A long time ago the only currency worth its salt was…salt. Roman soldiers were paid in salt, and from that we get the word ‘salary’. And there’s plenty of salt sprinkled through the history of maritime King’s Lynn in West Norfolk. The town began with salt and the lucrative industry of extracting it from the shores of a now lost ‘linn’, a Celtic word for pool and the first name of the town. Salt was used to preserve meat and fish for long winters, a matter of survival. The salt business developed through the patronage of the Bishops of Norwich who laid the foundations of medieval Linn, or Bishop’s Lynn as was later called. When Henry VIII broke with Rome the town was renamed King’s Lynn.
Find out more at Lynn Museum, an architectural gem hidden in the corner of a busy bus station. Tucked into a former chapel, this small museum is packed with stories and an eclectic array of artefacts including Horace, a Tiger killed by a King, fairground gallopers made by engineer Frederick Savage and, most impressively, a haunting Bronze Age oak circle.
Seahenge, as it’s now known, was originally constructed on a lonely saltmarsh. Protected from the sea by sand dunes and mud flats, it became hidden beneath a layer of peat, which eventually covered the henge and prevented it from decay. Loaned to the British Museum as the centrepiece of its acclaimed Stonehenge exhibition, Seahenge’s purpose is shrouded in the mists of the past.
