Ruined Facade, Bury St Edmunds Abbey
The tragic remains of the once great abbey of Bury St Edmunds. Originally one of the largest and most powerful monastic complexes in England, the abbey precinct was constructed around the vast church which was built over the tomb of the martyred King and Saint Edmund and was a major centre of pilgrimage.
The great Norman church was of colossal proportions, cruciform and larger than many cathedrals (certainly the one which now stands before its site, which would have easily fitted into the abbey's nave with room to spare). Its facade was immensely broad and was formerly crowned by a soaring tower and spire, its overall form perhaps somewhere between the frontages of Ely and Lincoln cathedrals.
All its glory ended with the Dissolution of the Monasteries, it came close to a reprieve when Henry VIII considered forming new dioceses out of certain great monasteries in which case it would have become the cathedral (instead of the much smaller St James's church in front of it). Alas it was not to be and the site was quickly plundered and used as a quarry.
Today the enormous church has been so systematically plundered that only the misshapen rubble cores of the crossing pillars and parts of the transept and west front remain, all robbed of their original facing stone.
The west front is the most substantial fragment, its arches filled in by later houses, thus what appears to be a jumbled row of stone buildings immediately behind the present cathedral is actually the lowest stage of the church's main facade, though it takes considerable imagination to make sense of it all. The most recognisable features are the three great arches of the central portals (with later houses embedded in them) and the base of an octagonal turret at the south end (formerly balanced by a similar feature to the north, now vanished).
This place always saddens me with a huge sense of loss, one of England's greatest buildings stood here but has all but vanished, the great open space left like a gaping wound from one of history's more vicious blows. If I had access to a time machine, this would be one of my first stops (on a very lengthy itinerary!).
Ruined Facade, Bury St Edmunds Abbey
The tragic remains of the once great abbey of Bury St Edmunds. Originally one of the largest and most powerful monastic complexes in England, the abbey precinct was constructed around the vast church which was built over the tomb of the martyred King and Saint Edmund and was a major centre of pilgrimage.
The great Norman church was of colossal proportions, cruciform and larger than many cathedrals (certainly the one which now stands before its site, which would have easily fitted into the abbey's nave with room to spare). Its facade was immensely broad and was formerly crowned by a soaring tower and spire, its overall form perhaps somewhere between the frontages of Ely and Lincoln cathedrals.
All its glory ended with the Dissolution of the Monasteries, it came close to a reprieve when Henry VIII considered forming new dioceses out of certain great monasteries in which case it would have become the cathedral (instead of the much smaller St James's church in front of it). Alas it was not to be and the site was quickly plundered and used as a quarry.
Today the enormous church has been so systematically plundered that only the misshapen rubble cores of the crossing pillars and parts of the transept and west front remain, all robbed of their original facing stone.
The west front is the most substantial fragment, its arches filled in by later houses, thus what appears to be a jumbled row of stone buildings immediately behind the present cathedral is actually the lowest stage of the church's main facade, though it takes considerable imagination to make sense of it all. The most recognisable features are the three great arches of the central portals (with later houses embedded in them) and the base of an octagonal turret at the south end (formerly balanced by a similar feature to the north, now vanished).
This place always saddens me with a huge sense of loss, one of England's greatest buildings stood here but has all but vanished, the great open space left like a gaping wound from one of history's more vicious blows. If I had access to a time machine, this would be one of my first stops (on a very lengthy itinerary!).