With thanks to King’s Lynn Online

1000 to 1499

  • 1086 – First mention of Lynn in Domesday Book.
  • 1101 – St Margaret’s Church founded.
  • 1204 – First Borough charter from King John.
  • 1216 – King John “loses treasure in The Wash”.
  • 1290s – River Ouse diverted from Wisbech to Lynn.
  • 1349 – Black Death – at least 50 per cent of town population killed (or fled?).
  • 1369 – Death of Nicholas of Lynn, both friar and sailor in the North Atlantic.
  • 1421 – Trinity Guildhall built as a result of fire (Margery Kempe prayed for snow from St Margaret’s and town as a whole was saved!).
  • 1429 – Rebuilding of St Nicholas’ Chapel completed (tower dates from 1220s).
  • 1430 – St George’s Guildhall rebuilt.
  • 1475 – German Hanseatic league secures a commercial HQ in Lynn (only one remaining in England today).
  • 1485 – Red Mount Built.

1500 to 1799

  • 1536-8 – Four Lynn friaries closed and pilgrimages “forbydden”.
  • 1548 – Lynn’s religious guilds dissolved and Trinity Guildhall becomes Town Hall.
  • 1561 – “Popish relics” destroyed in Lynn’s two market places.
  • 1588 – Five Lynn ships joined Armada and all returned safely.
  • 1607 – Storm and high tide flood Lynn.
  • 1643 – Siege of Lynn – the town defended by Le Strange for King Charles I.
  • 1666 – Great Plague.
  • 1683/5 – Merchant Exchange built on the Purfleet by Bell for Sir John Turner. Custom House by 1718.
  • 1702-42 – Sir Robert Walpole – England’s first Prime Minister – MP for Lynn and builds Houghton Hall.
  • 1741 – September 8 at noon, great gale: St Margaret’s spire blown into nave and this part of church destroyed – tidal wave too.
  • 1753-6 – Town’s Walks (part one) laid out.
  • 1766-68 – Tower of All Saint’s Church collapses.
  • 1782 – New Assembly Rooms built to the north of the Town Hall (cost £1,300).
  • 1790 – George Vancouver commenced his great voyage to the Pacific and the north west coast of America (born in Lynn in 1757).
  • 1798 – Horatio Nelson made a Freeman of Lynn.

1800 to 1859

  • 1803-6 – London Road laid down.
  • 1818-21 – Eau Brink Cut dug by army of navvies (Ouse now straight to South)
  • 1813 – Methodists build new and impressive chapel in Tower Street.
  • 1814 – On July 22, 2,000 townspeople sat down to a meal on the Tuesday Market Place to celebrate the downfall of Napolean.
  • 1831-32 – King cholera strikes Lynn.
  • 1835 – Lynn and West Norfolk Hospital opened.
  • 1841 – Lynn Advertiser appears.
  • 1846 – St John’s Church built (first new Anglican one since 1146) – cost £5000.
  • 1850-2 – Estuary Cut dug by navvies to allow the Ouse a more direct route.
  • 1852 – Board of Health (London) report on Lynn – shocking and disgusting!
  • 1854 – Corn Exchange erected.
  • 1856 – St James’ Workhouse constructed after dramatic collapse of the old one in 1854.

1860 to 1899
1861 – Royal family buy Sandringham House – rebuilt.
1869 – Alexandra Dock built and opened by Princess Alexandra (saved the port of Lynn).
1872 – West Norfolk Fertilisers (Muck Works) starts production at South Lynn.
1873 – Frederick Savage founds St Nicholas’ Ironworks off Loke Road.
1875 – Alfred Dodman erects his engineering works by the railway to the new dock.
1883 – Port of Lynn’s Bentinck Dock built.
1894 – Cooper’s founded – making steam diggers (munitions in Great War).
1898 – Lynn Conservancy Board established to oversee shipping into harbour.
1899 – Electricity arrives.

1900 to 1949
1904 – Lynn Museum opened in converted Baptist Chapel (with a spire!)
1905 – Vaughn Williams visits Lynn and picks up over 30 folk songs from the fishermen.
1910 – First moving picture shown in the town at Lynn Mart in February.
1914-18 – Town and Port of Lynn much affected by impact of Great War.
1928 – Majestic Cinema built.
1929 – Bagge family sell up Lynn properties and are the last of the Merchant Princes to leave the town.
1935 – Lynn, the borough, is enlarged to include Gaywood.
1939 – Big new Post Office erected on Baxters Plain.
1939-45 – Second World War – major impact on Lynn as all other towns (evacuees, mobile population, bombing etc)

1950 to 1999
1951 – First Lynn Festival – still going: 50th in year 2000!
1958 – Campbell’s Soups came to Lynn – harbinger of a second industrial revolution. Followed by several other big companies (Dow 1957).
1959 – South Lynn railway station closed.
1962 – Lynn signed overspill agreement with GLC.
1967 – Muck Works closed with loss of 600 jobs.
1974 – End of historic Lynn Town Council and the creation of West Norfolk District Council.
1981 – Borough Council of King’s Lynn and West Norfolk receives Royal Charter.
1991 – True’s Yard Fisherfolk Museum opened.
1991 – Electrification of railway line between Lynn and Cambridge.
1996 – Corn Exchange of 1854 converted to modern town theatre (£4.6m).
1999 – North Sea Haven – Millennium Project – starts: Regeneration of Lynn’s riverside

From KLF

I think it was called the WATERMAN’S ARMS during whaling days. Here are the records
from 1830 onwards.

GREENLAND FISHERY KINGS LYNN index
28 BRIDGE STREET STONEGATE WARD FULL LICENCE CLOSED c1921
KINGS LYNN PETTY SESSION REGISTERS PS 4/3/1 to 4/3/3 ( August 1872 to 1956 )
HOGGE & SEPPINGS
T. J. SEPPINGS
JAMES SEPPINGS
T. J. SEPPINGS
CHARLES PEARCE of East Dereham ( Cooper Brown )
Licensees :
GEORGE HOLDGATE 1830 – 1836
JOHN HUBBARD
according to Pigot 1839
JOSEPH HUBBARD
according to Robson 1839
ROBERT MORRIS 1845
THOMAS LEE 1854
REUBEN COX
victualler & waterman 1861
SAMUEL COZENS by 10.1861
EDWARD CRACKNELL by 1871
WILLIAM EWAN 25.11.1878
HENRY RUDD CROME
( given in directories to 1916 ) 13.11.1899
CHARLES PEARCE ( undated )

The residence of John Akin Major in 1607.

The WATERMANS ARMS in 1736, 1738 & 1745

Described in a pre WWII Dunlop guide as
“The most picturesque of Old Lynn Taverns.”

Referred for Compensation 07.03.1921.
Licence extinct 01.02.1922.

Parts of the building were converted to a Museum by Edward Mil Beloe and opened 6th June 1912.

Seriously damaged by enemy action June 1941.