A historic urban park in the heart of King’s Lynn, The Walks is the only surviving 18th-century town walk in Norfolk. It takes in part of the original medieval town defences, the Grade I listed 15th-century Red Mount Chapel and a section of the Gaywood River – the river that once provided much of the town’s fresh water. The landform in this area has been identified as ‘one of the most complete systems of earthwork town defences in eastern England’.
The ‘Guannock Arch’ and bridges, located south of the Red Mount Chapel, was possibly a medieval entrance into the town but today’s structure was constructed in the 1800s. It is Grade II listed. The nearby 20th-century bandstand stands in the ‘Vancouver Garden’ which commemorates George Vancouver, the famous sea captain who was born in King’s Lynn.
As a space for public recreation, The Walks was first conceived not as the whole municipal park as one finds today, but as a short, single promenade for the well-to-do citizens of Lynn in the early 18th century (now the north end of the ‘Broad Walk’). The other tree lined ‘Walks’ were laid out in separate phases between 1753 and 1906. Much of the original avenue planting has been replaced.
In the north-west corner of the modern park lie St John’s Church (designed by Anthony Salvin 1845–46) and the more formal St James’ Park, laid out in 1903 and formally the St Margaret’s burial ground in the early 19th century. Many of the original headstones can now be found in an area adjacent County Court Road.
The Tree Trail
The Walks has a fantastic collection of trees and other planting and we have prepared the ‘Tree Trail’ to help you learn more about the trees and their origins. You can pick up the paper leaflet from the café in The Walks, the Red Mount Chapel when it’s open, and the Tourist Information Centre in Saturday Market Place. Or click here to see the leaflet and here to see the map. The paper leaflet provides a map you can follow, but QR codes on 34 of the trees will take you to more information about the individual species.
About the age of trees
How old are the trees in The Walks? If a tree has a massive trunk, it must be ‘ancient’, right? But what is a ‘veteran‘ tree? The following notes may help.
Some features within The Walks are obviously medieval – including the Red Mount Chapel and the remains of the town defences. However, there is no evidence that any of the nearby trees are that old. There are records of the town wall being planted with an avenue of elm trees – but there are none there now. They may have been killed by Dutch Elm Disease (a fungal disease spread by a beetle which killed thousands of large elm trees in the UK between the 1920s and 1970s).
It is known that the main avenues of trees in The Walks were laid out in phases between c.1713 and 1906. But it appears that the original c.1713 trees were replaced in the 19th century. The oldest present-day avenue trees are thought to be around 150–170 years old. Other large trees in the park are probably a similar age.
The size and girth of a tree does not always reflect its age. Some trees naturally assume great size and have large stems (e.g. oak, beech and plane trees), whilst a hawthorn or apple tree could be very old and still not very big. Soil conditions, rainfall, exposure to wind and disease will also influence tree size.
‘Ancient’ and ‘Veteran’ are specific terms. An ‘ancient’ tree is a tree that is old in comparison to other trees of the species. It is generally considered to be in the final stages of its life and will show key characteristics such as a flattening canopy shape, hollow trunk, and/or old branches close to or leaning on the ground. An oak tree might be over 400 years old before it is considered ‘ancient’; a yew tree might be 800 years old!
A ‘veteran’ tree may be relatively young for its species, but has developed some of the characteristics of age. These might include holes and hollows in the stem, dead branches and/or the presence of fungi and other plants such as moss, lichen and ferns. They are important for wildlife and are sometimes seen as ‘ecological islands’.
We do not have any ‘ancient’ trees in The Walks but we do have a lot of ‘veterans’ and it makes the park very important for a wide range of species especially insects and birds.
Look out for some of our urban wildlife!
The trees in The Walks provide excellent habitat for a wide range of wildlife. You can regularly see and hear Great Spotted and Green Woodpecker, Nuthatch and Mistle Thrush. Jackdaws and Stock Doves nest in holes in older trees.
If a tree dies, the Parks team have a policy of leaving some of them standing where they provide habitat for a range of organisms – from fungi and mosses to wood-boring beetles and other insects which in turn provide food for birds like Woodpeckers.
Some tree species are particularly valuable for biodiversity. Ecologists estimate that Oak trees often support over 2,000 other species (including birds, bats, insects, fungi, bryophytes, and lichens).
Sometimes other organisms give rise to particular features of the tree. ‘Oak apples’ are found on virtually all oak trees but they are not the natural fruit of the tree (which is an acorn of course).
Oak apples are caused by a number of different species of small wasp that lay their eggs in the leaf buds. When the eggs hatch, the tiny grubs begin to eat the leaf bud and at the same time secrete chemicals that affect the bud’s normal growth. The tree forms a hard lump of tissue (a ‘gall’ or ‘oak apple’) which the growing grub lives within. The grub then pupates, emerging from a small hole in the gall. Look at one on a tree, and if it has a hole, the young wasp has already emerged.
There are many types of gall wasp and the oak apple varies in shape with the species. Other insects prey on the gall wasps – an intricate food web!
If you see some unusual wildlife in The Walks – please email Friends of The Walks at secretaryfow@gmail.com. We would love to hear your reports or see your photographs!
