Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk.

 

Ruins of some of the monastic buildings in Bury St. Edmunds

As touched upon in my previous blog, I was over in Suffolk briefly for my sister’s 80^th birthday celebrations and stayed with my daughter who currently lives in Bury St Edmunds. I was en famille from Thursday to Sunday morning and for the first time had the time to explore more than the conveniently close shopping centre. Continuing my Bruggean early morning walks regime, I explored the wonderful Abbey gardens and the adjoining old cemetery and discovered more superb vistas and ancient stones than I had dreamed possible. In fact, the same fascination with beauty, history, locality, which has always gripped me with Brugge, elicited the same reactions with Bury. I hope not to have to leave Brugge till the Final Curtain, but if I did have to return to the U.K., provided the mind remained open, I would now choose Bury for its gripping historical continuity and its beautiful old stones and walkways. It is an historical and aesthetic gem.

Elizabeth Frink's statue of the boy king, Edmund.
He came to the throne of East Anglia in 855 A.D. and was
murdered by the Danes for his faith in 869.

St Edmunds Abbey, home to the remains of the martyred King Edward from 903 A.D., was one of the largest and richest Benedictine monasteries in England, established in 1020, attracting a constant procession of pilgrims and receiving Royal grants and concessions over the centuries. At the time of the Norman Conquest, Bury was the fourth Abbey in wealth and political importance in the country. I had not known that it was at Bury, in 1214, that King John’s discontented earls and barons had gathered in the Abbey, to discuss their grievances against him and committed themselves as a group to force their King to grant them a number of liberties. The following year, the sovereign met the rebels at Runnymede and sealed the Magna Carta. An extraordinary and hugely definitive act in the development of democracy in England.

The Great Seal of King John for the Magna Carta 1215.

During the 13^th and 14^th centuries, the Abbey thrived, quite often in dispute with the town, and despite problems with damage through the collapse of part of the West tower and inevitably, through the mediaeval curse to venerable buildings of fire. But in spite of setbacks, Bury St Edmunds prospered and remained politically important enough to entertain Henry V1 for four months over Christmas 1433, but it met its nemesis, as did so many other monasteries, in the person of Henry V111; in 1539 it was surrendered to the Crown and its considerable income appropriated. Valuable building material was removed from the ancient site though the Abbot’s palace survived as a house until 1720. 

A judicious mix of the ecclesiastical and the arboreal!

Beyond the once magnificent West front, a range of houses was built between the 16th and 18^th centuries. Today the venerable ruins and the Abbey gardens provide a privilege for residents of and visitors to, Bury to explore and enjoy. It is a peaceful theatre in the mediaeval heart of the modern town in which anyone can find repose and illumination.