KING’S LYNN MINSTER
NORFOLK, ENGLAND
‘GLASS ANGEL’, ‘JULES&JENNY’
J.J. MYERS & PAUL SCOTT
The Minster in King’s Lynn is a lovely old Church. The main photographic contributors to this site are ‘Glass Angel’, ‘Jules&Jenny’, and J.J. Myers who have willingly supplied their excellent photographs. Smaller numbers of photos have come from the Minster and me! There are a couple of accredited photos under the Creative License scheme, and one photo from Simon Barnett who I have unfortunately been unable to contact. Accreditation is given in the text using the initials GA, J&J, JJM, KLM, PRS and SB. I have been delighted at how ready people have been to let me use their excellent photos. Further details about our contributors are given in the Conclusion.
A brief history of this Church is given below. However, if you want to begin your tour of the Church immediately, tap / click on START . You can also access intermediate points in the tour by a tap / click on the following links:
16 Entry
NOTE ON MAGNIFYING IMAGES
With this website format the images are large enough for most purposes. If there is a need for greater magnification of an image, go to the identical photo on the appropriate website listed in the Conclusion.
SATELLITE VIEW
The satellite view shows that this Church has an axis which is almost exactly east-west geographically, and with the sanctuary at the eastern end. We therefore easily identify our liturgical directions (using capital initial letters, such as East) with the geographical directions. The main entrance is from St Margaret’s Place at the West end.
The main body of this Church is rectangular in shape. The nave and chancel have side aisles, and there is a central tower with two minimal transepts. At the West end (left) there are two towers, and an attached North porch.
PLAN
This plan unfortunately truncates the sanctuary! The dotted lines show the position of previous additions and extensions.
In our exploration we shall walk right round the outside of the Minster before entering through the West door. We look at St Edmund’s Chapel, and the newly modified North Porch. We next investigate the nave with its beautiful windows, the Eastern chapels, and finally the choir with its many misericords, and sanctuary.
There is much of interest here.
HISTORY
Years Built: 1101, C13
Address: Saturday Market Place, King’s Lynn, Norfolk
Simon Jenkins’ Rating: ****
55 Major British Churches: √
“At your request,” wrote Herbert de Losinga, first Bishop of Norwich, to the men of Lynn in 1101, “I have begun to build a church at Lynn”, and St Margaret’s entered the town’s history, standing in the Saturday Market Place at the heart of the oldest part of the town.
On 18th December, 2011, the Church was redesignated as King’s Lynn Minster by the current Bishop of Norwich, The Rt Revd Graham James.
A small priory was attached to Bishop de Losinga’s church, where four monks ‘seconded’ from Norwich Cathedral Priory looked after the priory’s West Norfolk affairs. Traces of it are seen in cottages bordering the churchyard.
The Norman church survives only in the internal arches of the West towers and at the base of the Southern one outside. In the 13th century the rest seems to have been totally rebuilt. Again only the magnificent chancel arcades survived 15th century enlargements and alterations by wealthy merchants and members of the Trinity Guild, whose hall stands opposite the church, across the Saturday Market Place: a grander clerestory and unusual round east window, and the great West window, whose glass of 1928 includes scenes from the town’s history. The Northwest tower had to be rebuilt in 1453, apparently subsidence into the soft ground had caused its predecessor to lean dangerously.
The nave and aisles had to be rebuilt completely after a gale in 1741 blew down a spire which formerly crowned the Southwest tower. The contemporary furnishings provided for Brettingham’s cautiously Gothic shell were cleared away by Victorian restorers with the exception of the superbly carved pulpit and tester.
The Victorian restoration of 1874, under the direction of Sir George Gilbert Scott, cleared out galleries which had been installed over the aisles and over the crossing and ‘opened’ the church from end to end, leaving it much as it appears now. A programme of installing stained glass in the aisle windows, instead of the plain glass of the 18th century, brought colour back to the nave. The windows are not top quality but are a source of great interest to visitors: a leaflet to describe them in detail was found to be a necessary addition to our publications. The crowning touch was the huge reredos, designed by G F Bodley and erected in 1899.
https://kingslynnminster.org/history/
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.
Within the parish there was also St Nicholas’ Chapel to the north and St James’ Chapel to the east. These were ‘Chapels of Ease’, not Parish Churches. All Saints Church, outside the town walls, is the ancient Parish Church for South Lynn. In the 19th century, St John’s Church was built to the east as a new Parish Church and the ancient parish of St Edmund’s North Lynn was combined with St Margaret’s parish. By then, the medieval St Edmund’s Church was derelict and St James’ Church had been demolished. St Nicholas’ Chapel is no longer used for regular services, but the three Parish Churches work together as the King’s Lynn Group Ministry.
St Margaret’s Church was made King’s Lynn Minster by the Bishop of Norwich in December 2011 in recognition that it provides a ministry far wider than that of a normal Parish Church. It is the civic church for West Norfolk and frequently holds services and events for the western part of the Diocese of Norwich. The historic and architectural significance of the building were also factors in the decision to make this a Minster. The title belongs to the building, so the parish served by the Minster is still called the Parish of St Margaret with St Nicholas and St Edmund, King’s Lynn.
https://kingslynnminster.org/history/the-minster-story/
