King's Lynn serves as a port for Norfolk, England. It has previously been called Bishop's Lynn and Lynn Regis but locals simply call it Lynn which is a Celtic word that means lake. It is the 3rd biggest Norfolk settlement and is the birthplace of George Vancouver. Vancouver was a Royal Navy officer who was the first to explore what is now British Columbia in Canada on the Pacific coast. He also went to what is now Alaska, Washington and Oregon plus Australia's southwest coast. Diana, Princess of Wales also first attended school there.
King's Lynn has had some sort of habitation for over a thousand years but not until 1101 when the St. Margaret's Church was started by Bishop Herbert de Losinga was the town noted on record. Originally named Llyn the town took on the prefix Bishop's because part of the Bishop of Norwich's manor in the 12th Century. The town was the third largest port in England by the 14th Century. It was as vital to England during Medieval times as Liverpool was in the Industrial Revolution. The only buildings that remain are the ones built by the Hansteatic League in England, the Hanseatic League are two buildings that were their warehouse in the 15th and 17th Centuries.
In 1538 after the dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII the manor and town were royal property. Because of the royalty it was given the name of King's Lynn and Lynn Regis but it was King's Lynn that lasted. In the 17th Century the town gained wealth because of its exportation of corn. In 1683 a local architect by the name of Henry Bell designed the Customs House.
The town had a period of decline after this and was only brought back by the late arrival of the railway system in 1847. The railways went between King's Lynn, Dereham, Hunstanton and Cambridge. The Midland and Great Northern Joint Railway also served there and they had offices on Austin Street plus a vital station on South Lynn that has since been taken apart. The South Lynn was the the railways operational center until it was moved to Melton Constable. In Febuary of 1959 the railways were shut down for passenger use.
In 1915 Lynn was one of the first places Zeppelin chose to bomb by air in Great Britian. His target was Savage's Iron Works because they made airoplane parts. After WWII the town dubbed a London Expansion Town which caused the population nearly doubled when people relocated from the capital.
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