East of England,England,Sculpture Trails

Following the ‘Explore-a-Book’ Book Bench Trail in King’s Lynn & Hunstanton: Norfolk

posted on : 28/05/2021 posted by : Tilly Jaye Horseman 6 Comments

Sculpture trail season has started in earnest in the TJG household as I headed to north west Norfolk to follow the Explore-a-Book book bench trail in King’s Lynn and Hunstanton. I am so excited for this year as there are some amazing sculpture trails planned in, as well as all the postponed trails from last year too.

However- it all kicks off in Norfolk, which was a bit of a trek for me from Cheshire as a day trip, but easily the best 16 hours I’d spent all year so far!

Portrait of UK travel blogger Travel Junkie Girl sat on a fairy-tale inspired painted book bench in King's Lynn's Tuesday Market Place. The book bench has colourful fairy-tale characters on it and is positioned in front of the pale blue and white architecture of the Duke's Head Hotel. — Sat in Tuesday Market Place, King’s Lynn

There are 10 book benches on the Explore-a-Book sculpture trail; 7 of them in King’s Lynn, 2 in Hunstanton and one last one in Downham Market. I did not manage to get to the last one as I literally ran out of day. It is however easily achievable to see them all in a single day (assuming you have access to a car); it’s just that I like exploring beyond the sculptures, so I move around leisurely, have a really good mooch around the area and take lots of photos of course.

So, What is a Book Bench?

Well, it’s exactly like it sounds – a bench which takes the form of an open book… and they are surprisingly comfortable to sit on.

I discovered them for the first time 4 years ago in Basingstoke when I followed the Sitting With Jane trail through Hampshire. I’ve since seen them all over the place, quite often as additions to other sculpture trails. They seem to be so popular and I can guarantee that if there are other benches in the vicinity, it’ll be the book benches that people sit on first. I’ve lost count of the number of people I’ve politely asked to vacate the seat while I took a quick photo of the design.

Detail of the artistic design on the back of a book bench in King's Lynn. The design shows an astronaut floating in the universe atmosphere and is multicoloured with punches of bright yellow, orange and red amidst the dark blue backdrop. — Yes, I asked these ladies to move briefly while I took a piccie of the front.

I love following sculpture trails like this as they get me out exploring places I wouldn’t necessarily have visited. Then within those places – finding little gems that I would often never have found without the trail.

Explore-a-Book Book Bench Trail in King’s Lynn

The locations in King’s Lynn have been chosen to reflect the theme of stories: the telling of a story and the people and places that arise from them. The ‘Stories of Lynn’ museum have produced a trail map along with excellent information about the locations and historical buildings you’ll see along the route.

Having printed off the trail map, I decided to park in Boal Quay car park so I wasn’t far from the first book bench at the Saturday Market Place.

Location: Saturday Market Place

I didn’t make it to the first bench though before getting totally distracted by the stunningly beautiful St Margaret’s Church, otherwise known as King’s Lynn Minster.

King’s Lynn Minster

This church is huge for the size of the town and is far bigger than any other Norfolk church at 235ft long. It is almost cathedral-like in its size, position and architectural prowess.

The church was originally founded as a Benedictine Priory in 1101 and has gathered a long and varied history as a parish church ever since. It became King’s Lynn Minster in 2011 in recognition that the ministry it provides is far wider than that of a normal parish church.

View of the length of King's Lynn Minster nave, showing the Norman arch shapes down the sides, a full line of pews, the fine wooden ceiling and the beautiful font in the foreground. — King’s Lynn Minster Nave

I of course had a gander inside on passing, but I won’t go into full architecture geek-out mode here, I’ll save that for another post. Safe to say – it’s worth popping your head in!

Keep an eye out for the Tide Clock, high up to the right on the western front of the Minster, as well as the flood level markers mounted on the stone to the right-hand side of the main entrance door.

A double line of grave head stones edging along an old street in King's Lynn — Lines of headstones in the churchyard

The double line of headstones along the southern boundary of the churchyard intrigued me too. The line of houses behind them on Priory Lane look rather old and I’m guessing they belonged to the priory originally.

Book Bench 1.

The book bench sits in the triangular shaped market place and is angled to have a perfect view of the Minster. The design was done by local youngsters and depicts places within the town and historic characters associated with King’s Lynn.

Detail of a section of book bench in King's Lynn, situated so you can see the architecture of an impressive church building in the background. The book bench design shows a child-like illustration of a field with trees and the edge of a red building on a mound.

Town Hall

Behind this book bench is the impressive Town Hall and Trinity Guild Hall, in which some parts date back to the 15^th century. It is actually a complex of several buildings, all fronted by the rather striking chequerboard pattern of flintwork.

A line of buildings showcasing striking architecture including a chequerboard pattern of flintwork, an impressive arched windows in the middle and other classical architectural features. The building stone work overall looks creamy pale brown. — King’s Lynn Town Hall (and gaol building on the right)

The old gaol house sits to the right and was added to the guild hall complex in 1784. These buildings now house the town museum: Stories of Lynn. The vaulted under croft below the guild hall is host to a multimedia exhibit which traces the town’s history through its historic characters. You also get to tour the gaol building which was still in use up till 1937 and see the Treasury which has King’s Lynn’s most impressive historic artefacts on display.

Location: King Staithes Square

I left the Saturday Market Place via Queen Street and passed the elegant Almshouses on the right called Burkitt Homes. They were built in 1909 in memory of William Burkitt who was the town Mayor in 1863 & 1886.

Portrait view of a red brick tower-like building with castellated roof lines, several tall chimneys, an arched doorway leading through to a courtyard and an imposing ironwork gate and fencing in front. — Burkitt Homes Almshouses

I turned left down a really cute cobbled street called King Staithes Lane, which lead into King Staithes Square where book bench no.2 on the trail is located alongside Purfleet Quay.

Book Bench 2.

This bench was designed by artist Jess Perrin and the seat part reminds me so much of William Morris’s designs from the arts and crafts era.

Image of a book bench on a quayside in King's Lynn. The book bench is painted blue with a William Morris inspired design of yellow and pink flowers on it. Behind is a low wall topped with green metal fencing with water showing through the gaps from a river. — Book bench alongside Purfleet Quay

On the back of the book bench is a fabulous fairy-tale castle scene bursting out of the pages of a book, featuring the Three Little Pigs and the three bears from Goldilocks and the Three Bears children’s tales.

Detail of the design on the back of a dark blue book bench in King's Lynn, showing a white fairy-tale castle with pink turrets, coming out of the opened pages of a book. Standing on the book pages are the fairy-tale characters - the three little pigs (right) and the Goldilocks three bears (left) — Gorgeous fairy-tale castle design

Purfleet Quay

By the riverside there is an intriguing sculpture that inverts the view looking through the sculpture in tiny diamond shapes. This totally intrigued me, but unfortunately there was no information board or plaque nearby to shed light on the installation. If anyone reading this can fill me in, please get in touch.

A see through sculpture with diamond shapes that inverts the landscape on the other side when you look through it. — Sculpture at Purfleet Quay

Walking across the quay gate you could see how silted up the River Ouse is and it’s pretty clear these gates are no longer in use as the mud reaches a long way up the sides.

View of a silted up muddy river in King's Lynn — River Ouse

Customs House

On the other side of the quay is Customs House, an attractive building that would have been a merchant’s exchange centre, needed to regulate all trade that took place in the port. King’s Lynn was once one of England’s most important trading towns. Although not situated on the coast, vessels would have sailed up the Ouse to this quayside to trade goods. Customs House was designed by architect Henry Bell in 1683 and became the first example of classical architecture in King’s Lynn.

George Vancouver Statue

Also on the Purfleet quayside is a statue of British naval captain, George Vancouver, who was born in King’s Lynn in 1757. He was an excellent surveyor and navigator who charted the Pacific Northwest coastline from San Diego, California all the way up to Anchorage, Alaska.

The Canadian city of Vancouver was named after him, as was the second (much less famous) Vancouver in Washington state. I never knew either of those facts, which just goes to show how educational these sculpture trails can turn out to be.

Location: Tuesday Market Place

Returning to Queen Street, (which turns into King Street at this point), I continued walking up to the Tuesday Market Place, calling in to What a Hoot! distillery down a little lane on the left, procuring some rather fabulous looking orange and gin curd to take home.

Interior shot of What a Hoot distillery shop in King's Lynn. Rows of bottles line the shelves. — ‘What a Hoot’ shop

As I was visiting during the first level of the U.K. national lockdown easing, where food outlets could only serve outside, the market place was buzzing with all the various pubs, restaurants and hotels doing a roaring trade.

Two buildings that grabbed my attention on the square was the old Corn Exchange and the Dukes Head hotel. Built in 1854, the corn exchange building is now a 750-seat live entertainment venue.

On the opposite side of the square, the baby blue frontage of the Dukes Head stands out, with its Georgian architectural details picked out in white.

Portrait view of a book bench decorated with colourful fairy-tale characters, positioned in front of the pale blue and white architecture of the Duke's Head Hotel in King's Lynn. — The Dukes Head Hotel in the Tuesday Market Place

Book Bench 3.

The third book bench designed by Donna Newman, sits to the right of the hotel and also depicts a fairy-tale scene, front and back.

There are some easily recognisable characters including the three little pigs, the big bad wolf, little Red Riding Hood, Jack with his beanstalk, the little old woman who lived in a shoe and the cow that jumped over the moon.

UK travel blogger Travel Junkie Girl with the fairy-tale inspired painted book bench in King's Lynn's Tuesday Market Place. The book bench has colourful fairy-tale characters on it. — Book bench in Tuesday Market Place

It’s a super fun design and I’m sure if you visit with children, they’ll leave singing the various rhymes. Either that or you’ll leave trying to recount the bit of the riddle you just can’t quite remember (then resorting to Google later.)

Location: Majestic Cinema

I actually walked to the 7^th bench on the official trail next outside the Majestic Cinema, passing the statue of King John on New Conduit Street.

King John Statue

This statue is a relatively new addition to King’s Lynn, commissioned in 2016. King John (of Magna Carta fame) is linked to King’s Lynn in a number of ways. He initially granted the town its charter in 1204, making it one of the most powerful ports in the country as it could rule itself. It was also one of the last places he visited before he died in 1216.

Black portrait statue of King John in the middle of a shopping street, with shops down each side. — Statue of King John

Two of King’s Lynn’s greatest treasures – a cup and a sword are named after him and are on display along with a copy of the charter at the Stories of Lynn Museum.

Book Bench 4.

This bench has a stunning design of an astronaut floating in outer space amongst planets, galaxies and fiery atmosphere, channelling some of the fantastical films that get shown in the Majestic cinema behind.

Portrait image of a colourfully painted book bench in front of the brown and white arches of the Majestic cinema in King's Lynn. — Majestic Cinema book bench

Location: The Bus Station

From the cinema, I walked up Paradise Parade and Market Street to emerge behind the Lynn Museum and right next to the bus station.

Book Bench 5.

I love the design of a seat within a seat that the bus station bench provides. The back reads that this is a ‘seat for friends’ and sports a cushion on the front with the quote: “reading brings us unknown friends.” Books are then stuffed in piles under the seat.

Rear side view of the colourful red, green and yellow book bench in front of the King's Lynn bus station. There are lots of people milling around in front of the station with red buses on the right hand side. Two people are sat on the bench. — King’s Lynn bus station

The trail leaflet tells you to:

‘take a moment to sit on the seat, smile, share stories and reconnect with people again.’

It got me reflecting on the number of times I’ve struck up conversations with people I’m sat next to or sharing a seat with, and made me realise how much I’ve missed this throughout the pandemic. We’ve got so used to social distancing and being unable to sit within 2m of someone, that I crave to be able to do such things again; like striking up conversations with the stranger you’re sat next to for hours on a train or plane. I hope we can return to this way of living at some point soon.

Location: The Train Station

It’s just a straight walk along Old Market Street (which turns into Waterloo Street) to reach the station, where the 6^th bench of the day claimed a prime position outside the entrance.

Book Bench 6.

This bench is painted in bright bold colours in simple geometric patterns. It’s an eye-catching design from a distance, but up close you realise just how clean and crisp the straight lines are which is no easy task on a curved seat.

Portrait shot of a colourful book bench in bright geometric patterns. Behind is the frontage of King's Lynn train station. — King’s Lynn railway station

Location: Red Mount Chapel – The Walks

I was just about ready for a chill out in a nice green space and that’s exactly what my final King’s Lynn bench brought – the extensive landscaped lawns of The Walks. This Grade II listed 18^th century park was refurbished in 2007 and is open 24 hours a day.

Landscape view of a wide green open space which a traditional tree lined path leads into. — The Walks

Entering the park by St John’s Church, I walked down St John’s Walk and turned right along Red Mount Walk to spot the bench in front of Red Mount Chapel.

Book Bench 7.

This beautiful design by artist Lois Cordelia, depicts an idyllic river landscape rich with wildlife, trees and plants; much like that that runs through The Walks immediately behind the chapel. With the park being accessible at all hours, it means this landscape can be enjoyed from sunrise till sunset, which are the times of day that Lois paints her subjects against here in her signature silhouette style.

Red Mount Chapel

I love this unusual octagonal-shaped building raised up on a mound of earth. Its real name is the Chapel of St Mary on the Mount and was built around 1485 as a pit stop for pilgrims en route to the Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham. It was built outside the town’s defensive walls, but within its protective banks.

Landscape view of a green open space with a path leading up to an octagonal red brick building on a small mound of earth. There is a curved black lamppost a short distance along the path. — Red Mount Chapel

After the dissolution of the monasteries in 1530, the chapel passed into town council ownership and has been used for all sorts of purposes over the years. These days, the chapel is home to colonies of Natterer’s and brown long eared bats, which can even be seen painted on the back of the book bench situated here.

Close up detail of the back of a painted book bench - shows black silhouettes of animals, birds, trees and plants along a river set against a bright sunrise backdrop. — Three bats are painted in the sky to the right.

Guannock Gate & the Vancouver Garden

Continuing along Red Mount Walk, at where it meets Broad Walk, I found the Guannock Gate, one of the last remaining sections of the original town defences. Thankfully it was left to provide an ornamental feature in the park.

Remains of an arched gateway within old defensive town walls. The top line of the walls is stepped and castellated. There is a black lamppost in the foreground and bare branched trees beyond the gate. — Guannock Gate

Walking through the gate and over the Gaywood river, there is an attractive ornamental garden to the left, complete with band stand and edged by a small rivulet of water. This is the Vancouver Garden, named after that same chap we discussed earlier – Captain George Vancouver and it’s a lovely place to sit and relax.

A black and red flat bridge leads across a small rivulet of water to a bandstand which is similarly painted in black and red. These features stand amidst green parkland and mature trees. — Vancouver Garden

Retracing my steps back through the gate to continue up Broad Walk, I passed this fab sculpture carved out of one of the original trees planted along the walk in 1753.

A tarmac path leads through an avenue of mature trees on the left hand side of the image, with a wooden sculpture of a cloaked lady coated with black wood stain on the right. This is carved from an old dead tree trunk so is in line with the rest of the trees. — Tree trunk sculpture along Broad Walk

It’s great that something was made out of the remaining tree trunk rather than losing the whole tree to whatever fate it befell. I wish you saw this happen more often in places where it’s not possible to replant a tree.

Greyfriars Tower

On exiting The Walks at the end of Broad Walk on the way back to the car, it was impossible not to be drawn into the gardens opposite where King’s Lynn war memorial stands within an attractive and well-kept peace garden, in the shadow of Greyfriars Tower.

A ruined stone bell tower and an attractive war memorial with a cross raised up on a thin column mounted on a large high square plinth, sits in pretty green lawn gardens. — Greyfriars Tower

Greyfriars Tower was a bell tower belonging to a Franciscan Priory dating back to the 1230’s. The tower survived however as it was later used as a handy sea-mark for ships navigating through the shallow waters of The Wash and River Ouse.

It has become a distinctive architectural feature of King’s Lynn and as several people have told me – you couldn’t picture King’s Lynn today without it! I’d say I’d have to agree with that too.

Hunstanton Book Benches 8 & 9

I cannot finish this post without summarising my additional foray up the road to Hunstanton to see 2 more of the book benches on the Explore-a-Book trail.

After figuring out that both benches were in close proximity to each other, with a car park handily situated between the two, that’s where I parked up to continue on the trail.

Hunstanton town sign sits on a large town green with attractive buildings surrounding it. The sky is bright blue and the shadow of the sign is strong and reaches a long way over the ground. — Hunstanton

Location: The Spinney

I first visited the book bench next to The Spinney, which is a triangle of pedestrianised land in the centre of Hunstanton with a small green, tree-covered section in the middle.

The book bench design welcomes you to the ‘libeary’, a place full of books and decorated in pun-tastic popular titles, all relating to bears – such a cool, fun design!

Close up design on the back of a book bench in Hunstanton. The design shows rows of books on shelves and says 'Welcome to the Libeary' with an image of a bear as a librarian figure. The book spines are full of bear puns. — ‘Welcome to the libeary’

It celebrates the idea that books can take us to places that we may never go to in real life, whether in this case you get engrossed in ‘the Thorn Bears’ escapades, the ‘Encyclopaedia Beartannica’ or ‘Life on Bearth’.

Portrait view of a book bench with a small wooded green behind casting shadows over the bench. The design shows lines of books with pun-tastic bear titles on the spines. — Book bench at The Spinney

This thought has only been amplified during the pandemic where we’ve experienced travel and general civil liberties being severely restricted. I, like many have used books as a form of escapism during Covid-19 and will continue to do so. For me, nothing beats getting stuck into a really good novel or planning walks from guide books and magazines. I can easily lose hours of my day to this activity.

Location: Le Strange Green Triangle

The second Hunstanton book bench illustrating Hunstanton seaside life can be found in prime position at the top of the town green, in front of the town hall.

UK travel blogger Travel Junkie Girl sat on a colourfully painted book bench by the town hall building in Hunstanton. There is bright blue sky and deep shadows cast along the ground. — Hunstanton Town Hall

This was the location at which local landowner, Henry Le Strange, centred his new seaside resort back in 1845. The expansion of the rail network in 1862 brought visitors in droves from King’s Lynn, making Hunstanton the epitome of a successful British seaside resort.

Looking at the number of people that were around when I visited, Hunstanton has clearly not lost any of its popularity. It was so nice seeing so many people out in the fresh air, sat on the green, enjoying their fish n chips and ice cream after months of lockdown. Yes, those people included me, though the ice cream came first as the chippy queue was very long!

A hand holds out a turquoise tub with two scoops of Lemon and raspberry ice cream, with a pink spoon sticking out of it. The background shows typical seaside buildings shot out of focus. — Lemon Meringue and Raspberry Ripple

Get in Touch!

So, there we are… Following the Explore-a-Book book bench trail in King’s Lynn and Hunstanton gave me an absolutely fab day out, which was so needed following lockdown.

Has anyone else been to see them? And if so, which was your favourite bench? Drop me a line in the comments below as I’d love to hear from you…

UK travel blogger - Travel Junkie Girl, sits on a painted blue book bench in King's Lynn. In the background is a line of quayside warehouse buildings and the attractive classical architecture of the Customs House building. — Have a great time on the trail!

The book benches are only out on the streets till the 7^th June 2021, so if you’re looking for a great idea for a day out in the half term break, why not consider King’s Lynn and Hunstanton?! I highly recommend you download or print off the map and information leaflets from the Stories of Lynn website before you go.

Have a wonderful time bench hopping! See you on the next trail!

If you’ve enjoyed reading this, please subscribe to my blog via email over on my profile page to receive notifications of when new posts go live. You can also sign up to receive my BRAND NEW newsletter, or follow me through Bloglovin’. Then head on over to Facebook, Instagram or Twitter to keep up with all my travel related news. Hope to see you there.