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Books > Bury St Edmunds Town and City Memories
Bury St Edmunds, Angel Hotel 1929 (ref. 81945) | The Virginia creeper on the Angel is beginning to cover the new first floor, which was built in 1921-22 over the garage entrance. The 16th-century gabled and timber-framed building beyond has a 20th-century Regency-style shopfront, and was called Pamela's for many years. The tall 18th-century building is Norman's chemist's shop, later to become Leesons; its shopfront with an Ionic colonnade was added in 1834. In the distance we can see scaffolding on a house - it was destroyed by fire in September 1929. |  Add your own Memory
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Bury St Edmunds, War Memorial 1922 (ref. 71955) | This photograph was taken after Armistice Day 1922. The Queen Anne house, built in 1702 and presented to the National Trust in 1943, became known as Angel Corner in 1956. It housed the Bury and West Suffolk Record office from 1953 to 1973, and the John Gersham Parkington Memorial Clock Museum from 1953 to 1992. The house has since become the Mayor's Parlour. To the left is part of the garden wall of the house destroyed by fire in 1929. | Add your own Memory
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Bury St Edmunds, Angel Hill c1965 (ref. B258077) | The 'Georgian' Borough Offices of 1937 dominate this view from Mustow Street. The buildings to the left include timber-framed structures, at least four of which have jettied first floors. Bell's furnishers dates from c1500, and since 1985 has had all its timbers exposed. The 1930s Burrell's garage had petrol pumps on the pavement installed in 1923; these were the first in Bury. Three different types of advertisements are displayed: Bell's plays on its name, claiming 'Bells for sound furniture'; the 16th-century One Bull has a sign showing a Papal Bull; and Burrell's has a square clock. The three-storey building on the left-hand corner was built in 1849 to replace the Globe, which had succeeded the earlier Cock and Pye Inn. | Add your own Memory
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Bury St Edmunds, Abbey Gate and Angel Hill c1960 (ref. B258072) | This photograph shows the range of substantial brick-fronted Georgian houses at the north end. Opposite is the curving early 19th-century Crescent House, which included Mem's Café, 'the place where friends meet', and Honor Bright, home-made chocolates. The buses are a reminder that independent bus companies, including Chamber's, Cutting's, Goldsmith's, Mulley's, Simond's and Theobald's, used this area. | Add your own Memory
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Bury St Edmunds, Crown Street 1929 (ref. 81935) | This view is taken from the Norman Tower looking south. Beyond Westgate Street lies woodland and countryside, including Hardwick Heath. Today most of this area is covered by housing, part of the expansion of the town since the mid 1970s. On the left is Tuns Passage. The former Three Tuns Inn, which closed in 1903, became the St Mary's Institute until 1949 and was then the Labour Party office until 1997. The complex of buildings at the far end of the street is part of Greene King brewery. The three malt houses were replaced in the 1950s, and the chimney was demolished in the 1980s. The roofline of the Theatre can be seen at the end of the left-hand side of the street. | Add your own Memory
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Bury St Edmunds, Dog and Partridge Hotel 1929 (ref. 81947) | In the 18th century this was the Mermaid, but it had become the Dog and Partridge by 1791. Despite being a 17th-century timber-framed building, it was given a mock-Tudor make-over, which was shortly to be removed - see B258071, right. | Add your own Memory
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Bury St Edmunds, Crown Street c1955 (ref. B258071) | The Dog and Partridge (centre left) looks much as it does today. To the left of the pub is the site of the house where Abbot John Reeve lived from the closure of the abbey in November 1539 until his death in April 1540. The three houses to the right of the pub show the variety of styles and materials in the street. One is early 19th-century, built in white Woolpit or Culford brick, with a doorway with Doric columns (the house opposite has a porch with similar columns); next is a 17th-century timber-framed building with a jetty and dormer windows; the third is a building re-fronted to disguise the jetty and to appear Georgian, with a classical door case. | Add your own Memory
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Bury St Edmunds, the Abbey Ruins 1898 (ref. 41228) | Houses had been built into the central arches of the west front by at least the 1660s. The Norman-style windows to the right date from 1863, when this wing became the Probate Registry Office. In 1957 the Borough Council purchased the ruins from the Bristol family, as part of the scheme to turn the area into a cathedral close. The monuments were removed in 1958, and the area was laid to lawn. A statue of St Edmund, by Dame Elizabeth Frink, was placed here in 1976 to commemorate the end of Bury St Edmunds and West Suffolk as independent administrative areas. | Add your own Memory
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Bury St Edmunds, Abbey Ruins 1929 (ref. 81944) | This is all that remains of the magnificent west front of the Abbey, now reduced in height and stripped of its facing stone. The outline of the three main entrance arches marks the centre of the building. The front would have been twice as high with turrets on the end towers, and with a massive central tower and spire, probably three times the height of the Norman Tower. Beyond the ruins are open countryside and woodland. Since 1979 the town has expanded over the area of Moreton Hall, stretching towards Great Barton and Rougham. | Add your own Memory
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Bury St Edmunds, Martyrs' Memorial 1929 (ref. 81943) | The monument of 1903 commemorates 17 Suffolk Protestants who were burnt at Bury during the reign of Queen Mary. The ruins of the Charnel Chapel are between the two avenues. | Add your own Memory
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Bury St Edmunds, Norman Tower 1898 (ref. 41234) | This tower was built between 1120 and 1148 as the main entrance to the Abbey, the churchyard and the two parish churches. It was also the belfry for St James's. It was flanked by the high Abbey precinct wall, and the arched entrance with supporting towers formed a porch. | Add your own Memory
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Bury St Edmunds, Shire Hall 1929 (ref. 81950) | The Shire Hall was rebuilt in 1907 in an Edwardian classical style, which included the arms of West Suffolk over the doorway. It was designed by A A Hunt of Bury. | Add your own Memory
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Bury St Edmunds, the Butter Market c1965 (ref. B258095) | On market days, Wednesday and Saturday, there are about 100 stalls trading in the Butter Market and Cornhill. Bury is one of the most thriving traditional markets in England. In the 18th century there were at least 18 inns around the market place. One of the last to survive was the Suffolk (right), formerly the Greyhound, which was rebuilt and renamed in 1833. The ground floor was again rebuilt in 1873, including the round arched windows, which were retained after its closure in 1996 when it was converted into two shops. | Add your own Memory
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Bury St Edmunds, Abbey Gardens and Gate 1898 (ref. 41230) | The gardens were described in 1891 as 'laid out in a circle… with various radiating beds intersected by principal promenades and many green paths, and are kept constantly filled by masses of the gayest flowers'. | Add your own Memory
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Bury St Edmunds, Angel Hill c1955 (ref. B258008) | This is the site of Bury Fair, the great social and trading focus of Bury in the late 17th to early 19th centuries. To the left are Abbey House, the 18th-century town house of the Davers family of Rushbrook, the Cathedral and St Mary's. The Athenaeum, or former Assembly House (centre), is little changed since 1802-4, except for the Victorian observatory on the roof. The two buildings to the right were built in 1814-16. One became St Edmund's Hotel, which was acquired by the Angel in 1963. | Add your own Memory
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Bury St Edmunds, Abbey Gardens c1965 (ref. B258082) | Excavations were carried out on the Chapter House in 1902, when the graves of five Abbots, including that of Abbot Sampson, were discovered. A major excavation and repair of the Abbey church was undertaken in the 1960s and 1970s. | Add your own Memory
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Bury St Edmunds, County Hospital 1898 (ref. 41247) | The Hospital was established in 1826 in a former ordnance depot built during the Napoleonic Wars, and was virtually rebuilt in 1861. Until 1948 the hospital was voluntary, and wards were named after local benefactors such as Bristol (of Ickworth), Praed (of Ousden) and Hasted (of Bury). In 1847 Dr John Kilner made one of the earliest uses of anaesthesia in an operation. This building was demolished for housing in 1979, and some of the other buildings became Cornwallis Court in 1981. A new hospital was opened in Hardwick Lane in 1974. | Add your own Memory
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Bury St Edmunds, Norman Tower c1955 (ref. B258069) | Much of the Abbey would have been designed with arches, openings and decorations similar to those that survive on the Norman Tower. The precinct wall would have originally closed the gap between the Tower and St James's. In the 18th century the Widow's Coffee House stood here, run by Mary and Letitia Rookes. There is no evidence whatsoever that this was also a brothel. | Add your own Memory
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Bury St Edmunds, the Abbey Gateway 1898 (ref. 41229) | The original gate was probably a duplicate of the Norman Tower. It was destroyed during the riot of 1327 and rebuilt in the Decorated style. The earlier gate stood to the left of its replacement, and the join in the wall shows its position. The arches on the front had statues in them, which were destroyed after 1539. | Add your own Memory
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Bury St Edmunds, the Sundial and Abbey Gate c1955 (ref. B258040) | The 1870 drinking fountain was moved here from the Traverse in 1939, and became an elaborate planter. | Add your own Memory
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