Shiver me timbers

The Ghosts of Lynn

Goodnight, sweet prince,

And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest!

Hamlet

 Act 5, Scene 2

The town of Lynn, once Bishop's Lynn and then, thanks to Henry VIII, King's Lynn, might possibly be related to Dublin and Lincoln, through their connection with pools of water, which may have been used to collect salt. It probably isn't related to Linford Christie, Gary Winston Lineker, my old cock linnet, or Der Lindenbaum, 

Am Brunnen vor dem Tore,

Da steht ein Lindenbaum;

Ich träumt’ in seinem Schatten 

So manchen süssen Traum,

But those are other stories.....  What you may be surprised to know is that there is a very plausible connection to William Shakespeare, probable author of such witticisms as:

We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little life is rounded with a sleep.

The Tempest 

Act 4, Scene 1

And what, I hear you cry, is this? The Swan of Avon, washed up on the banks of the Great Ouse?

Sweet Swan of Auon! what a sight it were

To see thee in our waters yet appeare,

And make those flights vpon the bankes of Thames,

That so did take Eliza, and our Iames!

Ben Jonson

Yes, well, the likelihood is giant. And its footprint is in King Street, in St George’s Guildhall, which is owned by the National Trust and managed by King’s Lynn Borough Council and which is now confirmed to be the oldest working theatre space in the country.....

Until recently the interior of St George's Guildhall looked like this:

Currently, it looks like this:

And you may visit it any day (except Sundays) until August 31st to see and hear about the history of the building (built in 1419 and containing the largest area of 15th century timber floor in the country).  

So, what's this got to do with his Bardship, you moan? Well, this is the thing. Tim FitzHigham, Creative Director of the archaeological project to restore the theatre, has this to say: These are the boards used by Shakespeare’s company during the plague closures of 1592/3, making it a site of international cultural significance.....

And for proof we have....?  Well, this is what the Guildhall's website has to say:

There has been a long tradition that Shakespeare played at the Guildhall in King’s Lynn. People in King’s Lynn were told this by their parents who were told this by their parents and grandparents. This is not new. For example, in 1766 the pub next to the Guildhall (now called Shakespeare House) was named the Shakespeare Pub and had a picture of Shakespeare on the front of it to reflect these links. There are several things which support the oral tradition of the town. In 1592/3 the company associated with Shakespeare, the Earl of Pembroke’s Men, were paid to play in King’s Lynn when the theatres in London were shut due to the plague. At this time Shakespeare was an actor as well as a writer according to a work by Robert Greene of 1954 [1594?   Ed.] calling Shakespeare an ‘upstart crow’ [Not to be confused with D Mitchell's creepy smug TV stuff.  Ed].

Shakespeare’s comedian Robert Armin [Not to be confused with his grate nuncle, Idi.  Ed]  was born in King’s Lynn one street from the theatre..... Armin was a very close collaborator of Shakespeare’s and was the first person to play many of the most famous comedic roles Shakespeare created ['Til Deaf us do part; Dad's Barmy; Faulty Powers; et al. Ed]. Documents from Shakespeare’s lifetime reference an event that occurred in the theatre in ‘Linn, Norfolk’ which is said to have inspired Shakespeare to write part of the plot of Hamlet....

So, it is more than a random chance that Shakespeare actually ducked through this doorway (notwithstanding the semblance that they could be bricked up - Crollalanza era un mago!):

And maybe even this one:

Peered out of this window:

Stepped through this passageway:

And took the air (or had a pipe) in this courtyard:

Which includes an Art Gallery in memory of Lord Fermoy, whose wife provided for the until recent theatre seating, thereby ensuring the survival of the building through the latter part of the twentieth century and into the current secolo..... 

If it be now, ’tis not to come: if it be not to come, it will be now: if it be not now, yet it will come: the readiness is all.

Hamlet

Act 5, Scene 2

All the world's a stage

And all the men and women merely players.

They have their exits and their entrances; 

And one man in his time plays many parts.

As You Like It

Act 2, Scene 7

So, what else was there in Lynn 400 or so years ago?

The Minster and Priory Church of St Margaret, St Mary Magdalene and all the Virgin Saints was founded as a Benedictine Priory in 1101 by Herbert de Losinga, the first Bishop of Norwich. For 400 years it was the monks’ home as well as the Parish Church for the town. It was always known as St Margaret’s and would not have been very different, despite efforts by H8 [You mean Henery the Eighth; not hate, surely?  Ed] in Shakespeare's time from what we see now:  

I am one who loved not wisely but too well.

Othello

Act 5, Scene 2

[No.... that's a different story....Ed.]

So we also have the largest chapel-of-ease in England, St Nicholas Chapel (rebuilt between 1380 and 1410 but currently closed because of a problem with one of the roof beams [Elf and Safety gone mad?  Ed]) which would have been architecturally (if not from a glassware point of view) much as it is now.

Another building that was definitely here in the time of WS, is the Red Mount Chapel. It was built in 1485 as a wayside chapel for pilgrims landing at King's Lynn; a place to stop and pray before undertaking the overland journey to Walsingham, or to pray before leaving England after a visit to the shrine. It was/is known as the Chapel of Our Lady of the Mount, and is to be found in The Walks.

Then, although wrecked and suppressed (in 1538) by Enery and his 'enchpeople there would have been at least the Tower of the Greyfriars' Priory:

And while in the late 16th century the Trinity Guildhall housed a prison, the finely windowed first floor would have been there.....

And below stairs in several of the riverside buildings there were cellars which originally may have had direct access to the quayside or even to the river with the potential for rewarding import/export businesses.....

And all compacted into a relatively small area alongside the Great Ouse, making Lynn one of the most important ports in England.  From the 13th century Lynn had been a part of the Hanseatic League, and, though trade had declined by Shakespeare's time it was (and still is) an active port.

With narrow lanes leading to the riverside.

Out, out brief candle!

Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player, that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more; it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

Macbeth

Act 5, Scene 5

Back in the undercroft of the St George's Guildhall, it isn't hard to sense the spirit of Crollalanza in the blind arches and niches, in the ancient timbers and hand-made bricks. Is that the ghost of Banquo?

Prithee, see there. Behold, look! How say you?

Macbeth

Act 3, scene 4

Or does King Hamlet lie there?

Whither wilt thou lead me? Speak. I’ll go no further.

Hamlet

Act 1, scene 5

So....  What does this add up to?  Does it matter?  Well, in my 'umble opinion, yes it does.  We need to recognise our past and to learn from it.  Without history and heritage we are lesser creatures, with little reference by which to gauge our actions. Whether William Shakespeare himself ever actually drew breath in Lynn is, in itself, not necessarily going to alter what we do or think, but to register the continuity of human endeavour and to recognise the achievements, and the mistakes, of our forebears, inevitably makes us richer in many ways.  And had St George's Guildhall been pulled down and turned into a car showroom, for example, we would all be, in some ways, poorer.

Is this nothing?

Why then the world and all that’s in’t is nothing:

The covering sky is nothing, Bohemia nothing,

My wife is nothing, nor nothing have these nothings,

If this be nothing.

Leontes

The Winter's Tale

 Act 1, Scene 2

So, if you can get to see the exposed timbers and be guided round St George's Guildhall you won't regret it. Then, perhaps in 2028, we will all be able to enjoy performances in the restored oldest working theatre in England.  

The rest [For now. Ed] is silence.

Hamlet 

Act 5, Scene 2

*****

For further information, please see:

https://stgeorgesguildhall.com/heritage/

Dedicato alla memoria della nonna di CJS 

(ed anche a CJS stessa)

An extract from my forthcoming book

King's Lynn

King's Lynn and the Great Ouse

King’s Lynn, or Bishop’s Lynn as it was, or just Lynn as she is to locals, was once the third largest port in the country, and a member of the lucrative Hanseatic League. The name derives from a word for a lake, and the King was Henry VIII. 

The Trinity Guildhall

Trinity Guildhall, with its flushwork (the patterning that contrasts freestone with knapped flint) facade has stood on the Saturday Market Place since the early 15th century. Today it forms part of the Town Hall, and houses the Stories of Lynn Museum and the Old Gaol House.

Windows of the Trinity Guildhall

Just across the Saturday Market Place is another great building - King’s Lynn Minster, 

St Margaret's Church, now King's Lynn Minster

which was founded in 1101 by Herbert de Losinga, the first Bishop of Norwich. It has been considerably altered since then, with the west front showing four centuries of the development of English church architecture.

The High Altar - The Minster

The King's Lynn Heritage Action Zone area, with the Conservation Area at its heart, contains 462 listed buildings (17 Grade I, 55 Grade II* and 390 Grade II), including the Grade I St Nicholas Chapel, England’s largest surviving parochial chapel;

 

St Nicholas' Chapel

the Grade I St George’s Guildhall, the largest surviving medieval guildhall in the country 

Outside the Guildhall of St George

and the Grade I Hanse House (1485), the only surviving Hanseatic Warehouse in England.

The Hanse House

A 42 acre restored 18th century park, known as The Walks, contains the 15th century Red Mount Chapel, one of only two octagonal chapels in Europe.

Red Mount Chapel

This was once a wayside chapel for pilgrims to Walsingham, many of whom arrived by ship in King’s Lynn. Near by is Greyfriars Tower, all that remains of a Franciscan Friary founded in the early 13th century.

Greyfriars Tower

The Lynn Museum, just by the bus station, tells the story of West Norfolk, and includes the Seahenge which was found on the coast near Holme. True’s Yard Fisherfolk Museum covers the town’s maritime heritage and also has a traditional tea room and shop, all housed in a reclaimed Victorian cottages.

True's Yard

Today Lynn is much changed since its heyday but it’s a busy place, with warehouses, quays and bars alongside the Great Ouse.

Old Warehouses by the Great Ouse

In the Tuesday Market Place

Dancing in the Tuesday Market Place

there has been a traditional fair, called the Mart, every February for over 800 years, and for over seventy years the King’s Lynn Arts Festival has brought classical music and the arts to Lynn in July. 

The Mayor - Councillor Paul Bland

For 39 years Festival Too has taken place in King's Lynn and in 2024 28 acts performed across three weekends in the summer, ranging from emerging local talent to internationally renowned musicians. The Guildhall of St George, on King Street, was probably built in the 1430s and is still a working theatre, with a recently discovered arch possibly leading to the dressing room Shakespeare used in 1593.

The Deputy Mayor - Councillor Andy Bullen

The port is still active, and in 2022 it handled 420,939 tonnes of cargo carried by 191 vessels. The commodities handled included aggregates, barley, fertilisers, steel, stone, sugar beet, salt, timber, and wheat. Fishing and pleasure boats tie up alongside Marriot’s Warehouse, and a ferry will take you across the river to West Lynn….

The Old Custom House, on the Purfleet

On the Purfleet there is the old Custom House, designed by Henry Bell and built in 1683, and there is a statue of explorer George Vancouver, who gave his name to, among other places, Vancouver, Vancouver Island and two Mount Vancouvers, one in the Yukon and the other in New Zealand.

Captain George Vancouver

If you would like to explore the town the best way to start is with a guided walking tour of Historic Lynn with the King’s Lynn Town Guides. The walking season is from Easter Bank Holiday Monday until 31st October and all walks start at the Saturday Market Place, outside the Tourist Information Centre (unless otherwise specified). For more information about these and other walks or to book an individual tour, visit

 www.kingslynntownguides.co.uk

Hampton Court, part of Historic Lynn

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Although the layout and some of the pictures will not appear like this, the text is an extract from my new book, Starting from Snettisham, which is designed as an introduction to/appreciation of some of the joys of North-West Norfolk, from King's Lynn to Wells-next-the-sea, both for those who visit or who may be new to the area, and also as a reminder to those who know Norfolk well just how fortunate we are to live here. It could make a perfect gift for visitors and relatives as well…..

The reason I have called it Starting from Snettisham is that the village of Snettisham became our home when I moved here with my wife, Amanda, a few years ago. Although Amanda was already suffering quite badly from fronto-temporal dementia, we managed to explore the area around us for a couple of years before her condition deteriorated so much that she had to move into residential care, though even then I would take her out in her wheel chair to visit places around us, such as Burnham Market, Sandringham and Hunstanton. 

The cover of the new book

In 2023 I produced A Snapshot of Snettisham, a 72 page all colour book about the village, which I sold to raise money for The Friends of St Mary’s Snettisham (which was set up for those with or without faith who are interested in supporting and protecting the church building itself and the significant role it plays within the village and the wider community) and The National Brain Appeal (the charity dedicated to raising funds for the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery and the University College of London Queen Square Institute of Neurology, which cared for Amanda). 

The cover of last year's book

Amanda died on February 1st, 2024, and I decided to produce another book in memory of the places Amanda and I explored before her dementia got the better of her. It is in the same format as its predecessor, and again I am hoping to raise money for the same two charities.

The price is £12 a copy, and once the printing costs are covered every penny will go to the two charities. If you would like to purchase one please get in touch via email (richardpgibbs@aol.com) and as soon as I can I will mail them out - though of course I will also have to charge some postage.

{Incidentally I reprinted a few more copies of A Snapshot of Snettisham, at the same price, if you think you might like one of them too!}

A Norfolk Rhapsody

 A Year in Norfolk

It is exactly a year since we agreed to buy our new home in Norfolk, leaving Hertfordshire after eighteen years and some, and uprooting ourselves to the wilds of East Anglia, where locals say we are cut off on three sides by the sea and on the fourth by British Rail.

Regrets?  I will always have some, though I know they are futile.  Every day is a point of no return, and there are three choices:  live in the past, in the infinitely expanded present, or in dreams of the future.

Watch the oyster catcher.  He does what he does, and that is it.  Muddy beak, bloodshot eyes and scraggy pink feet.  He is what he is.

Or watch, and hear, the straggling skeins of Pink-footed geese as they fly out of gunshot to and from their roosts on the Wash and its mudflats.  I love their plaintiff honkings as they encourage each other, flying over my house, east in the morning and west in the evening, sometimes in gusty winds, and sometimes in thick dark cloud.  It is a winter treat that gladdens my heart when much else is glum.

That Norfolk National Treasure, Stephen Fry, said of his home county, You either get Norfolk, with its wild roughness and uncultivated oddities, or you don't. It's not all soft and lovely. It doesn't ask to be loved.  I think he is right.  I have made friends with one or two uncultivated oddities, and I have grown to admire its wild roughness.  

To the best of my remembrance I first came here with a couple of friends around fifty years ago, but since then have returned time and time again, highlights including being a residential volunteer for the RSPB at Titchwell Marsh and Snettisham on two occasions.  It was at Snettisham that I saw my first tangle of Knots, crowding the sky at dusk as the tide drives them off the Wash and to roost in the lagoons:

And it is here that you can now see breeding Avocet, which became the symbol of the RSPB in recognition of the success of conservation initiatives after its return, in 1947, after 100 years of exile from these islands:

Norfolk is the fifth largest county in England, and the driest.  It has more than 150 deserted villages, and 659 medieval churches, of which 125 have round towers.  Its coastline is 100 miles long, and its highest point is 338 feet above sea level.  I live at about 20 metres above sea level, but Ken Hill, between me and the Wash, reaches 60 metres.....  King's Lynn, at the mouth of the Great Ouse, was a Hanseatic Port, and at one time was the third busiest trading port in the country.

Apart from churches, the county has some exceptionally fine ruins, such as Castle Rising:

Castle Acre Priory, 

Walsingham (the most popular pilgrimage site after Canterbury), and Binham Priory, of which the church remains intact:

throughout the seasons.....

Practically every village has its Hall, like this in Old Hunstanton, where the Le Strange family settled after the Norman Conquest, with still extant rights over the shoreline for as far as you could throw a spear:

The Le Strange dynasty has now ceased in name, but they created the resort of Hunstanton, and their heirs still hold extensive rights over properties and lands around here.....

Amanda and I, or Amanda and her carers, walk every day, pacing her progressive demise over this landscape, and along her shores.  Her shadow lengthens every day.....

In sunshine, and in cloud (such as here, at Holkham, where Gwyneth Paltrow walked - there walk we):

Sometimes we stop to admire a plant, such as this Sea Holly:

Or we might see a bright cock Linnet watching us:

Another day we might chase dragonflies:

Or perhaps stroke a wild pig (on Wild Ken Hill):

By and large there are fewer people around, out of season.  Our village has its share of holiday lets which burst their seams in the school holidays.  At other times there is a steady flow of grey tourists - bird watchers and dog walkers - but in general there is space.  No longer do we have to shrink into hedges to avoid being mown down by lycra-stripped dog-runners or two grand carbon fibre bikers ignoring footpath signs.....

Off season the beach huts at Wells-next-the-sea are padlocked and sad.  The houses on Snettisham Beach are mostly shuttered up:

And the Royal West Norfolk Golf Club (founded 1892) lacks its summery infection of red-corduroy trousers:

The beaches are full of empty shells......  not wholly unlike us:

The wide skies fill with birds - geese everywhere and kites here and there:

At Thornham the old coal shed is locked.  Here fuel supplies were brought in by wherry to shield the treeless locals from winter winds:

At Snettisham the jetty, from which shingle was ferried to Lincolnshire to make concrete for the bomber squadron airfields, slips slowly into the sea:

And as the layer cake cliffs of Hunstanton crumble into the sea at high tide the sun sinks over the distant fens.....

Going, going......

And at low tide there is nothing but mud and the temptation of King John's Jewels under a fuzzy grey sky  patrolled by squawking geese:

Norfolk has become our home.  Sadly Amanda is unable to communicate her feelings about this, but she has adapted and seems to enjoy our wanderings.  The variety of scenery, light and weather is stimulating and our home is comfortable.  We could not wish for much more....  Enough is, for us at least, enough......

So, for the moment at least, we will follow the rules, irrespective of from whosoever's  moral authority they emanate.

And I recommend you do likewise......

Happy Times!

*   *    *    *

And as a footnote, I found this.  I don't know David Callin (from the Isle  of Man), but would like to, and in the meantime hope he will not mind me reproducing this poem.  You can add your own pictures.....

Snettisham

by David Callin

This is the Wash it seems -

a last exhalation

of the dying land, or something

the sea's been working on

for ages: sketching it in,

rubbing it out,

redoing and redoing it,

never satisfied.

Look at you, all wrapped up,

hat and scarf and

gloves, and those wild eyes

made weak by medication

and hopes confounded so

so many times.

Never this thin before.

Going slowly, in this

flattest part of England,

going slowly downhill.

The birds rise

like a handful of rain

thrown upward,

and the Great Twitcher

in the sky misses

nothing. His fondness

for sparrows is well known.