Work starts on 23 new Norwich homes off Unthank Road

Demolition work has begun at Eaton Grange House, in Upton Road, where 23 homes will be created.

Eaton Grange House, in Upton Road (Image: William Grimmer)

The building, off Unthank Road, was the family home of renowned 19th century Norfolk butterfly expert Margaret Fountaine.

Known as the 'butterfly lady', she was an accomplished natural history illustrator, diarist and adventurer.

Margaret Fountaine (Image: Newsquest)

Ms Fountaine's family moved to Eaton Grange in 1877, before she began travels around the world.

Her collection of 22,000 butterfly specimens is housed at Norwich Castle Museum.

Norwich Castle Museum holds Margaret Fountaine's butterfly collection (Image: Norfolk Museums Service)

The scheme will see the main building turned into seven flats and the smaller Coach House nearby turned into a single home.

There will also be a mix of 15 houses and flats across the 1.5-acre site.

The work also means a large two-storey 1950s flat roof structure at the rear of the main house is being removed.

A communal garden with flowering and fruiting species attractive to butterflies will be at the heart of the project - in a tribute to the Victorian naturalist.

The building, which is locally listed, has also been a girls' boarding school and a children's centre.

Eaton Grange House, pictured when it was used by the NHS (Image: Newsquest)

The children's centre closed in 2017, having been identified as surplus NHS land under the Naylor review.

Despite protests, those services were moved to the Norwich Community Hospital on Bowthorpe Road.

Planning permission for the new homes was granted to developers LNA Eaton Ltd in 2022.

But the start of construction was delayed, due to the nutrient neutrality directive, which halted the building of new homes because of pollution concerns.

Who was Margaret Fountaine?

Born in 1862, she was the eldest of seven children of a Norfolk clergyman and grew up at Eaton Grange.

In 1878, she began keeping a diary which she would continue until her death in 1940.

During her life, she travelled the world collecting butterflies in 60 countries across six continents.

She suffered a heart attack, aged 77, while collecting in Trinidad. She is said to have been found dead with a butterfly net in her hand and was buried in an unmarked grave on the island.

She acquired greater fame after her death and her extensive butterfly collection was only opened 38 years after her death.

In accordance with her will it had been deposited at Norwich Castle Museum in the year of her death.

She had also provided that the collection was only to be opened in 1978. A box and 10 display cases with more than 22,000 specimens had been deposited.