King's Lynn: Red Register accepted into UNESCO Memory of the World

The Red Register is reputedly the earliest paper book in England. It is the core record of the borough's government for almost the whole of the fourteenth century. It contains not only memoranda of the matters which came before the mayor and the community in the Guildhall but also copies of wills of local and foreign merchants, including Hanseatic merchants, with property and interests in King's Lynn.

As the UNESCO entry states:
This makes the Register an outstanding source for studying life and society in the fourteenth century, a period when Lynn was England's third most important port, acting as a hub for international trade with France, the low countries, Scandinavia, Iceland and the Hanse in Germany.

As an archival document, the Red Register is unique and irreplaceable.