Lynn Museum

Lynn Museum Latitude: 0.052° 52' 41.1° N Longitude: 0.01 ° 26' 15.9° E

Online Exhibitions

Click on the link below to see the online exhibition of items in our collection

The Maritime Collections of King's Lynn Museums

About Us

Lynn Museum has recently reopened after a £1.1 million redevelopment funded largely by the Heitage Lottery Fund and Norfolk County Council.

Museum staff have been hard at work over the last few months preparing the new displays which feature some of the best loved objects from the King’s Lynn Museum collections of over 50,000 objects. More collections than ever are on show in the old Victorian mahogany wall-cases, which have been opened up to their original size (having previously been used as partial storage cases). The larger cases have enabled the display of bigger objects previously in store and rarely seen by visitors. These include the 18th century Moone Lantern, Crimean War Russian cavalry banner, the Sturgeon from Denver Sluice, and the 1830 ship model made by the young Thomas Baines as a boy, together with examples of 19th century costume from the extensive costume collections.

The displays are themed: Local Archaeology from the Iron Age to the Saxons (Invaders and Settlers), Medieval Lynn, Maritime Heritage, Town and Country Life, Working Life, and Cabinet of Curiosities. Some of the highlights from the collections are displayed in a central display case which corresponds to the wall case themes. Many of these items have been purchased for the collections with the help of the Friends of the King's Lynn Museums. Here can be seen the Sedgeford Iceni gold coin hoard found hidden in a cow bone, the Celtic strap union from Reffley, the Saxon sword pommel from Congham, and James Sillett’s painting of the Norwich stagecoach in Lynn. Also on show is Lynn novelist Fanny Burney’s pocket watch, Frederick Savage’s dobby horse and gallopers and oil paintings by well-known local artists such as Henry Baines and Walter Dexter.

Lynn Museum features a permanent display on the maritime history of King's Lynn. Lynn's history of whaling is illustrated by exhibits including a ship model, scrimshaw, whale bone, harpoons and blubber pans. Sailor's hand-made artefacts include carved wood dolls and a painted sea chest. The ship surgeon's tool kit contains an amputation saw.

Captain Manby invented the life-saving line to rescue ship-wrecked sailors, and one of his mortars for firing the line is on display. Horatio Nelson was born in West Norfolk , and memorabilia item associated with him can be seen.

Visitors can see the new 'Seahenge' Gallery featuring the unique and mysterious 4,000 year-old timber circle found at Holme next the Sea. The circle appeared on the North Norfolk beach in the late 1990s. It was preserved in peat beds and was composed of a complete circle of timbers enclosing a central upturned tree stump. Visitors can view half of the original timber circle, together with a reconstruction of what the circle might have looked like when it was built in 2049 B.C. Also on display are Bronze Age artefacts from the museum collections including gold torcs, bronze axes and pottery.

Entrance to the museum is off King's Lynn bus station, adjacent to the shopping precinct, and two minutes' walk from the railway station.

A historic resource centre allows visitors computerised access to many of the photographs of historic Lynn in the museum archives. Audio guides give visitors further information about the objects on display, and there are interactive games and hands-on activities for adults and children alike!