King’s Lynn Town Guides introduce darker history walking tour – all about conflict, murders and executions
Lynn’s Town Guides have introduced a new walk where you can learn some deeper and darker secrets about the town.
Conflicts, murders and even executions are discussed during a walking tour conducted by James Rye, who has delved into researching some gruesome and fascinating stories from Lynn’s past.
Named, “King’s Lynn’s Darker History”, its one of the 14 different guided walks on offer from the Town Guides.
Starting off at Lynn’s Saturday Market Place, the tour takes you around some of the town’s historic landmarks such as the Lynn Minster and Hanse House.
Training officer James said: “Our research led us to all manner of strange and, quite frankly unpleasant, happenings dating from the 13th century.”
Stories on the tour include information about a community held to ransom, twenty massacred horses, seven naked bodies, three local aristocrats accused of treason, the man who lost his eye and the woman who lost her arm, and the missing body.
James added: “I must stress this is not a ghost tour, it is a walk where people can learn all manner of interesting – and true – historic facts.
“We didn’t need ghosts, there was plenty of material: duckings, burnings, hangings and quarterings plus a new whipping post.”
James explained just a bit of what you can expect from the tour.
He said: “The murderer Eugene Aram, whose skull is displayed in Stories of Lynn. A Yorkshire schoolteacher who be-friended a shoemaker, Daniel Clark. Clark disappeared, but some of his goods were found in Aram’s garden.
“Aram ran away from justice but ended up in Lynn, was recognised and eventually tried for murder. As well as his skull, in Stories of Lynn there is a fragment of Clark’s skull and a small pill box made of the wood from the gallows on which Aram was hung.”
Lynn News reporter Lucy Carter went along and took part in one of James’ tours, this is what she thought…
Whenever I visit somewhere new, I like to immerse myself in the culture and learn a bit about the place's history. So I was left questioning: ‘Why I haven’t done the same on my own doorstep?’
I really recommend this walk for not only tourists visiting the West Norfolk area but for residents too who are wanting to learn about the past of the historic town of Lynn.
Like a lot of people, the more gruesome side of history fascinates me and I was really excited to take part in the walking tour.
James’ storytelling really brings the tour to life. As you are stood where these historic events took place, you can almost visualise the stories you are hearing, like some of the gruesome deaths that took place on the Tuesday Market Place, or heretics storming into Lynn Minster.
It was a great way to see some of the great sights of historic Lynn while hearing some very interesting stories. Without giving any away, some of them are mindblowing.
There are a lot more tours on offer to do with Lynn’s Town Guides too.
