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54-617: The Ridgeway is a ridgeway or ancient trackway described as Britain's oldest road. The section clearly identified as an ancient trackway extends from Wiltshire along the chalk ridge of the Berkshire Downs to the River Thames at the Goring Gap , part of the Icknield Way which ran, not always on the ridge, from Salisbury Plain to East Anglia . The route was adapted and extended as

108-579: A National Trail , created in 1972. The Ridgeway National Trail follows the ancient Ridgeway from Overton Hill , near Avebury , to Streatley , then follows footpaths and parts of the ancient Icknield Way through the Chiltern Hills to Ivinghoe Beacon in Buckinghamshire. The National Trail is 87 miles (140 km) long. For at least 5,000 years travellers have used the Ridgeway. The Ridgeway provided

162-719: A Neolithic chieftain burial tomb; the Uffington White Horse , an ancient 400-foot (120 m) chalk horse carved into the hillside near Uffington Castle; and Grim's Ditch , a 5-mile (8 km) section of earthwork near Mongewell created by Iron Age peoples as a possible demarcation line. Other points of interest include the Blowing Stone and Victory Drive, the private drive of Chequers (the British Prime Minister's country retreat). The Ridgeway's surface varies from chalk-rutted farm paths and green lanes (which have

216-635: A bingo hall before closing again. The Borough Council of King's Lynn and West Norfolk purchased it in 1981, and in honour of Lady Diana Spencer , who married the Prince of Wales in July 1981, it was renamed the Princess Theatre and officially re-opened on 5 July 1981. Hunstanton Concert Band plays in and around Hunstanton at a wide variety of venues including churches, fêtes, concerts and the town's bandstand. The Deaf Havana album Fools and Worthless Liars featured

270-405: 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

324-604: A long promenade. The centrepiece remains the large sloping green from one end of High Street to the promenade. Hunstanton has markets on Wednesdays and Sundays selling fresh fish and fresh fruit and vegetables attract greater visitor numbers in the summer months through to the autumn. The main shopping streets have stone buildings, some with glazed canopies, evoking the Victorian and Edwardian eras of their construction. In good weather, excursion boats take visitors out to view grey and common seals that have colonised sand bars in

378-402: A propensity for becoming extremely muddy and pot-holed after rain) to small sections of metalled roads. Designated as a bridleway (shared with horses and bicycles) for much of its length, the Ridgeway also includes parts designated as byway , which permits the use of motorised vehicles. Local restrictions along many byway sections limit the use of motorised vehicles to the summer months. Under

432-401: A redundant lighthouse and the ruins of St Edmund's Chapel, built in 1272. In 1846, Henry L'Estrange Styleman Le Strange (1815–1862), 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

486-620: A reliable trading route to the Dorset coast and to the Wash in Norfolk . The high dry ground made travel easy and provided a measure of protection by giving traders a commanding view, warning against potential attacks. The Bronze Age saw the development of the Uffington White Horse and the stone circle at Avebury . During the Iron Age , inhabitants took advantage of the high ground by building hillforts along

540-556: A six-week summer season and an annual Christmas pantomime. Films are screened in the week. Opened as the Capitol Cinema in 1932, it is noted for its Norfolk carr stone construction, of which it contains the largest gable wall in existence. It was designed as a theatre as well as a cinema, but closed in the 1960s and was sold in 1974. It reopened as the Kingsley Centre for summer seasons and films for about two years, but declined into

594-407: A target on the skyline. The discomfort of following ridgeways arises from their exposure to harsh weather and the fact that they are rarely level. The ridge line rises and falls. Moreover, at some point the ridge ends, so that the route must descend to ford a stream before rising again to follow the next ridge. Loads on two-wheeled carts had to be constantly shifted to the back during descents and to

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648-421: A track called "Hunstanton Pier", a nostalgic recollection of the town where James Veck-Gilodi, its lead singer, grew up. Between the world wars, P. G. Wodehouse often visited his friend Charles Le Strange at Hunstanton Hall . It influenced a number of locations in his comic novels, as Aunt Agatha 's country seat Woollam Chersey and the inspiration for the setting for Money for Nothing (1928). The octagon in

702-432: A track into the hillside and shored it up against washouts and slips. However, deviations around high peaks were common, usually taking the south side of the peak, presumably because the warmer side was usually drier. On flatter British hills, the line of the tracks often runs a little below the actual crest of the ridge, possibly to afford some shelter from the wind or to avoid travellers presenting themselves to marauders as

756-456: 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 , which runs to the coast just to the east. It has also been argued that the name originated from "Honeystone", referring to

810-426: Is an early building designed by the architects Peter and Alison Smithson , built in 1949–1954 in a radical style of international architectural significance. It is a Grade II* listed building. The school epitomised architectural experiment in post-war Britain and growing acceptance of modernism by public authorities. It was praised for an intelligent layout and formal elegance. The Smithsons deliberately left many of

864-436: Is often exposed and dry because of wind and natural drainage, and vegetation tends to be thinner. Where a beaten track evolves into a busier "road", constant passage by animals, sleds and wheeled vehicles suppresses regrowth of vegetation. With the help of rain (and soil creep ), a shallow trail can be worn down into the topsoil and smoothed without any purposeful road-making work. The thin soil and rocky subsoil , combined with

918-584: Is served by these local newspapers: Hunstanton attracts thousands during a week in August, for the ITA Hunstanton Lawn Tennis tournament – the biggest in England after Wimbledon, inaugurated in 1920. All ages can play from the young (Under 8 Round Robin) to senior veterans. It acts also as a big social event. Hunstanton Golf Club , founded in 1891 by Hamon Le Strange, is an 18-hole championship links along

972-456: The Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 , many public rights of way in England and Wales that authorities had not explicitly classified as Bridleway or Byway defaulted to the classification "Restricted Byway" which precludes the use of motor vehicles at all times, except authorised vehicles and where required for access. As a result, much of the Ridgeway remains prohibited to motor vehicle use by

1026-764: 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 . The Hunstanton electoral ward belongs to

1080-736: 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. Hunstanton's summer crowds are smaller than in the 1980s, although its relative popularity with day-trippers and holidaymakers has endured, despite the decline in British seaside holidaying. Businesses in villages south of Hunstanton ( Dersingham , Ingoldisthorpe and Snettisham ) complained in

1134-639: The 1930s in a cottage in Burnham Overy Staithe , with his first wife, Lois. Regional TV services are provided by BBC Yorkshire and Lincolnshire and ITV Yorkshire . Television signals are received from the Belmont TV transmitter. BBC East and ITV Anglia are also received through cable and satellite television such as Freesat and Sky . Local radio stations are BBC Radio Norfolk , Heart East , Greatest Hits Radio West Norfolk (formerly KL.FM 96.7 ) Radio West Norfolk and KL1 Radio . The town

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1188-511: The 1957 Ealing Studios comedy film Barnacle Bill (released in the US as All at Sea ) starring Alec Guinness . The town is linked to King's Lynn by a frequent Lynx bus service. Other services run to Sandringham , Wells-next-the-Sea , Sheringham and Cromer . Hunstanton railway station offered services to King's Lynn until 1969, when the line was closed as uneconomic. The Smithdon High School (formerly Hunstanton Secondary Modern School)

1242-648: The 1980s by the Ramblers Association , following ridges between the Atlantic coast and Avebury , with a preference for firm paths, good scenery and free access. Hunstanton Hunstanton (sometimes pronounced / ˈ h ʌ n s t ə n / ) is a seaside town in Norfolk , England, which had a population of 4,229 at the 2011 Census. It faces west across The Wash . Hunstanton lies 102 miles (164 km) north-north-east of London and 40 miles (64 km) north-west of Norwich . Hunstanton

1296-474: The 1990s of a loss in trade after being bypassed by the A149 to Hunstanton. The town has several Victorian squares. Boston Square provides a view across the Wash to Boston, Lincolnshire where both Boston Stump and the seaside town of Skegness is visible on clear days. Hunstanton has a fairground, aquarium and seal sanctuary, leisure pool, theatre, large caravan parks with amenities, some amusement arcades, and

1350-506: The 19th century brought the concept back into common use. Although the Great Ridgeway northwest of London was the best known of such routes, 19th-century British antiquarians rediscovered numerous other local ridgeways and speculated that names such as Ryknild Street (a valley route) contained the word ridge in modified form. Scholars such as Georg Landau (1807–1865) began mapping and walking ancient ridgeway roads across Germany in

1404-412: The 19th century. Recording prehistoric ridgeways today can be difficult. Trails only lightly worn into soil along ridge lines are generally no longer visible, but their courses are sometimes marked by modern roads and footpaths that have perpetuated the ridgeway routes. A ridgeway previously used by carts often remains physically evident in the form of a hollow way : a trench or fosse eroded deep into

1458-466: 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". The coastal cliffs include

1512-648: The Ridgeway to help defend the trading route. Following the collapse of Roman authority in Western Europe , invading Saxon and Viking armies used it. In medieval times and later, the Ridgeway found use by drovers , moving their livestock from the West Country and Wales to markets in the Home Counties and London. Before the Enclosure Acts of 1750 , the Ridgeway existed as an informal series of tracks across

1566-627: The Ridgeway travels for 87 miles (140 km) northeast from Overton Hill within the Avebury World Heritage Site to Ivinghoe Beacon near Tring . At Marlborough it meets the Wessex Ridgeway , a footpath opened in 1994 which follows the southwest section of the ancient track into Dorset, as far as Lyme Regis . At Ivinghoe Beacon the Ridgeway meets the Icknield Way Path which continues northeast towards Suffolk. The Ridgeway meets

1620-511: The Trail to the west of the River Thames has no sections of public footpath and is therefore open along its entire length to cyclists and those on horseback. The remaining 44 miles (71 km) of National Trail to the east of the River Thames contains the 21 miles (34 km) of public footpath in many noncontiguous parts, making it impractical for cyclists and those on horseback to follow this half of

1674-753: The Trail. The Ridgeway Partnership is currently in the process of creating a Ridgeway Riding Route. Despite the Ridgeway's artificial creation, the TV programme Seven Natural Wonders featured it in 2005 as one of the wonders of the South. Places that are near (or on) the Ridgeway National Trail include (from west to east): 51°33.8′N 1°21′W  /  51.5633°N 1.350°W  / 51.5633; -1.350 Ridgeway (track) Prehistoric roads in Europe often variously comprised stretches of ridgeway above

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1728-422: The Wash and to the north of Norfolk. The countryside around Hunstanton is hillier than most of Norfolk and sparsely populated, the only large settlement nearby is King's Lynn, 12 miles (19 km) to the south. The town once had a Victorian pleasure pier , with a pavilion and miniature steam railway . The pier pavilion was destroyed by fire in 1939, the pier was damaged by fire again in the 1950s, before almost

1782-650: The chalk downs, chosen by travellers based on path conditions. Once enclosures started, the current path developed through the building of earth banks and the planting of hedges. The idea for a long-distance path along the line of the Wessex Downs and Chilterns goes back to the Hobhouse Committee of 1947. The present route was designated by the Government in 1972, and opened as a National Trail in 1973. One of fifteen long-distance National Trails in England and Wales,

1836-617: The channel, slowly flushing it out and leaving banks on either side where hedgerows may develop and collect more material. Hollow ways can of course occur in any firm-ground trackway, not just in ridgeway sections. On level sections of a ridgeway, banks are less common, perhaps because travellers avoided large puddles and constantly changed the courses, or because any banks eroded. From the 19th century onwards, old ridgeways which had not been converted into highways were often revived by hiking clubs or tourism authorities, marked out as scenic trails for walking, horse-riding or mountain biking far from

1890-536: 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

1944-501: The disturbances of motor traffic. An 1890 Baedeker guide recommended walks on The Ridgeway, and efforts to give that ridgeway legislative recognition began in 1947. Some completely new recreational ridgeways have been devised where there was no tradition of the route being used for trade in previous centuries. Examples include the Kammweg established in 1904 in eastern Germany and the 197-kilometre Wessex Ridgeway in England, devised in

1998-418: The entire structure was washed away by a storm in 1978. What remained extended just 15 feet out from the amusement arcade and cafe built on the site of the original entrance. In 2002, the entire building, with the remains of the pier, was destroyed in a fire. The building was too badly damaged for the cause to be determined. Today, the site is occupied by an arcade and bowling alley complex. The pier featured in

2052-592: The existence of such parallel routes, antiquarians in Britain came to associate ridgeways culturally with ancient Britons . However the evidence for the great antiquity of ridgeway routes is ambiguous. In the modern era, new cart tracks have generally avoided inhospitable high ground: the 1840s and 1850s Wagon Trails from the Missouri River to Oregon and California  – rutted trails in bare earth – generally followed low courses. In Britain,

2106-402: The front during ascents so that the animals could draw efficiently. In medieval and later times, ridgeways in England were used as drovers roads . Since ridgeways were informal routes, and the rounded tops of many British and German ridges might be hundreds of metres wide, the track might change seasonally, or spontaneously, if any land alongside the trail appeared drier and firmer. But where

2160-616: The garden featured in "Jeeves and the Impending Doom" . Norfolk also furnishes names for many of Wodehouse's characters, such as Brancaster, Jack Snettisham and J. Sheringham Adair. L. P. Hartley knew the Hunstanton neighbourhood from childhood holidays and used it as a setting for The Shrimp and the Anemone (1944), the first novel in his Eustace and Hilda trilogy. It is at Hunstanton Hall, fictionalised as Anchorstone Hall, that Eustace enters

2214-623: The general public year-round. However, the Ridgeway is the only means of access for many farms, especially in the more remote parts of the Downs. In 2024 the Ridgeway National Trail comprised 21 miles (34 km) of public footpath, 14 miles (23 km) of public bridleway, 20 miles (32 km) of byway (much of which has seasonal restrictions on motor vehicles), 22 miles (35 km) of restricted byway (all in Oxfordshire and Berkshire) and 10 miles (16 km) of public road. The 43 miles (69 km) of

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2268-434: The hilltops, only descending when necessary to cross valleys. As such, they are an opposite to modern-style roads, which tend to run along the valleys and only ascend when necessary to cross the hilltops. In rugged parts of central Germany, ridgeways tend to strictly follow the watershed line proper, since traversing steep slopes was difficult for wheeled vehicles and uncomfortable for foot travellers unless someone had cut

2322-549: 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 ,

2376-430: The line of springs, sections of causeway through bog and marsh, and other trackways of neither sort which crossed flat country. A revival of interest in ancient roads and recreational walking in the 19th century brought the concept back into common use. Some ancient routes, in particular The Ridgeway National Trail of southern England, have been reprised as long-distance footpaths . Along ridge lines of hills, soil

2430-492: The local red 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

2484-473: The more recent (1997) Thames Path National Trail at the Goring Gap , where the trails use opposite banks of the River Thames between Goring-on-Thames and Mongewell ; the Thames Path follows the western bank and the Ridgeway the eastern. The total height climbed along the path is 3,881 feet (1,183 m). The official guide to the trail divides The Ridgeway into six sections. It is possible to join or leave

2538-452: The natural drainage provided by the slopes on each side, also tended to keep such roads dry. In western Europe, where prehistoric roads have been extensively documented with the help of itineraries, traces on old maps and extant marks on the landscape, ridgeways are a typical feature of long-distance ancient routes through rugged, high-rainfall parts of Germany and across the island of Great Britain. These ancient trackways generally ran along

2592-770: The prevailing Roman road-construction practice was to build straight roads from point to point, rising and falling with the landscape. Some German ridgeways were deliberately closed to force traffic into towns. In one instance, the central purpose of the Rheingauer Gebück, a 38-kilometre fence erected in the 12th century, may have been to close down a German ridgeway and force traffic onto the Rhine river. Many ridgeways have continued in use with macadam or paved surfaces in modern times. Others fell into disuse when more level paved routes, either along valley bottoms or cut transversely along hillsides, were built parallel to them. Noting

2646-463: The privileged world of the aristocracy and eventually inherits a small fortune. The layered chalk, red chalk and carr-stone cliffs at Hunstanton provide a backdrop for Eustace and Hilda's games among the rock pools. Patrick Hamilton 's novel Hangover Square opens with George Harvey Bone walking on the cliffs in Hunstanton. Hamilton lived for many years at Martincross in Sheringham and spent time in

2700-562: The service elements of the school exposed, making a feature of the water tank by turning it into a tower. The disposition, steel frames and panels of brick and glass echo the work of Mies van der Rohe at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology . Hunstanton is home to Glebe House School, an independent co-educational preparatory school . The Princess Theatre is a 472-seat, year-round venue for shows from comedy to drama, music for all tastes, and children's productions. It also has

2754-432: The soil by constant passage of wheels and hooves. These are most common at inclines. Sleds, axles scraping the soil between wheel ruts, locked wheels skidding downhill and heavy weights dragged over the ground to brake the carts' descents would all continue eroding the surface down to the bedrock, if any, which then forms a natural pavement. When it rains, the mud and debris in an inclined hollow way tend to be washed down

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2808-499: The term ridgeway has been in continuous use since Anglo-Saxon times as a generic term to distinguish any high travel route from a lower one. The earliest extant written form is spelled hrycweg , dating from 938. In German, a variety of terms of similar date match the concept of a ridgeway: Rennweg (since circa 860: Rennewec ), Rennstieg (1162: Rinnestich ), Bergstrasse (C9: Birgistrotun ) and hohe Strasse (circa 1000 Howestraze ). A revival of interest in ancient roads in

2862-451: The tracks were seen as marking boundaries, the course could no longer change without causing a property dispute. English ridgeway routes became fixed in the course of enclosures beginning about 1750. Notable prehistoric ridgeways include: Some modern authors have suggested several advantages a ridgeway might possess: Some ridgeway routes were adopted and paved by the Romans , even though

2916-683: The trail at other locations with public transport links, including Avebury , Swindon , Wantage , Wallingford , Princes Risborough and Tring . The Ridgeway is one of four long-distance footpaths that combine to run from Lyme Regis to Hunstanton , collectively referred to as the Greater Ridgeway or Greater Icknield Way. The Ridgeway passes near many Neolithic, Iron Age and Bronze Age sites including Avebury Stone Circle ; Barbury Castle , Liddington Castle , Uffington Castle , Segsbury Castle , Pulpit Hill and Ivinghoe Beacon Hill, all Iron Age and Bronze Age hill forts; Wayland's Smithy ,

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