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Toponymy[edit]
The etymology of King's Lynn is uncertain. The name Lynn may signify a body of water near the town – the Welsh word llyn means a lake; but the name is plausibly of Anglo-Saxon origin, from lean meaning a tenure in fee or farm. The 1086 Domesday Book records it as Lun and Lenn, and ascribes it to the Bishop of Elmham and the Archbishop of Canterbury. The Domesday Book also mentions saltings at Lena (Lynn); an area of partitioned pools may have existed there at the time. The presence of salt, which was relatively rare and expensive in the early medieval period, may have added to the interest of Herbert de Losinga and other prominent Normans in the modest parish.
The town was named Len Episcopi (Bishop's Lynn) while under the temporal and spiritual jurisdiction of the Bishop of Norwich, but in the reign of Henry VIII it was surrendered to the crown and took the name Lenne Regis or King's Lynn. However, the town is generally known locally as Lynn.
Other places with Lynn in the name include Dublin, Ireland, with An Dubh Linn meaning “the Black Pool.” The city of Lynn, Massachusetts, north of Boston, was named in 1637 in honour of its first official minister of religion, Reverend Samuel Whiting Sr, who arrived there from Lynn, Norfolk. Lynnhaven, Virginia is also named after King's Lynn having been named by Captain Adam Thoroughgood who hailed from King's Lynn.
Middle Ages[edit]
Lynn originated on a constricted site south of where the River Great Ouse now discharges into the Wash. Development began in the early 10th century, but the place was not recorded until the early 11th century. Until the early 13th century, the Great Ouse emptied via the Wellstream at Wisbech. After its redirection, Lynn and its port gained significance and prosperity.
In 1101, Bishop Herbert de Losinga of Thetford began to build the first medieval town between the rivers Purfleet to the north and Mill Fleet to the south. He commissioned St Margaret's Church and authorised a market to be held on Saturday. Trade built up along the waterways that stretched inland; the town expanded between the two rivers.
Lynn's 12th-century Jewish community was wiped out in the widespread massacres of 1189.
During the 14th century, Lynn ranked as England's most important port. It was seen to be as vital to England in the Middle Ages as Liverpool was during the Industrial Revolution. Sea trade with Europe was dominated by the Hanseatic League of ports; the transatlantic trade and the rise of England's western ports began only in the 17th century. The Trinity Guildhall was rebuilt in 1421 after a fire. Walls entered by the South Gate and East Gate were erected to protect the town. It retains two former Hanseatic League warehouses: Hanse House of 1475 and Marriott's Warehouse, in use between the 15th and 17th centuries. These are the only remaining buildings of the Hanseatic League in England. The town was designated a Royal Port by King John.
Modern[edit]
The 15th-century 'Hanse House' warehouse built by Hanseatic merchants in King's Lynn, reflecting the town's role in North Sea trade
Trinity Guildhall (15th century), King's Lynn—one of England's oldest civic buildings, formerly housing both guild chambers and a prison
Damage from the 1915 aerial bombing during the First World War. On 19 January 1915, King's Lynn was bombed by the German Zeppelin L 4, with explosions striking Bentinck Street, Albert Street, and a field behind Tennyson Avenue—marking one of Britain's earliest civilian air raids
In the first decade of the 16th century, Thoresby College was built in Lynn by Thomas Thoresby to house priests of the Guild of the Holy Trinity. It had been incorporated in 1453 under a petition of its alderman, chaplain, four brethren and four sisters, who were licensed to found a chantry of chaplains for the altar of Holy Trinity in Wisbech. Lands were granted in mortmain. Lynn was granted a mayor and corporate status in 1524, formalising its municipal governance. In 1537, the town passed from episcopal control to the Crown, becoming known as King's Lynn. In the same century, the town's two annual fairs were reduced to one. In 1534, a grammar school was founded; four years later Henry VIII closed the Benedictine priory and the three friaries.
A piped water supply was created in the 16th century, although many could not afford to connect to the elm pipes carrying water under the streets. Lynn suffered from outbreaks of plague, notably in 1516, 1587, 1597, 1636 and finally in 1665. Fire was another hazard – in 1572, thatched roofs were banned to reduce the risk. In the English Civil War, King's Lynn supported Roundheads (Parliament), but in August 1643 it was in Cavalier (Royalist) hands. It changed sides again after Parliament sent an army, and the town was besieged for three weeks. Valentine Walton brother-in-law of Oliver Cromwell was appointed governor.
A carved heart on a wall in Tuesday Market Place is traditionally associated with the execution of an alleged witch in the late 16th or early 17th century. One version of the legend names Margaret Read, who was reportedly burned at the stake in 1590, during which her heart is said to have burst from her chest and struck the wall. Other accounts attribute the tale to Mary Smith, who was hanged for witchcraft in 1616.
The Tuesday Market Place had a long-standing role as a site of public executions, including both hangings and burnings, during the early modern period. Burning at the stake was particularly associated with women convicted of witchcraft, reflecting broader judicial practices in England at the time.
The 17th-century Custom House in King's Lynn, a landmark of Classical architecture designed by Henry Bell, associated with the town's maritime trade
In 1683, the architect Henry Bell, once the town's mayor, designed the Custom House. He also designed the Duke's Head Inn, North Runcton Church and Stanhoe Hall, having gained ideas while on travel in Europe as a young man.
Partial view of King's Lynn Docks, including its prominent grain silos
During the 16th and 17th centuries, the town's principal export was grain. While no longer a major international port, King's Lynn continued to import goods such as iron and timber. The discovery of the Americas shifted trade patterns in favour of ports on England's west coast, to Lynn's detriment. The town was further eclipsed by the rapid growth of London.
In the late 17th century, imports of wine from Spain, Portugal, and France flourished, and coastal trade remained active. At the time, water transport was significantly cheaper than moving goods by road. Large shipments of coal arrived from the north-east of England.
The draining of the Fens began in the mid–17th century, transforming the land into productive farmland and enabling large quantities of produce to supply London's growing market. During this period, King's Lynn remained a major fishing port. Greenland Fishery House, built on Bridge Street in 1605, stands as a testament to that trade. By the late 17th century, the town had also seen the development of shipbuilding and glass-making industries.
In the early 18th century, Daniel Defoe described the town as 'beautiful, well built and well situated'. Shipbuilding flourished, along with related trades such as sail-making and rope-making. Glass-making also prospered, and brewing became another key industry. The Norwich Company of Comedians had been performing in the town since the 1750s; in 1766, a permanent theatre was established, followed by the construction of a new playhouse in 1805. The first bank in King's Lynn opened in 1784.
A grim example of early 18th-century penal severity occurred on 28 September 1708, when Michael Hammond, aged seven, and his 11-year-old sister Ann were convicted of stealing a loaf of bread and sentenced to death by hanging. Their executions took place publicly near the South Gate. The local Member of Parliament for King's Lynn at the time was Sir Robert Walpole, who served in the Parliament of Great Britain and is widely regarded as the de facto first Prime Minister, remaining the longest-serving in British history.
King's Lynn railway station in July 2017
The town's decline from the late 17th century was reversed with the arrival of the railways in 1847, primarily through the Great Eastern Railway—later the London and North Eastern Railway—which connected King's Lynn to Hunstanton, Dereham and Cambridge. The town was also served by the Midland and Great Northern Joint Railway (M&GN), whose offices stood on Austin Street, with a station at South Lynn (now dismantled) that served as its operational control centre before relocating to Melton Constable. The M&GN lines across Norfolk ceased passenger services in February 1959.
The town's amenities continued to improve in the 20th century. A museum opened in 1904 and a public library in 1905. The first cinema, the Majestic, officially opened on 23 May 1928. (The year is marked in a stained-glass window on the front of the building.) The town council began a programme of regeneration in the 1930s.
During the First World War, King's Lynn was among the first towns in England to suffer aerial bombing, when the German Imperial Navy's Zeppelin L 4 (LZ 27), commanded by Kapitänleutnant Magnus von Platen-Hallermund, dropped eleven bombs—both incendiary and high explosive—during the night of 19 January 1915. The raid caused significant damage across several residential areas: bombs fell near Tennyson Avenue and separately struck Bentinck Street, Albert Street, and other nearby locations. Two residents—26-year-old war widow Alice Gazely and 14-year-old Percy Goate—died from shock, and approximately thirteen others were injured.
At the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, King's Lynn was initially considered a safe area, and many evacuees were sent from London. However, the town experienced several bombing raids during the conflict and a total 59 civilians died by enemy action in the borough.
By the 1950s, local breweries had closed, but new industries had emerged, including food canning in the 1930s and Campbell's soup production in the 1950s. In the 1960s, the council promoted economic development through the establishment of an industrial estate at Hardwick.
In 1962, King's Lynn was designated as an overspill town for London, leading to population growth and the development of new housing estates in areas such as the Woottons and Gaywood. The town centre was redeveloped during the 1960s, resulting in the demolition of many earlier buildings. Lynnsport, a major sports and leisure complex, opened in 1982, and the Corn Exchange in Tuesday Market Place was converted into a theatre in 1996.
Recent changes[edit]
View of King’s Lynn from West Lynn, looking across the River Great Ouse
Since 2004, work has been under way to regenerate the town under a multi-million-pound scheme. The 1960s Vancouver Shopping Centre (now the Vancouver Quarter) was refurbished in 2005 under the scheme, but was expected to last only 25 years, according to the construction firm, even with a planned extension.[when?] An award-winning £6 million multi-storey car park was built.
To the south of the town, residential housing appeared on a large area of brownfield land. Plans for another housing estate alongside the River Nar were opposed locally and halted by the economic situation. There is also a business park, parkland, a school, shops and a new relief road in a £300 million-plus scheme.
In 2006, King's Lynn became the United Kingdom's first member of The Hanse (Die Hanse), a network of towns across Europe that belonged historically to the Hanseatic League. The league was an influential medieval trading association of merchant towns around the Baltic Sea and the North Sea, which contributed to Lynn's development.
The former Dow Chemical Company works in King's Lynn. The facility, which closed in 2019, was the site of a major industrial explosion in 1976.
The Borough Council commissioned and accepted a 2008 report by DTZ that dubbed King's Lynn's workforce as "low-value" with a "low skills base" and the town as having a "poor lifestyle offer". The quality of services and amenities was "unattractive to higher-value inward investors and professional employees with higher disposable incomes". Average earnings were well below regional and national levels, and many jobs in tourism, leisure and hotels were subject to seasonal fluctuations and likewise poorly paid. Education and workforce skills were described as below the national average. The borough ranked 150th out of 354 for social deprivation.
In 2009, a proposal was made for the Campbell's Meadow factory site to be redeveloped as a 5-hectare (12-acre) employment and business park. In June 2011, Tesco gained a permit for a superstore. On 8 June 2010, it unveiled regeneration plans that would cost £32 million and were billed to bring 900 new jobs. Tesco pledged £4 million of improvements in other areas of the town. While it planned to spend £1.6 million widening Hardwick Road, the Sainsbury's bid was preferred by the Council as offering the town more benefits.
Campbell's Tower in 2006, prior to its demolition in 2012. The tower was part of the Campbell's Soup factory, which operated in King's Lynn from 1959 to 2007 as the company's first major plant outside the United States.
Sainsbury's £40 million plans for a superstore opposite Tesco on the Pinguin Foods site yielded an estimated 300 jobs. This was the key to securing the future of Pinguin Foods in King's Lynn. Pinguin Foods released 12 acres (5 ha) of its 44-acre (18 ha) site to accommodate the proposed store. Morston Assets and Sainsbury's plan included a link road between Scania Way and Queen Elizabeth Way to improve access and allow the industrial estate to attract new employers, while Sainsbury's maintains its store in the town centre. It has pledged £1.75 million for highways improvements and a further £7 million to invest in the Pinguin Foods factory.
At 8 am on 15 January 2012, Campbell's Tower—a prominent industrial landmark in King's Lynn—was demolished in a planned event. The demolition was initiated by Sarah Griffiths, winner of a public competition; her father, Mick Locke, had died in 1995 at age 52 following a steam-related accident at the factory. The tower had been part of Campbell's first UK production facility, which opened in the 1950s and, at its peak in the early 1990s, employed over 700 people.
A fire station was opened by Queen Elizabeth II in February 2015.
