The Hanse and King’s Lynn
Even more important to Lynn’s trade
than Flanders, Netherlands and
France was Northern Europe and its
Hanseatic League or Hanse.
The Hanse was a collective of
German Baltic towns with the
trading power of a nation state,
comprising some 70 cities and 100
smaller towns.
‘Prospect of King’s Lynn from the West’ by Henry Bell, c. 1695.
From 1271 they were granted trading liberties with
Lynn, importing furs, beeswax, fish, cereals, pitch,
cloth, and timber, and exporting corn, wool, skins,
cloth, salt and lead. They were also allowed to
maintain their own houses, and not have to lodge
with burgesses of the town as other foreign traders
did. London, Hull and Boston also traded with the
Hanse during this period.
Hanse traders to Lynn came primarily from Lubeck,
Hamburg, Danzig and Bremen. They often travelled
in a distinctive type of vessel called a cog during the
14th and 15th centuries. The flat-bottomed and
steep sided cog had a deep hold which held more
goods than the traditional long ship. This made the
cog more difficult to unload and cranes and quays
became essential in the Hanse ports.
In 1475 the Hanse built a new warehouse in Lynn
which survives to this day in St Margaret’s Lane
near the Saturday Market Place. It was originally
a jettied timber building (now infilled with brick)
with its western end meeting the River Great Ouse
allowing goods to be unloaded directly from ships
into the warehouse. This is today the only surviving
Hanseatic business headquarters or steelyard in
England.
The Hanse were forced to leave England during
the reign of Elizabeth 1st but in 2005 Lynn joined
the New Hanseatic League as England’s sole
representative.
The view north from Boal Quay, c. 1910.
The Hanseatic Steelyard and Warehouse,
St Margaret’s Lane, King’s Lynn.
South Quay of King’s Lynn, c.1910.