A glimpse inside the grounds and gardens of Hunstanton Hall

A tour by Heritage Open Days gives rare access to the grounds, the ancestral home of the Le Strange family from the 15th century.

I’ve walked around the grounds outside Hunstanton Hall a few times when it’s open to the public on a Thursday, which has sparked my curiosity about its history - and I’ll be honest what the gardens are like and the courtyard you can just get a glimpse of.  So a Heritage Open Day tour through the grounds - across the moat and into the courtyard (access to which is only granted once a year) - I have been looking forward to.

It starts at nearby St Mary’s Church, where I meet around 30 others who’re on the tour. A few have interesting links to the area. Andrea Wicks from Oxfordshire tells me her ancestors lived in Old Hunstanton, “They were baptised in this little church and some of them lived in the Le Strange Hall grounds, so I thought it would be nice to see.”

St Mary's Church

Nick Torry, who’s leading the group, then gathers us outside. And the history begins. As we walk he tells us the hall was the ancestral home of the Le Strange family from the 15th century, but was split up and sold off in the late 1950s. The family (now descendant Charles le Strange) still owns a significant portion of the surrounding estate and gardens.

Nick Torry giving the tour

“The gardens were very famous before the first World War,” Nick explains, “You’d have visits from and articles in The Illustrated London News for example. But in the 1930’s they really got neglected tremendously, so they were really overgrown. Until lockdown and Charles le Strange decided to clear all the rubbish out, and renewed them and they're now superb.”

Hunstanton Hall

Before we get to see the gardens though, we are lead to the front of the Hall, and get to enter through the 17th century arched gateway. It’s here we are told a ghost story (I knew they’d be at least one) about ‘the grey lady’.

“The widowed Armine Le Strange Styleman inherited the Hall after her brother Henry died childless,” Nicks says, “The wealthy family owned many treasures and Armine loved a carpet she had been given by the Shah of Persia.”

He goes on to say that on her deathbed she issued a threat, that if the carpet was removed she’d come back to haunt. Nearly a century later a new mistress (oblivious to the threat) chopped it into pieces to distribute to the local poor.

“Her and her husband said candles would blow out and footsteps plodded the corridors - they even saw a menacing face at the window,” Nick adds. I’m pleased to say as we get closer to the Hall, I don’t see anything other than impressive curtains at the windows.

We’re then lead across the moat and through the archway of the brick gatehouse, where a small part of the original Elizabethan Hall still stands - most was destroyed by a fire in 1853, but a small section of the porch remains.

Archway of the brick gatehouse

In the courtyard I ask Andrew Murray (also a guide) if he knows who lives in parts of the house now. Andrew tells me he has a friend who does, “I’ve been inside his home, and it is very impressive”. He also informs me that part of the Hall is currently for sale. Sadly I don’t have a spare 2 million.

Courtyard, where part of the Elizabethan hall still stands

Then we are taken to the gardens - part 17th century and part Victorian.  It's where in the 1920’s and 30’s P. G. Wodehouse, a cousin of the le Stranges, often wrote, “With his typewriter on a punt in the moat,” says Andrew.

View from the garden

Julia, who’s on the tour with her son Max tells me she played in the grounds as a child, “A friend’s brother knew the groundsman here, he used to let us in - we’d run around and have adventures.”

We are shown a tunnel entrance, that the family used as a shortcut to get to and from church. “I remember this,” says Julia, “It had a grill at the other end - and we’d grab hold of the bars and say ‘we’re trapped’. I also remember running around the maze, and panicking we couldn’t get out.”

Bench in the maze, in memory of the late Charles Le Strange, 1892-1933

As I stand and take it all in, imagining what it must have been like all those centuries ago, Linda Nudds, who's taking photos says, “In a few weeks my friend’s daughter is getting married here - well at St Mary’s and then they’ll be a marquee here in the garden.” She’s asked Charles le Strange to take the wedding party on a mini tour the day before, which he’s agreed to. How wonderful.

When the tour ends I walk back to St Mary’s with Julia, who continues to reminisce, “A friend lived in this house by the main gate, today’s been quite sentimental for me.” 

I think how important stories are - especially those that can bring a place to life.  And how vital custodians like Charles le Strange are as well, to preserve and maintain these marvellous places steeped in local history.

Thank you Heritage Open Days for a lovely tour.