Norfolk Heritage Explorer

Location

Full description

gBenedictine Priory established on edge of Late Saxon town.
Includes St Margaret's Church.
Some Norman work, 14th and 15th century rebuildings, much 18th-19th century alteration.
E. Rose (NAU), 24 March 1981.

The charnel house is recorded separately under NHER 60527.

See newspaper cuttings (S1) in file.
A. Cattermole (NLA), 27 January 2005.

1951. Listed Grade I.

1984.
A rare 15th century, cylindrical, leather chalice case was sold at auction to a 'small American museum'. Decoration on the case included an image of St Margaret and this, along with the fact that the case was previously bought from Wymondham, led to speculation that the case had originally belonged to St Margaret's church, King's Lynn.
See (S8), newspaper article (S9) and Photograph (S10). See [1].
A. Beckham (HES), 6 May 2020.

April 1991.
Removal of roof of north aisle of priory church, Carpenters' marks revealed and photographed. Unusual, not Latin numerals but hourglass shapes, squares, and triangles and in one place an ornate 'G'. However, the rafters do not appear to be of any great age and therefore perhaps belong to the 19th century restoration.
E.M. James (KLM) reports that this roof cannot be older than the mid-18th century because the spire fell onto this side of the church.
E. Rose (NLA), 26 April 1991.

August 1991. Found while renewing the blocking of the transept window behind the organ.
A painted medieval 'statue' and castellated transoms were found. Identification of the 'statue' at Norwich Castle Museum revealed it to be a corbel.
E. Rose (NLA), 9 August and 10 October 1991.

According to (S2) the Trinity Chapel, east of the north transept, was demolished and rebuilt to a narrower line in 1808 for road widening. The new chapel was designed by Francis Goodwin and built by William Newham.
E. Rose (NLA), 14 January 1997.

This is one of the sixty five Norfolk churches selected for (S3).
D. Gurney (NLA), 17 February 2006.

Article [1991 EDP] missing from file
J. Yates, 13 July 2010.

14 March 2014.
Human skeletal remains, of a child with wood and leather, found in trenching for a gas main replacement by National grid adjacent to St Margaret's and in proximity to Pizza Express.
See newspaper article (S4).
D. Gurney (HES), 21 March 2014.

(S5) states that around 1100 Herbert de Losinga founded the parish church of St. Margaret's, Lynn, and attached to it a priory of monks, dedicating the house in honour of St. Mary Magdalen, St. Margaret, and all virgin saints. He endowed it with churches, lands, rents, and men, and granted the priory a market on Saturdays, and a fair at the feast of St. Margaret; but he made the priory of Lynn and all its possessions subordinate to the great diocesan priory of the Holy Trinity, Norwich.
(S6) notes that the earliest parts of the extant building are the beginning of the two west towers, dating from around the middle of the 12th century. The south-west tower is still largely of the 12th-13th century, and appears to have been completed around 1260-70. In the 14th century a new bell-stage was added. The other tower, built from 1453 onwards, is externally Perpendicular throughout. The towers still have their Norman arches to the nave and in the south-west tower the lower arch to the south aisle remains. The Norman church was completely rebuilt in the 13th century, and the chancel, crossing and transepts are internally of that date. The chancel window is Perpendicular, a rose under a pointed arch with quartrefoiled circles in the lower spandrels, and is largely a reconstruction of 1875. The south chancel chapel built in 1433 is five bays long, the north chapel only three. The crossing tower originally carried a lead-covered octagonal wooden lantern, probably modelled on that at Ely. The Perpendicular interior is of 1742-6 by Matthew Brettingham, reworked by Scott in 1875. The Trinity Chapel was designed by Francis Goodwin and built in 1809 by William Newham.
See (S5) and (S6) for further details.
(S7) argues that Herbert de Losinga used the Benedictine Priory to signal his presence, building it in a highly prominent position close to the main outfall of the Wash and beside the Saturday Market Place.
A. Cattermole (King's Lynn UAD), 27 February 2020.

Monument Types

• BENEDICTINE MONASTERY (Medieval to 16th Century - 1101 AD to 1539 AD)
• PARISH CHURCH (Medieval to 21st Century - 1101 AD to 2050 AD)
• PRIORY (Medieval to 16th Century - 1101 AD to 1539 AD)
• COMMEMORATIVE BRASS (Medieval - 1349 AD to 1349 AD)

Associated Finds

• COIN (Unknown date)
• RING (Unknown date)
• SPOON (Unknown date)
• COFFIN (Medieval - 1066 AD to 1539 AD)
• HUMAN REMAINS (Medieval - 1066 AD to 1539 AD)

Protected Status

• Listed Building

Sources and further reading

Related records

Find out more...

• Norfolk Architects (Article)
• Norfolk Workhouses: Parish Workhouses (Article)
• Parish Summary: King's Lynn (Parish Summary)