St Margaret's Church, King's Lynn, entitled King's Lynn Minster since 2011, is a

Grade I listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

parish church in the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britain ...

King's Lynn King's Lynn, known until 1537 as Bishop's Lynn and colloquially as Lynn, is a port and market town in the borough of King's Lynn and West Norfolk in the county of Norfolk, England. It is located north of London, north-east of Peterborough, no ...

. The building dates from the 12th to 15th centuries, with major restoration of the nave in the 18th century. Five of its ten bells and its organ also date back to the mid-18th century.

History

Benedictine priory

The church was established by

Herbert de Losinga Herbert de Losinga (died 22 July 1119) was the first Bishop of Norwich. He founded Norwich Cathedral in 1096 when he was Bishop of Thetford. Life Losinga was born in Exmes, near Argentan, Normandy, the son of Robert de LosingaDoubleday and Page ...

Bishop of Norwich The Bishop of Norwich is the ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Norwich in the Province of Canterbury. The diocese covers most of the county of Norfolk and part of Suffolk. The bishop of Norwich is Graham Usher. The see is in the ...

in 1095 to serve a Benedictine Priory and dedicated to St Margaret of Antioch. The priory was subordinate to the Priory of the Holy Trinity in Norwich. The slender 12th-century south-west tower in the Early English Gothic style precedes the larger north-west tower in the

Perpendicular In elementary geometry, two geometric objects are perpendicular if they intersect at a right angle (90 degrees or π/2 radians). The condition of perpendicularity may be represented graphically using the ''perpendicular symbol'', ⟂. It can ...

style of the 15th century. The chancel with

clerestory In architecture, a clerestory ( ; , also clearstory, clearstorey, or overstorey) is a high section of wall that contains windows above eye level. Its purpose is to admit light, fresh air, or both. Historically, ''clerestory'' denoted an upper l ...

dates from the 13th century, when the earlier Norman nave was replaced. Elements of the Norman building survive in the base of the south-west tower.

Parish church

After the

English Reformation The English Reformation took place in 16th-century England when the Church of England broke away from the authority of the pope and the Catholic Church. These events were part of the wider European Protestant Reformation, a religious and poli ...

St Margaret's became the parish church for the town of

, and its property was used as an endowment for

Norwich Cathedral Norwich Cathedral is an Anglican cathedral in Norwich, Norfolk, dedicated to the Holy and Undivided Trinity. It is the cathedral church for the Church of England Diocese of Norwich and is one of the Norwich 12 heritage sites. The cathedral ...

. Prior Drake was made

prebend A prebendary is a member of the Roman Catholic or Anglican clergy, a form of canon with a role in the administration of a cathedral or collegiate church. When attending services, prebendaries sit in particular seats, usually at the back of the ...

of the fourth stall in

. The central lantern and south-west spire collapsed in 1741, which destroyed much of the nave. This was reconstructed in a programme of rebuilding between 1745-46 by the architect Matthew Brettingham in an early Gothic revival style. The Church retains its medieval

misericord A misericord (sometimes named mercy seat, like the biblical object) is a small wooden structure formed on the underside of a folding seat in a church which, when the seat is folded up, is intended to act as a shelf to support a person in a par ...

s. St Margaret's church was granted the honorary title King's Lynn Minster in 2011 by the Bishop of Norwich.

Bells

The oldest bell is a Sanctus bell dating from 1657 by Thomas Norris. The main ring of 10 bells is in the key of C with a tenor weighing just over . *1

Mears and Stainbank The Whitechapel Bell Foundry was a business in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. At the time of the closure of its Whitechapel premises, it was the oldest manufacturing company in Great Britain. The bell foundry primarily made church bells a ...

1887 *2

1887 *3 Lester and Pack 1766 *4 Lester and Pack 1766 *5 Lester and Pack 1766 *6 Lester and Pack 1766 *7 Lester and Pack 1766 *8

1893 *9 John Taylor Bellfounders Ltd 2005 *10 Lester and Pack 1766

Organ

The organ dates from 1754 when it was installed by

John Snetzler John Snetzler (or Schnetzler) was an organ builder of Swiss origin, who worked mostly in England. Born in Schaffhausen in 1710, he trained with the firm of Egedacher in Passau and came to London about 1741. When he retired in 1781, his business ...

. The church organist for nine years from 1751 was the music historian and composer

Charles Burney Charles Burney (7 April 1726 – 12 April 1814) was an English music historian, composer and musician. He was the father of the writers Frances Burney and Sarah Burney, of the explorer James Burney, and of Charles Burney, a classicist a ...

. The organ has been through many restorations and rebuildings since then, the latest in 2003 by Holmes and Swift. Specifications of the organ can be found on the National Pipe Organ Register.

Gallery

St Margaret's Church, King's Lynn, Norfolk - East end - geograph.org.uk - 1469985.jpg, The

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

and

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse. Ove ...

St Margaret, King's Lynn, Norfolk - Bench end - geograph.org.uk - 1501293.jpg, A pew end St Margaret, King's Lynn, Norfolk - Organ - geograph.org.uk - 1501351.jpg, The Sneztler organ case

References

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