Research
The King's Lynn Borough Archives, along with the Stories of Lynn museum, are
stored at the King's Lynn Town Hall. They contain documents dating back to the
13th century, and tell the story of King's Lynn through various administrative
records, including registers of freemen, accounts, minutes of the borough's
governing body, and court records. The Norfolk Record Office works with the
borough council to provide staffing and support for the archive, and to digitise
their collection.
One of the most important areas of this collection is the Hall Books, containing
information about meetings of the Mayor, Aldermen, and Burgesses of the town,
held at the Guildhall. These include annual elections, admissions of freemen,
business regulations, and orders relating to trade, public health, and amenities,
among other things. Much of this information has previously been unavailable,
with a visit to the Borough Archives in King's Lynn necessary for researchers to be
able to view these books.
This project, supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund, is aiming to transcribe the
Hall Books which date from the Civil War and Georgian periods, making the
information within them more widely available to researchers and members of the
general public. The end goal is to have these transcriptions linked to our online
catalogue, along with digital images of the Hall Books. We are also asking
volunteers to tag names and places as they transcribe, with the hope that this will
aid future research into certain individuals or locations.
