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King's Lynn
Lynn
The Customs House
King's Lynn  King's Lynn shown within Norfolk
Area	10.97 sq mi (28.4 km2)
Population	35,345 (2001 census)
- Density	3,222 /sq mi (1,244 /km2)
OS grid reference	TF619201
District	King's Lynn and West Norfolk
Shire county	Norfolk
Region	East
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	KING'S LYNN
Postcode district	PE30
Dialling code	01553
Police	Norfolk
Fire	Norfolk
Ambulance	East of England
EU Parliament	East of England
UK Parliament	North West Norfolk
List of places: UKʉۢ Englandʉۢ Norfolk

King's Lynn

King's Lynn is the third largest settlement in Norfolk, after the city of Norwich and the town of Great Yarmouth. Sandringham House, the Norfolk residence of the British Royal Family, is 6 miles (9.7 km) north-east of King's Lynn. It is known as the birthplace of George Vancouver (1757–1798), an officer in the Royal Navy, who was the first person to explore the Pacific coast of the modern day Canadian province of British Columbia; the American states of Alaska, Washington, and Oregon; and the southwest coast of Australia. It is also the place of the first school attended by Diana, Princess of Wales.

While it is believed there has been some form of habitation at King's Lynn for well over a thousand years, it was not until St Margaret's Church was founded in 1101 by Bishop Herbert de Losinga that the town started appearing on records. The town would originally have been named something like Llyn, after the Brythonic (Celtic) for "lake". Later, it acquired the prefix "Bishop's" as the town was part of the manor of the Bishop of Norwich in the 12th century.

By the 14th century, the town ranked as the third port of England and is considered as important to England in Medieval times as Liverpool was during the Industrial Revolution. It retains two buildings that were warehouses of the Hanseatic League that were in use between the 15th and 17th centuries. They are the only remaining building structures of the Hanseatic League in England.

When Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries in 1538, the town and manor became royal property. As a result, the town became renamed King's Lynn and Lynn Regis (which means the same thing in Latin); it was King's Lynn which stuck. The town became prosperous from the 17th century through the export of corn; the fine Customs House was built in 1683 to the designs of local architect Henry Bell. In 1708 an 11-year-old girl and her 7-year-old brother were convicted of theft of a loaf of bread in King's Lynn and sentenced to death by hanging^{[citation needed]}, a sentence which was carried out publicly from the South Gates of the town to make an example out of them. At the time of the hangings, Sir Robert Walpole, generally regarded as having been the first Prime Minister of Great Britain, was Member of Parliament for King's Lynn.

The town went into decline after this period, and was only rescued by the relatively late arrival of railway services in 1847 â€“ with services mainly provided by the Great Eastern Railway (subsequently London and North Eastern Railway) and its fore-runners (such as the Lynn and Dereham Railway). Train services operated between King's Lynn and Hunstanton, Dereham and Cambridge.

The town was also served by the Midland and Great Northern Joint Railway, which had offices in the town at Austin Street, and an important station at South Lynn (now dismantled) which was also its operational control centre until this was relocated to Melton Constable. The M&GN lines were closed to passengers in February 1959.

Lynn was one of the first towns in Great Britain to be bombed from the air by a Zeppelin in 1915, the Savage's Iron Works, where aeroplane parts where being made, being the target.

In the post-Second World War period, King's Lynn was designated a London Expansion Town and its population roughly doubled as thousands of people were relocated from the capital.

In 1987, the town became the first in the UK to install town centre CCTV (though Bournemouth had previously used CCTV in non-central locations). The single most numerous crime prosecuted as a result of this comprehensive system is men urinating in public on their way home at night from pubs.

In 2006 King's Lynn formally became Great Britain's first member of Die Hanse â€“ the modern-day equivalent of the Hanseatic League.^[1]

The unparished urban area that makes up the town of King's Lynn has an area of 10.97 square miles (28.41 km²) and in the 2001 census had a population of 34,564 in 15,285 households. It is the main town in the larger district of King's Lynn and West Norfolk.^[2]

The constituency sits within the North-West Norfolk constituency. It has had an interesting electoral history. The MP from 1970 was Christopher Brocklebank-Fowler, who was a Conservative (or 'Tory'). In 1981, however, he defected to the new SDP. The 1983 general election was a massive Tory landslide for the wildly popular Margaret Thatcher in the aftermath of the Falklands War victory and the economic recovery; the once-near-certain SDP breakthrough never materialized, and instead, the Tory candidate Henry Bellingham was returned. By May 1997, the Tories were direly unpopular and in that year's Labour landslide, the Labour candidate George Turner defeated Bellingham on a huge swing of 10.4%. However, in 2001 North-West Norfolk was one of only nine Tory gains; Bellingham took back his old seat on a 4.6% swing. In 2005 he was returned with a vastly increased majority of 9,180 votes (18.1%)

King's Lynn is mainly on the east bank of the River Great Ouse close to where it flows into the Wash, 35 miles (55 km) north-east of Peterborough, 44 miles (70 km) west of Norwich, and the same distance north of Cambridge. London lies about 112 miles (180 km) to the south.^[3][4] The Great Ouse at Lynn is about 200 metres (220 yd) wide and the outfall for much of the drainage system created the Fens (systematically drained from the seventeenth century onwards). It flows into the Wash, a bleak landscape of saltmarsh, shifting sandbanks and tidal flows. The much smaller Gaywood River also flows through the town, joining the Great Ouse at the southern end of South Quay close to the town centre.

A small part, known as West Lynn, is on the west bank. Other districts of King's Lynn include the town centre, North Lynn, South Lynn, Gaywood, North Wootton, South Wootton, and Fairstead.

Currently huge plans are under way to regenerate the entire town. King's Lynn has undergone a multi-million pound regeneration scheme. In 2005 the Vancouver Shopping Centre, originally built in the 1960s, was refurbished as part of the town centre regeneration project (which is planned for 'further' extension) which also saw a new £6 million multi-storey car park built, which has won several awards^{[citation needed]}. And to the south of town a huge swathe of brown-field land is being transformed into a housing development (including contemporary apartments lining the River Nar), a business park, parkland, a school, shops and a new relief road in a £300 million+ scheme. The town's college will also be moving to this area (at a cost of £100 million) along with a possible Anglia Ruskin University campus. A 250-berth marina, surrounded by apartments, hotel, shops, bars and restaurants is also planned.

King's Lynn has always been a centre for the fishing and seafood industry (especially inshore prawns, shrimps and cockles). There have also been glass-making and small-scale engineering works (many fairground and steam engines were built here), and today it is still the location for much agricultural-related industry including food processing. There are a number of chemical factories and the town retains a role as an import centre. It is a regional centre for what is still a sparsely populated part of England.

In 2008 the German Palm Group begun the erection of one of the world's largest paper machines. The machine was constructed by Voith Paper. With a web speed of up to 2000 m/min and a web width of 10.63 m, it can produce 400.000 t per year of newsprint paper. The production is based on 100% recycled paper. The start-up was on August 21st, 2009.^[5]

King's Lynn railway station is the terminus of the Fen Line, and gives connections to Ely, Cambridge and London King's Cross. It is the only remaining station of several the town once boasted. South Lynn railway station closed to passengers in 1959.

Norfolk Green provides regular bus services to many surrounding towns and villages around Norfolk. The town is connected to the local cities of Norwich and Peterborough via the A47 and to Cambridge via the A10.

A £7 million program to redevelop King's Lynn's Town Centre's infrastructure, due for completion in 2011. The majority of the money is provided by the Community Infrastructure Fund.^[6] The development program is a collection of smaller developments which are detailed below.

A cycle and busway between the town centre and South Lynn is planned to start construction in June 2010 at a cost of £850,000. ^[7].The route will be 720 metres long, running from Morston Drift to Millfleet, with buses travelling in both directions along it. It will also feature a separate path for pedestrians and bicycles, this path will meet the bus route when crossing the Nar sluice. As part of this development the Millfleet - St James' Road junction will be developed to better accommodate the envisioned increased bus and bike traffic. ^[6]

A contraflow lane for bicycles will be built along Norfolk Street from Albert Street to Blackfriars Road, this will include a development of the Norfolk Road - Railway Road junction to better accommodate buses and bicycles. Similar work will take place at the Norfolk Street - Littleport Street junction so that buses do not get caught in the town centre gyratory system. ^[6]

Bus priority measures will be added to four sets of traffic lights along St James' Road. This is being undertaken to give buses quicker access to the town centre and normalise journey times.^[6]

Southgates Roundabout is going to be developed. Many of the approach roads will be widened in the run up to the junction and the road markings will be redone in an attempt to improve lane discipline. Southgates Roundabout is a noted congestion hotspot by the county council and thus targeted by this scheme as a point to be developed. ^[6]

Other small developments are taking place to make junctions more bicycle friendly. ^[6]

The town has three secondary schools, educating students from the town and the surrounding areas: King Edward VII High School, The Park High School and Springwood High School. There is also The College of West Anglia (the largest further education campus in town).

The Lynn News is the local newspaper which is published twice a week, while the biggest selling regional morning newspaper in the country, the Eastern Daily Press, publishes a West and Fens edition daily from its district office in King's Lynn High Street. KL.FM 96.7 is the local commercial radio station. King's Lynn, along with most of North and West Norfolk, has officially been served by Yorkshire Television rather than Anglia Television since 1974. The area around King's Lynn receives a stronger signal from the Belmont transmitter in Lincolnshire than the Tacolneston transmitter in Norfolk. The Belmont transmitter was originally allocated to Anglia Television, but reallocated to Yorkshire Television in 1974 due to its UHF television broadcasts being clearly receivable in Hull and East Yorkshire. Relay stations were later installed to restore Anglia Television broadcasts to North and West Norfolk.

The town holds two festivals each summer, King's Lynn Festival and Festival Too. The latter is one of the top three largest free music festivals in Europe and is held on Tuesday Market Place: it has attracted crowds of more than 12,000. Past performers include Midge Ure, Deacon Blue, Suzi Quatro,10CC, Mungo Jerry, The Human League, The Buzzcocks, M People, Atomic Kitten, S Club and Beverly Knight. The King's Lynn Festival is primarily classical music; it is held in historic venues throughout town, and attracts big names from orchestras to opera and stage-plays. There are also literature and poetry festivals. The Guildhall stages many events and Shakespeare's company may have performed there.

Every year on St Valentine's Day, a travelling funfair called The Mart sets up in Tuesday Market Place for roughly a fortnight, after which it moves to other towns. Traditionally, this is the first funfair in the Showmen's calendar where new rides are tried and favourites brought out from winter storage. 500 years ago, Lynn had two marts and these were important trading fairs which would attract visitors from as far afield as Italy and Germany. Over the years trading fairs became less important and the Mart changed from a trading to a funfair. It also became annual. Also upon the Tuesday Market Place, the town holds several Vehicle Shows where the local car dealers display.

The Majestic Cinema

There are two cinemas in the town centre, the bigger the Majestic Cinema â€“ a lovely building, which has been refurbished in the last few years. The Majestic had been the butt of jokes on the Scott Mills show on BBC Radio 1 due to an excited telephone voice recording. However the King's Lynn Arts Centre also shows films and performances, it is one of the Festival Too venues during the summer months.

The town centre has a large park (grade II listed â€” established in the 1700s) called The Walks and a variety of pubs as well as two nightclubs, Heights and Chicago's.

King's Lynn F.C. football club (nicknamed "The Linnets") was in the Unibond League. It had its ground at The Walks football ground on Tennyson Road. It was officially wound up in the High Court in December 2009.

King's Lynn also has a motorcycle speedway team, the King's Lynn Stars, who race at the Norfolk Arena on Saddlebow Road. The track has operated since 1965 when it operated on an open licence. Speedway type events were staged at the stadium in the 1950s.

The successful basketball team College of West Anglia Fury, who compete in the second-tier English Basketball League, is also based in King's Lynn.

Emmerich in western Germany.

Mladá Boleslav, Czech Republic

JiÄ?ín, Czech Republic

Eugene Aram. 18th century "Usher", namely Assistant Master at the Grammar School: murderer and subject of poem by Thomas Hood.

Nick Aldis. Professional Wrestler, aka Brutus Magnus in TNA Wrestling and Oblivion on UK Gladiators

Robert Armin. 17th century clown of Lord Chamberlain's Men, generally credited with such roles as Touchstone, Feste, and the Fool in King Lear

Thomas Baines. 19th century artist and explorer.

Martin Brundle. 20th century Formula One driver and sports commentator.

Fanny Burney. 19th century novelist and diarist.

John Capgrave. 15th century historian and theologian.

James Crouchman. International Playboy

Michael PIP Howlett. Local hero. Holds the highscore on 6 different ITBox games!

Ruth, Lady Fermoy. Founder of the Kings Lynn Festival of the Arts, Lady in Waiting to HM Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother (also grandmother of Diana, Princess of Wales)

Stephen Fry 20th century English comedian, actor, author and film maker. Owns a house in West Bilney, outside King's Lynn. He also attended the College of West Anglia in the town.

Anna Keay. Historian, writer, television presenter and director of English Heritage. ^[8]

Margery Kempe. 15th century author.

Captain John Smith, explorer and one of the founders of Jamestown, Virginia, was apprenticed to a Lynn merchant, Thomas Sendall, in the late 16th century.

Somerset Arthur Maxwell MP for Kings Lynn, WW2 soldier and Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for War. Died during the African campaign.

Roger Taylor. Drummer and vocalist with rock band Queen.

Peter Parfitt. 20th century Test cricketer.

Diana, Princess of Wales 20th century attendee of a primary school in King's Lynn.

Adam Thoroughgood. 17th century emigrant to the Virginia Colony in America as an indentured servant, later rising to major landholder in the colony.

Simon Thurley. Architectural historian, television and radio broadcaster and the Chief Executive of English Heritage. ^[9]

George Vancouver. 18th century naval officer and explorer, gave his name to Vancouver Island and the city of Vancouver. (Birthplace.)

Robert Walpole. 18th century statesman, Member of Parliament for King's Lynn and the First Prime Minister of Great Britain.

George William Manby. 19th century inventor of the lifesaving rocket apparatus used until recently by HM Coastguard to pass line and breeches buoy to wrecked ships.

Martin Saggers. Ex England and Kent fast bowler