This morning we motored over to Bury St. Edmund's, as the car needed seeing to (one minor problem righting and a service). Took the car to the garage, then one of the mechanics drove us into the town centre, dropped us off near the Angel Hotel, and arranged to pick us up at two pip emma. This gave us four hours (more or less) to explore a lovely old town, take some photographs, do a little shopping, then have lunch. The photo above shows Moyse's Hall on the Market Place, and is, as far as I know (and Churches aside), the only Norman building in Suffolk. It's now used as a museum (with an entrance fee of FOUR pounds, which rather shocked me).
The building, above centre, is The Nutshell, which was known for many years as the smallest pub in Great Britain. I think a building somewhere in the West Country now holds this title (after a good deal of work with a tape measure, and long discussions, I should imagine).
The above building is a non-conformist Church of some description (sorry, I forget exactly which sort). It was raised in the time of Queen Ann (1702 - 1714) I think, and is a very pleasing building (easy on the eye, I mean).
The building above is a campanile (a bell tower), which is of pure Norman work. We thoroughly enjoyed our morning. Bury is a lovely town. In the year 630 A.D. Sigeberht, the King of East Anglia, founded a monastery here. Some centuries after that a good deal of plotting and arguing about the form of Magna Carta took place in Bury Saint Edmund's, so that although it's now considered a country Market Town, in its day it's been deeply involved in English history.
P.s. As you can see from the photies, this morning was a fine, sunny one, and walking round Bury in the mid- March sun was a great pleasure.
6 comments:
Bury is lovely, I'm very fond of it. I hate the smell of the sugar factory of course, but no doubt it provides a good deal of employment. I managed to get hopelessly lost there once, had to ask a schoolboy the way back to the Cathedral, after which I could get my bearings!
Lovely pics Pa x
Alec Clifton-Taylor included it in his list of the very best English towns. I remember he was particularly taken with the bell tower. Angel Hill is my favourite bit.
Hello Z. Now that they've built the tower on the Cathedral,so that you can now see it from anywhere in Bury St. Edmund's you need never get lost there again. It's taken them about seven centuries to complete it, but I think they've at last got it about right.
Thank you Sal. Enjoyed photographing the place.
I am sorry the museum curator wants a wage as well as a jolly lovely place to work, Mike. Perhaps we should think of four pounds as now being rather less than two shillings in good money. I don't suppose anybody would turn out for a hard five and a half day's work for a fiver a week these days. After board and tithing I had about 30p a day for bus-fares, lunch, clothes and a slipper-bath at the Cossington Street Baths ~ and we were the lucky ones?
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