The Octagon

TF 6941 OLD HUNSTANTON HUNSTANTON PARK

7/70 The Octagon. 5/6/53 - II*

Garden building. c.1640 for Sir Hamon Le Strange (b.1583) 3rd Bt. possibly by William Edge, stonemason, then engaged by Sir Roger Townshend at Raynham Hall. Squared, coursed carstone with galletting, cut stone details moulded and rubble brick, C20 flat roof in temporary materials. Octagonal on plan, single storey with a classical frontispiece. Cut stone frontispiece entrance occupying a whole bay with stone plinth, smooth drafted rustication above. Central arched doorcase with simple architrave surround with central voussoir keystone, more fully moulded closed pediment above with modillion cornice and console brackets. C20 temporary boarded door. Rustication partly continued into adjoining bays, each with alternately blocked or open mullioned and transomed cross windows with pediments and rusticated surrounds either of cut stone or chamfered brick, originally stuccoed now partly exposed. Smooth rusticated quoins at angles. Battlemented parapet with stone string course and copings. Said to have been built to remove the noise of Sir Hamon's violin playing from Hunstanton Hall. "a notable reflection of the Court style of Inigo Jones in a remote country setting" : H.M. Colvin, Biographical Dictionary of British Architects 1600 -"1840, (1978), p.281.

Listing NGR: TF6917441631