King’s Lynntown and seaport, King’s Lynn and West Norfolk
borough, administrative and historic county of Norfolk, England.
The town lies along the estuary of the Great Ouse River as it
enters the Wash, a shallow North Sea inlet.  In 1204 a royal
charter established Lynn as a free borough. Henry VIII granted
it two charters, in 1524 and in 1537, the latter renaming it
King’s Lynn. On the land side the town was formerly defended by
a fosse (moat), and there are remains of the old wall, including
the 15th-century South Gate. The Customs House (1683) and
several merchants’ homes recall the town’s commercial history
and former prosperity. St. George’s Guildhall (1406) is one of
the largest and oldest examples of a merchant guildhall in
England.  The modern town is a market and service centre for a
large and rich farming district and still functions as a small
port for traffic from Baltic and North Sea ports. Its main
industries are fertilizer manufacturing, beet sugar refining,
fruit and vegetable canning, and lig