced in WeRelate for several generations before Henry Styleman Le Strange who appears in this family as Henry L'Estrange Styleman.

For a period 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 in France.

Hunstanton was badly hit by the North Sea Flood of 1953. As a result of the wall of water on the night of 31 January – 1 February, 31 people were killed in the town, of whom 16 were American servicemen and their families.

Hunstanton was an urban district during the period 1894-1974. In 1974 it became part of the King's Lynn and West Norfolk District.Its two ecclesiastical parishes are Hunstanton St. Edmund and Hunstanton St. Mary (both redirected here). In 1963 New Hunstanton and Old Hunstanton were made separate civil parishes.

Research Tips

• GENUKI provides a list of references for Hunstanton. Some entries lead to free online transcriptions of registers and censuses.
• A map illustrating the individual parishes of Smithdon Hundred may be useful.
• GENUKI also advises that the following lists for Norfolk are to be found in FamilySearch:

• England, Norfolk, Parish Registers (County Record Office), 1510-1997
• England, Norfolk Archdeacon's Transcripts, 1600-1812
• England, Norfolk Bishop's Transcripts, 1685-1941
• England, Norfolk Marriage Bonds, 1557-1915
• England, Norfolk Non-conformist Records, 1613-1901

• Ancestry.co.uk has the following lists as of 2018 (UK or worldwide Ancestry membership or library access required). With the exception of the index to wills these files are browsible images of the original documents. The files are separated by type and broken down into time periods (i.e., "Baptism, Marriages, and Burials, 1535-1812" is more than one file). The general explanatory notes are worth reading for those unfamiliar with English parish records.

• Index to wills proved in the Consistory Court of Norwich : and now preserved in the District Probate Registry at Norwich
• Norfolk, England, Bishop's Transcripts, 1579-1935
• Norfolk, England, Church of England Baptism, Marriages, and Burials, 1535-1812
• Norfolk, England, Church of England Births and Baptisms, 1813-1915
• Norfolk, England, Church of England Deaths and Burials, 1813-1990
• Norfolk, England, Church of England Marriages and Banns, 1754-1940

• FindMyPast is another pay site with large collection of parish records. As of October 2018 they had 20 types of Norfolk records available to browse including Land Tax Records and Electoral Registers.