St Nicholas's Chapel

Image: © Oxyman Taken: 2 Aug 2007

St Nicholas's Chapel was constructed around 1200 during the expansion of Lynn by Bishop William Turbus - the third Bishop of Norwich. The expansion saw not only the construction of the chapel, but also the Tuesday Market Place - which is still the primary marketplace in the town today. Consequently, the chapel quickly became Lynn's second church by a comfortable margin. It was not long before it was so popular that it launched pleas to become independent from St Margaret's Church; in 1426 St Nicholas's Chapel had congregations of 1,400 - compared to 1,600 at St Margaret's. Despite this, it took until 1627 before the chapel obtained baptismal rights. Due to the rise in popularity, and the fact that the north of Lynn became quite affluent the chapel was rebuilt between 1380 and 1410 on a much larger scale in the grand perpendicular scale of the time. The church is England's largest chapel of ease, a chapel dependent on a church and serving part of the parish for the convenience of parishioneres nearby. It is worth visiting not only for the building itself, but also for the human stories it tells. The church is most distinctive for its tall spire, although it is not the original. There were at least two spires previously - one of which was destroyed in the storm of 1741 (along with the spire and lantern of St Margaret's), and another which stood from 1749 to 1854 described as 'never a regular spire but a kind of wooden extinguisher stuck on to be seen at sea'.

Images are licensed for reuse under creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0