NHER 5547 (Monument record) - Site of Reffley Temple and Spring, Reffley Lane

Temple 1789 and 1831, with sphinxes, obelisk, re-erected 1756; marked as 'stone' on Ordnance Survey map. Stone table 1740 (R.R. Clarke and (S1)).
E. Rose (NAU).

1976. Building survey.
Survey in Norfolk Archaeological Research Group buildings records; no mention of table.
But apparently it is still there, but was presented to the society in 1778.
Sphinxes removed for safety.

See (S2)
E. Rose (NAU).

Temple demolished 1982, and obelisk, complete 1980, said to have been 'reduced to ruins by vandals'; this, and full history of site, in (S2) (in file).
Also photographs (S3) and press cuttings (S4) to (S6) in file.
E. Rose (NAU), 23 September 1985.

July 1988.
District Council says site totally cleared.
The inscribed stone plaque is in their care.
E. Rose (NAU), 22 July 1988.

(S2) reports that the Reffley Brethren, sometimes known as the Sons of Reffley, was an organisation founded in King's Lynn in the 17th century in defiance of a Cromwellian order which forbade the assembly of thirty person or more. The original members were Royalists and there are no written records of the early years of the Society. After the restoration of the monarchy the objects of the club were 'conviviality and good fellowship'. The principal drink at the annual meeting was a punch prepared from a secret recipe containing water from the nearby spring which is in the same enclosure as the Temple.
The spring is marked by an obelisk approximately 6m high. According to the Latin inscription on one face of the plinth the obelisk was re-erected from its ruins in June 1756, which suggests that the spring was of some significance long before the Reffley brotherhood built their temple adjacent to the waters. The Reffley Brethren allowed the citizens of King's Lynn to access the spring and up to the early years of the 20th century it appears to have been customary to make a pilgrimage there at Whitsun.
(S2) contains details of the inscription on the obelisk.
For a more detailed history of the spring, see (S3) and (S4).
A. Cattermole (King's Lynn UAD), 10 February 2020.