Records of Lynn & Norfolk

The following are some of the resources that we have found useful and interesting when researching our Norfolk ancestors:
  • A Bibliography of Norfolk History to 1978: v. 1 & 2
    Published by University of East Anglia, contain around 10,000 entries, the most definitive listing of local history sources for the county of Norfolk, its towns and villages.
  • Return of Owners of Land in Norfolk in 1873
    Published in 1875, this records all owners of more than one acre, their address, extent of lands and gross estimated rental. We have transcribed all 10,096 records to a fully searchable database which is now available on-line.
  • 1900 Kelly's Directory of Norfolk
    A superb directory of private residents and those in trade - 50,000 or so persons. It includes a general account of the County, its Hundreds, Poor Law Unions, Magistrates, etc, a fine map, and a potted history of each parish.
  • Index of UK portrait and studio photographers c1840 - 1950 was inspired by our search for any surviving work by a photographer called Edwin B Mowll. We have yet to find a photo of James Fiddaman but we do know that Edwin took photographs of him on the occasion of his summer outing to Holkham in 1883. We want to know if any of his work has survived because if we can track down Edwin, perhaps we could find some of his surviving work. We traced Edwin's birth at Dover in 1851, his move to Lynn where he had a studio around 1885 and then to Birmingham. We became interested in the migration of photographers and thought that it would be nice to share the information which we gathered ... and the Index of data and links was born.
  • 1936/7 King's Lynn Council Minutes - a full record of proceedings of Town Council and Committee meetings from November 1936 until November 1937. We were lucky to find this leather bound volume on a summer visit to a bookshop at Burnham Market. We have listed surnames for a variety of folk including: the Mayor, Aldermen, Councillors and co-opted members; Borough police, those paid salaries, pensions & fees by cheque; those granted licences for carbide, explosives, game dealing, Hackney carriages, milk, petroleum, public house & slaughtermen; .... even those granted rights of burial. We are prepared to look-up the details if you can give us a little more information about the person concerned.
  • Kelly's Directory of King's Lynn 1968 - street directory, private residents, commercial directory & directory of professionals & trades. Once belonged to Rosemary's Mum. Some day we will transcribe this!
  • King's Lynn Official Guide 1970 - we often dip into this invaluable summary of the town's history, buildings, commerce, industry, Fisher Fleet and port, and entertainments.
  • Round the Coast - an album of pictures published by Newnes from photographs of the chief seaside places of interest in Great Britain and Ireland. Round the coast from Aberdeen to Yarmouth on the Isle of Wight - and back again - 284 pictures (about 10"x7") from photographs by Frith, Valentine, Poulton & Son, and others.
  • Images of Kings Lynn compiled by David Heaton from photographs published in the Eastern Daily Press, Norfolk's own daily newspaper, around the middle of the 20th century when Rosemary was growing up at Lynn (later she trained as a reporter with the EDP).
  • King's Lynn
    Paul Richards' definitive history of King's Lynn.
  • History of Norfolk by Susanna Wade Martins
    A history of Norfolk from prehistoric times to post World War II.
  • Francis Frith's Kings Lynn (Photographic Memories)
    Fascinating photographs from the 1890s compared with many from the 1960s.
  • Norfolk at Work (Britain in old photographs)
    Mostly photographs from the early decades of the 20th century.