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Abbey Ruins in the Abbey Gardens, Bury St Edmunds - plaque - Magna Charta

A look around the city centre of Bury St Edmunds.

 

Bury St Edmunds (/ˈbɛri/), commonly referred to locally as Bury, is a historic market town and civil parish in Suffolk, England. Bury St Edmunds Abbey is near the town centre. Bury is the seat of the Diocese of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich of the Church of England, with the episcopal see at St Edmundsbury Cathedral.

 

The town, originally called Beodericsworth, was built on a grid pattern by Abbot Baldwin around 1080. It is known for brewing and malting (Greene King brewery) and for a British Sugar processing factory, where Silver Spoon sugar is produced. The town is the cultural and retail centre for West Suffolk and tourism is a major part of the economy.

 

 

A look around the Abbey Gardens. This park leads to the ruins of the destroyed abbey.

 

 

It was the site of Bury St Edmunds Abbey until the Dissolution of the monasteries.

 

The Abbey of Bury St Edmunds was once among the richest Benedictine monasteries in England, until the Dissolution of the monasteries in 1539. It is in the town that grew up around it, Bury St Edmunds in the county of Suffolk, England. It was a centre of pilgrimage as the burial place of the Anglo-Saxon martyr-king Saint Edmund, killed by the Great Heathen Army of Danes in 869. The ruins of the abbey church and most other buildings are merely rubble cores, but two very large medieval gatehouses survive, as well as two secondary medieval churches built within the abbey complex.

 

 

Grade I Listed Building

 

Ruins of Abbey Church of St Edmund

 

 

Listing Text

 

 

BURY ST EDMUNDS

 

TL8564SE ABBEY PRECINCTS

639-1/8/94 Ruins of Abbey Church of St Edmund

07/08/52

(Formerly Listed as:

ABBEY PRECINCTS

Abbey Ruins)

 

GV I

 

Ruins of the Abbey Church of St Edmund, excluding the West

Front (qv), which is included separately. C11 and C12. In

flint rubble, with the remains of stone dressings.

EXTERIOR: the church was 505 feet long. The nave, extended

into 12 bays under Abbot Anselm (1121-1148), was arcaded on

both sides: little now remains but the rubble bases of several

of the columns. More complete are the 2 large transepts which

had eastern aisles and 2 apsidal chapels on each side, one on

the north replaced by a Lady Chapel in 1275. Parts of the high

crossing arches supporting the central tower are today the

tallest parts of the ruins.

The crossing tower, begun just after 1100, was completed by

Abbot Anselm, but damaged later and rebuilt in stages from

1361. Beyond the site of the High Altar the ground drops

sharply: the 5-bay chancel is missing but the crypt below it,

which is the oldest surviving part of the Abbey, built under

Abbot Baldwin soon after 1066, is clearly laid out: the outer

walls rise above the level of the former window sills and the

bases of most of the columns along the line of the ambulatory

remain. The form is apsidal, with 3 chapels at the east end,

the 2 to each side of the apse semicircular. The plan of the

chancel itself was similar, with an ambulatory and 3 radiating

chapels at the east end.

Scheduled Ancient Monument.

(BOE: Pevsner N: Radcliffe E: Suffolk: London: 1974-: 139).

 

 

Listing NGR: TL8575064123

 

This text is from the original listing, and may not necessarily reflect the current setting of the building.

Description

 

 

BURY ST EDMUNDS

 

TL8564SE ABBEY PRECINCTS

639-1/8/94 Ruins of Abbey Church of St Edmund

07/08/52

(Formerly Listed as:

ABBEY PRECINCTS

Abbey Ruins)

 

GV I

 

Ruins of the Abbey Church of St Edmund, excluding the West

Front (qv), which is included separately. C11 and C12. In

flint rubble, with the remains of stone dressings.

EXTERIOR: the church was 505 feet long. The nave, extended

into 12 bays under Abbot Anselm (1121-1148), was arcaded on

both sides: little now remains but the rubble bases of several

of the columns. More complete are the 2 large transepts which

had eastern aisles and 2 apsidal chapels on each side, one on

the north replaced by a Lady Chapel in 1275. Parts of the high

crossing arches supporting the central tower are today the

tallest parts of the ruins.

The crossing tower, begun just after 1100, was completed by

Abbot Anselm, but damaged later and rebuilt in stages from

1361. Beyond the site of the High Altar the ground drops

sharply: the 5-bay chancel is missing but the crypt below it,

which is the oldest surviving part of the Abbey, built under

Abbot Baldwin soon after 1066, is clearly laid out: the outer

walls rise above the level of the former window sills and the

bases of most of the columns along the line of the ambulatory

remain. The form is apsidal, with 3 chapels at the east end,

the 2 to each side of the apse semicircular. The plan of the

chancel itself was similar, with an ambulatory and 3 radiating

chapels at the east end.

Scheduled Ancient Monument.

(BOE: Pevsner N: Radcliffe E: Suffolk: London: 1974-: 139).

 

 

Listing NGR: TL8575064123

 

 

plaque - Magna Charta - King John

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Uploaded on August 5, 2019
Taken on June 17, 2019