text: 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 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. Among them were regimental bagpiper 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.
  Governance
  The Hunstanton electoral ward belongs to the Borough Council of King's Lynn and West Norfolk. Its 2011 population was 5,420. Hunstanton has a mayor and a 17-member town council that meets twice a month at Hunstanton Town Hall. The parish was formed as "New Hunstanton" in 1894 from "Hunstanton". On 1 April 1974 "New Hunstanton" parish was renamed "Hunstanton" and "Hunstanton" parish renamed "Old Hunstanton".
  Geology
  The coastal cliffs include the type section of the Hunstanton Formation of lower reddish limestone, which was laid down during the Lower Cretaceous. This is topped by a white chalk layer from the Upper Cretaceous period.
  Climate