CBA East Talk: King’s Lynn Under Siege: new archaeological discoveries

After a short siege in the summer of 1643, Parliament recaptured the town of King’s Lynn, Norfolk. Re-fortified to a design seldom seen anywhere else in the country, King’s Lynn became the principal supply base for Parliament’s armies operating in the east and northeast of England. 380 years later, King’s Lynn is home to King’s Lynn under Siege (KLuS), a ground-breaking archaeological project, which is uncovering traces of the town’s fortifications. This talk will include the project’s excavations in 2021 (featured in Channel 4’s Great British Dig series) and 2022, and its further investigations in 2023. The project is providing a rare insight into the design and construction of earthwork fortifications during the English Civil War. David Flintham is a military historian specialising in the fortifications of the ‘English’ Civil Wars. He is co-founder and project director of the King’s Lynn under Siege community archaeology project, and he also serves on the committee of the Fortress Study Group. David is also part of a research project ‘re-discovering’ London’s ECW fortifications. In 2022 he organised the first ever symposium dedicated to sieges and fortresses of the Civil Wars. His latest book, The Town Well Fortified, was published by Helion in 2023.