| Bury St Edmunds | |
|---|---|
| Town andcivil parish | |
.jpg)     | |
  Bury St Edmunds Location withinSuffolk | |
| Population | 41,700 (Parish, 2022)[1] 41,280 (Built up area, 2021)[2] |
| OS grid reference | TL855645 |
| Civil parish |
|
| District | |
| Shire county | |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | BURY ST. EDMUNDS |
| Postcode district | IP32, IP33 |
| Dialling code | 01284 |
| Police | Suffolk |
| Fire | Suffolk |
| Ambulance | East of England |
| UK Parliament | |
| 52°14′45″N0°42′45″E / 52.24583°N 0.71250°E /52.24583; 0.71250 | |
Bury St Edmunds (/ˈbɛrisəntˈɛdməndz/), commonly referred to locally asBury, is acathedral as well asmarket town andcivil parish in theWest Suffolk district, in the county ofSuffolk, England.[3] The town is best known forBury St Edmunds Abbey andSt Edmundsbury Cathedral. Bury is the seat of theDiocese of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich of theChurch of England, with theepiscopal see atSt Edmundsbury Cathedral. The town, originally called Beodericsworth,[4] was built on a grid pattern by Abbot Baldwin around 1080.[5][6] It is known for brewing and malting (Greene King brewery)[7] and for aBritish 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. The built up area had a population of 41,280 at the2021 census.
The nameBury isetymologically connected withborough,[8] which hascognates in otherGermanic languages such as GermanBurg 'fortress, castle' andOld Norseborg 'wall, castle'; andGothicbaurg 'city'.[9] They all derive fromProto-Germanic*burgs 'fortress'. This in turn derives from theProto-Indo-European root*bhrgh 'fortified elevation', with cognates includingWelshbera 'stack' andSanskritbhrant- 'high, elevated building'. InMedieval Latin it was known asBurgum Sancti Edmundi (also spelledAedmundi).[10][11] In theAnglo-Saxon period the town was calledBedricesweord[12] orBedericesworth.[13]
The second section of the name refers toEdmund, King of theEast Angles, called Edmund the Martyr, who was killed by theVikings in the year 869. He became venerated as a saint and a martyr, and his shrine made Bury St Edmunds an important place of pilgrimage.
The formal name of the diocese is "St Edmundsbury", and the town is colloquially known as Bury.
An archaeological study in the 2010s on the outskirts of Bury St Edmunds uncovered evidence of Bronze Age activity in the area. The dig also uncoveredRoman coins from the first and second centuries.[14] Samuel Lewis, writing in 1848, notes the earlier discovery of Roman antiquities, and as with several other writers connects Bury St Edmunds withVilla Faustini orVilla Faustina, although the location of this Roman site is also discussed byE. Gillingwater (1804), who notes the lack of evidence for it being here.[15][16][17]
The town was one of the royal boroughs of theSaxons.[15]Sigebert, king of theEast Angles, foundedBeodricesworth monastery here about 633, which in 924[18] became the burial place of King Edmund the Martyr, who was slain by theDanes in 869, and owed most of its early celebrity to the reputed miracles performed at the shrine of the martyr king. The town grew aroundBury St Edmunds Abbey, a site ofpilgrimage.
In 942 or 945, KingEdmund I had granted to theabbot andconvent jurisdiction over the whole town, free from all secular services, andCanute in 1020 freed it from episcopal control. Later,Edward the Confessor made the abbot lord of the franchise. The older monastery was destroyed and, the secular priests having been expelled, a newBenedictine abbey was built.[19] CountAlan Rufus is said to have been interred at Bury St Edmunds Abbey in 1093. In the 12th and 13th centuries the head of thede Hastings family, who held theLordship of the Manor ofAshill in Norfolk, was hereditarySteward of this abbey.[20]
The town was for a time the home of a thriving Jewish community, and it is likely, although not certain, thatMoyse's Hall belonged to a Jewish merchant.[21] On 18 March 1190, two days after the more well-known massacre of Jews atClifford Tower inYork, the people of Bury St Edmunds massacred 57 Jews.[22][23] Later that year,Abbot Samson successfully petitionedKing Richard I for permission to evict the town's remaining Jewish inhabitants "on the grounds that everything in the town... belonged by right to St Edmund: therefore, either the Jews should be St Edmund's men or they should be banished from the town."[24] This expulsion predates theEdict of Expulsion by 100 years. In 1198, a fire burned the shrine of St Edmund, leading to the inspection of his corpse byAbbot Samson and the translation of St Edmund's body to a new location in theabbey.[24]
The town is associated withMagna Carta. In 1214 thebarons of England are believed to have met in the abbey church and sworn to forceKing John to accept theCharter of Liberties, the document which influenced the creation of Magna Carta,[19] a copy of which was displayed in the town's cathedral during the 2014 celebrations. By various grants from the abbots, the town gradually attained the rank of aborough.
Henry III in 1235 granted to the abbot two annual fairs, one in December and the other the greatSt Matthew's fair, which was abolished by theFairs Act of 1871.[19] In 1327, the Great Riot occurred, in which the local populace led an armed revolt against the abbey.[25] The riot destroyed the main gate, and a new, fortified gate was built in its stead.[25] On 11 April 1608 agreat fire broke out in Eastgate Street, which resulted in 160 dwellings and 400 outhouses being destroyed.[25]
The town developed into a flourishing cloth-making town, with a largewoollen trade, by the 14th century.[25] In 1405Henry IV granted another fair.[19]
Elizabeth I in 1562 confirmed the charters which former kings had granted to the abbots. The reversion of the fairs and two markets on Wednesday and Saturday were granted by James I in fee farm to the corporation.James I in 1606 granted a charter of incorporation with an annual fair in Easter week and a market. James granted further charters in 1608 and 1614, as didCharles II in 1668 and 1684.[19]
Parliaments were held in the borough in 1272, 1296 and 1446, but the borough was not represented until 1608, when James I conferred on it the privilege of sending two members.[19] TheRedistribution of Seats Act 1885 reduced the representation to one.[19]
The borough of Bury St Edmunds and the surrounding area, like much ofEast Anglia, being part of theEastern Association, supportedPuritan sentiment during the first half of the 17th century. By 1640, several families had departed for theMassachusetts Bay Colony as part of the wave of emigration that occurred during theGreat Migration.[26] Bury's ancient grammar school also educated such notables as the puritan theologianRichard Sibbes, master of St Catherine's Hall inCambridge, antiquary and politicianSimonds d'Ewes, andJohn Winthrop the Younger,[27] who became governor of Connecticut.
The town was the setting forwitch trials between 1599 and 1694.[28]
The population had reached 12,538 by 1841.[29]
A permanent military presence was established in the town with the completion of theMilitia Barracks in 1857[30] and ofGibraltar Barracks in 1878.[31]
During theSecond World War, theUSAAF usedRougham Airfield outside the town.[32]
On 3 March 1974 aTurkish AirlinesDC10 jetFlight 981 crashed near Paris killing all 346 people on board. Among the victims were 17 members ofBury St Edmunds Rugby Football Club, returning from France.[33]
Near the abbey gardens stands Britain's first internally illuminated street sign, thePillar of Salt, which was built in 1935. The sign is at the terminus of theA1101, Great Britain's lowest road which is mostly below sea level.
There is a network of tunnels which are evidence ofchalk-workings,[34] though there is no evidence of extensive tunnels under the town centre. Some buildings have inter-communicating cellars. Due to their unsafe nature the chalk-workings are not open to the public, although viewing has been granted to individuals. Some have causedsubsidence within living memory, for instance at Jacqueline Close.[35]
Among noteworthy buildings isSt Mary's Church, Bury St Edmunds, whereMary Tudor, Queen of France and sister ofTudor kingHenry VIII, was re-buried, six years after her death, having been moved from the abbey after her brother'sDissolution of the Monasteries.Queen Victoria had astained glass window fitted into the church to commemorate Mary's interment.[36]Moreton Hall, aGrade II* listed building byRobert Adam, houses the now-closed Moreton Hall Preparatory School.[37]Bury St Edmunds Guildhall dates back to the late 12th century.[38]
Bury St Edmunds has one of the full-time fire stations run bySuffolk Fire and Rescue Service. Originally located in the Traverse (now the Halifax bank),[39] it moved to Fornham Road in 1953. The Fornham Road site (now Mermaid Close) closed in 1987 and the fire station moved to its current location on Parkway North.[40]
Since March 2015, Bury St Edmunds has been the home town of the London and South East Regional Divorce Unit[41] and the Maintenance Enforcement Business Centre (for issues with maintenance payments outside Greater London).[42][43] The former processes divorce documents from across London and South East England as one of five centralised units covering the United Kingdom. Both units are based with Bury St Edmunds County Court in Triton House, St Andrews Street North.
Bury is located in the middle of an undulating area of East Anglia known as the East Anglian Heights, with land to the east and west of the town rising to above 100 metres (330 ft), though parts of the town itself are as low as 30 m (100 ft) above sea level where the RiversLark and Linnet pass through it.
There are twoMet Office reporting stations in the vicinity of Bury St Edmunds, Brooms Barn (elevation 76 m or 249 ft),6+1⁄2 miles (10 kilometres) west of the town centre, and Honington (elevation 51 m or 167 ft), about6+1⁄2 mi (10 km) north. According to Usman Majeed, head of Honington, the latter ceased weather observations in 2003, while Brooms Barn remains operational. Brooms Barn's record maximum temperature stands at 38.1 °C (100.6 °F), recorded in July 2022.[44] The lowest recent temperature was −10.0 °C (14.0 °F)[45] during December 2010.
Rainfall is generally low, at just over 600 mm (24 in), and spread fairly evenly throughout the year.
| Climate data forBrooms Barn,[a] (1991–2020 normals, extremes 1964–present) | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Record high °C (°F) | 15.4 (59.7) | 18.3 (64.9) | 23.9 (75.0) | 26.9 (80.4) | 28.0 (82.4) | 33.3 (91.9) | 38.1 (100.6) | 36.7 (98.1) | 32.4 (90.3) | 28.9 (84.0) | 17.8 (64.0) | 15.6 (60.1) | 38.1 (100.6) |
| Mean daily maximum °C (°F) | 7.1 (44.8) | 7.7 (45.9) | 10.5 (50.9) | 13.8 (56.8) | 17.0 (62.6) | 19.9 (67.8) | 22.6 (72.7) | 22.3 (72.1) | 19.1 (66.4) | 14.7 (58.5) | 10.3 (50.5) | 7.5 (45.5) | 14.4 (57.9) |
| Daily mean °C (°F) | 4.5 (40.1) | 4.8 (40.6) | 6.9 (44.4) | 9.3 (48.7) | 12.3 (54.1) | 15.2 (59.4) | 17.7 (63.9) | 17.5 (63.5) | 14.9 (58.8) | 11.3 (52.3) | 7.5 (45.5) | 4.9 (40.8) | 10.6 (51.0) |
| Mean daily minimum °C (°F) | 1.9 (35.4) | 1.8 (35.2) | 3.2 (37.8) | 4.8 (40.6) | 7.6 (45.7) | 10.5 (50.9) | 12.7 (54.9) | 12.7 (54.9) | 10.6 (51.1) | 7.9 (46.2) | 4.6 (40.3) | 2.3 (36.1) | 6.7 (44.1) |
| Record low °C (°F) | −12.5 (9.5) | −10.0 (14.0) | −10.0 (14.0) | −5.4 (22.3) | −1.3 (29.7) | 0.2 (32.4) | 3.9 (39.0) | 5.0 (41.0) | 0.6 (33.1) | −2.5 (27.5) | −7.5 (18.5) | −11.0 (12.2) | −12.5 (9.5) |
| Averageprecipitation mm (inches) | 51.6 (2.03) | 41.7 (1.64) | 39.8 (1.57) | 40.0 (1.57) | 48.3 (1.90) | 56.9 (2.24) | 54.6 (2.15) | 65.7 (2.59) | 49.9 (1.96) | 61.0 (2.40) | 60.2 (2.37) | 57.6 (2.27) | 627.3 (24.70) |
| Average precipitation days(≥ 1.0 mm) | 10.9 | 10.0 | 9.2 | 8.7 | 8.0 | 9.1 | 9.0 | 9.6 | 8.6 | 10.5 | 11.6 | 11.5 | 116.8 |
| Mean monthlysunshine hours | 62.2 | 76.4 | 121.3 | 170.5 | 207.6 | 198.1 | 208.1 | 194.6 | 152.4 | 114.5 | 70.0 | 57.5 | 1,633.2 |
| Source 1: Met Office[46] | |||||||||||||
| Source 2: Starlings Roost Weather[47] | |||||||||||||
The town has a Christian heritage dating back to the foundation of the abbey in 1020. Today there are many active churches in the town.
In the centre of Bury St Edmunds lie the remains of anabbey, surrounded by the abbey gardens. The abbey is ashrine toSaint Edmund, theSaxon King of the East Angles. The abbey was sacked by the townspeople in the 14th century and then largely destroyed during the 16th century with theDissolution of the Monasteries, but the town remained prosperous throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, only falling into relative decline with theIndustrial Revolution.
Until the building of St John's in 1840, the town had just two parishes, St James's and St Mary's.[48] The former has now become the cathedral. The town now has sevenAnglican churches in six parishes, St Peter's being in the same parish as St Mary's.[49]
St James' parish church becameSt Edmundsbury Cathedral when theDiocese of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich was formed in 1914. The cathedral was extended with an eastern end in the 1960s. A new Gothic revival cathedral tower was built as part of a Millennium project running from 2000 to 2005. The opening for the tower took place in July 2005, and included abrass band concert and fireworks. Parts of the cathedral remain uncompleted, including thecloisters. The tower makes St Edmundsbury the most recently completed Anglican cathedral in the UK, and was constructed using original fabrication techniques by six masons who placed the machine-cut stones individually as they arrived.
St Mary's Church is the civic church of Bury St Edmunds and the third largest parish church in England. It was part of the abbey complex and originally was one of three large churches in the town (the others being St James, now St Edmundsbury Cathedral, and St Margaret's, now gone). It is renowned for its magnificenthammer-beam "angel" roof, and is the final resting place ofMary Tudor, Queen of France,Duchess of Suffolk and favourite sister ofHenry VIII. St Mary's is also home to the Chapel of theSuffolk andRoyal Anglian Regiments.
The town has other Anglican churches:
St Edmund's Catholic Church, located in Westgate Street, is the Roman Catholic parish church of Bury St Edmunds. Founded by theJesuits in 1763, the present church building isgrade II listed. It was built in 1837. It is administered by theDiocese of East Anglia in its Bury St Edmunds deanery.
Bury St Edmunds has several former church and chapel buildings:
TheTheatre Royal was built byNational Gallery architectWilliam Wilkins in 1819 and is the sole survivingRegency Theatre in the country.[74] The theatre, owned by theGreene King brewery, is leased to theNational Trust for a nominal charge, and underwent restoration between 2005 and 2007. It presents a full programme of performances and is also open for public tours. In August 2023, the Theatre Royal closed suddenly due to fire safety issues.[75]An additional arts venue, The Apex, was built on the site of the former cattle market in 2010.[76]
Moyse's Hall Museum is one of the oldest (c. 1180) domestic buildings in East Anglia open to the public. It has collections of fine art, for exampleMary Beale, costume, e.g.Charles Frederick Worth,horology, local and social history, includingWitchcraft.[77]It holds an originaldeath mask of William Corder who was hanged for the infamous 1827Red Barn murder.
TheMarket Cross, today a community space, is a building restored byRobert Adam in 1780s.[78] Between 1972 and 2018 the Market Cross was an art gallery called "Smiths Row", hosting a programme of changing contemporary art and craft exhibitions and events by British and international artists.[79]
The town holds several festivals a year. The largest festival is held in May and includes concerts, plays, dance, and lecturers culminating in fireworks. There was an annual Christmas Fair in the town up until 2019, with food, drink, local crafts and fairground rides available, stretching from the Abbey Gardens to the Arc Shopping Centre. Bury St Edmunds is home to England's oldest Scout group,1st Bury St Edmunds (Mayors Own).
The town's mainfootball club,Bury Town, is the fourth oldestnon-league team in England. They are members of theIsthmian League and have played at Ram Meadow since moving fromKings Road in the 1970s.[80]
Suffolk County Cricket Club play occasional games at the Victory Ground, which is also the home ground of Bury St Edmunds Cricket Club. The cricket club previously played atCemetry Road. Bury St Edmunds Rugby Football Club has an extensive history,[81] including the devastatingplane crash that killed several members who had attended a1974 Five Nations Championship match. Eastgate Amateur Boxing club was established in 1981. The club has been headquartered at various locations in and around the town, but are now training in an old World War I gym in Rougham. West Suffolk Swimming Club formed in 1998 from the merger of two local swimming clubs and operates from pools in Bury St Edmunds, Haverhill and Culford. West Suffolk Athletics Club are based at the West Suffolk College sports ground.[82]
Nowton Park hosts a parkrun every Saturday morning where runners, joggers and walkers can take part free-of-charge, supported by volunteers.[83] A junior parkrun is held every Sunday morning at Ten Acre Field on the Moreton Hall estate, where 4-14 year olds can participate for free, cheered on by volunteers.[84] A friendly running club called Bury St Edmunds Pacers welcomes runners of all abilities to join and holds regular running events.[85]
Local news and television programmes is provided byBBC East andITV Anglia. Television signals are received from theTacolneston TV transmitter and the local relay transmitter.[86] The town's local radio stations areBBC Radio Suffolk on 104.6 FM,Heart East on 96.4 FM andRWSfm on 103.3 FM, a community radio station that broadcast from the town.
The local newspapers are theEast Anglian Daily Times andBury Free Press.
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The Angel Hotel is aGeorgian building on Angel Hill.Charles Dickens stayed there while giving readings in theAthenaeum, as mentioned inThe Pickwick Papers.Angelina Jolie stayed there while filmingTomb Raider. Acoaching inn has existed on the site since the 15th century.[87]
Greene King, is situated in Bury St Edmunds, as is the smallerOld Cannon Brewery. Just outside the town, on the site ofRAF Bury St Edmunds, is Bartrums Brewery, originally based inThurston, and to the north is the Brewshed brewery, located in Ingham.
The Greene King pubThe Nutshell is situated in the centre of the town, and is one of several that claim to be Britain's smallestpublic house.[88] TheCorn Exchange (Wetherspoons) is also located nearby.
Bury's largest landmark is theBritish Sugar factory near theA14, which processessugar beet into refined crystal sugar. It was built in 1925 when the town's MP,Walter Guinness, wasMinister of Agriculture, and for many of its early years was managed by Martin Neumann, former manager of a sugar beet refinery inŠurany, then part ofCzechoslovakia. Neumann was invited by the British government to oversee the refinement of sugar in Bury St Edmunds and, with his family, immigrated to the United Kingdom. The actor and writerStephen Fry is a grandson of Martin Neumann, as recounted in the BBC programmeWho Do You Think You Are?
The refinery processes beet from 1,300 growers. 660 lorry-loads of beet can be accepted each day when beet is being harvested. Not all the beet can be crystallised immediately, and some is kept in solution in holding tanks until late spring and early summer, when the plant has spare crystallising capacity. The sugar is sold under theSilver Spoon name (the other major British brand,Tate & Lyle, is made from importedsugar cane). By-products include molassed sugar beet feed for cattle and LimeX70, a soil improver. The factory has its own power station,[89] which powers around 110,000 homes. A smell of burnt starch from the plant is noticeable on some days.[90]
There are three tiers of local government covering Bury St Edmunds, atparish (town),district, andcounty level: Bury St Edmunds Town Council,West Suffolk Council andSuffolk County Council. The town council meets atBury St Edmunds Guildhall, parts of which date back to the 13th century,[91] and has its offices in an adjoining building at 79 Whiting Street.[92]
West Suffolk Council is also based in the town, at West Suffolk House on Western Way, which was built in 2009 and also includes an area office for the county council.[93][94][95]
For national elections, the town forms part of theBury St Edmunds and Stowmarket constituency.[96] The currentMP isPeter Prinsley of theLabour Party, who was first elected in the2024 general election.[97]
Bury St Edmunds was anancient borough. It is known to have been granted amunicipal charter byHenry I (reigned 1100–1135), which has since been lost. The borough was controlled by the abbey until its dissolution in 1539.James I issued a new charter in 1606, which confirmed Bury's ancient rights and incorporated it under a new constitution. The borough covered the twoancient parishes of St James and St Mary.[98]
The borough was reformed to become amunicipal borough in 1836 under theMunicipal Corporations Act 1835, which standardised how most boroughs operated across the country.[99] Until 30 September 1895 the borough contained the parishes of St James and St Mary when the 2 parishes were merged to form a single Bury St Edmunds parish. The borough was enlarged in 1935 to take in areas from the neighbouring parishes ofFornham All Saints andWestley.[100][101] The borough council historically met at the Guildhall. It moved its offices to a new building called Borough Offices at 7 Angel Hill in 1935. Council meetings continued to be held at the Guildhall until 1966, when a new council chamber was built in an extension to the Borough Offices.[102]
When elected county councils were established in 1889, the old westernquarter sessions division of Suffolk was made theadministrative county ofWest Suffolk.[103][104]West Suffolk County Council was based in Bury, meeting at the town's courthouse,Shire Hall, which had been built around 1750.[105][106]
The borough of Bury St Edmunds, the parish of Bury St Edmunds and administrative county of West Suffolk were abolished on 1 April 1974 under theLocal Government Act 1972. Bury became part of the newBorough of St Edmundsbury, which covered the town and surrounding rural areas. The county-wideSuffolk County Council was created at the same time.[107][108] St Edmundsbury Borough Council was based in the town, initially using various buildings inherited from its predecessors including the Borough Offices on Angel Hill. In 2009, it consolidated its offices atWest Suffolk House, sharing the building with the county council.[93]
Nosuccessor parish was created for the area of the abolished municipal borough at the time of the 1974 reforms, and so it became anunparished area. A newcivil parish of Bury St Edmunds was created on 1 April 2003 which also took in the area ofHardwick parish that had been abolished in 1988 and had also become unparished.[109] The parish council taking the name Bury St Edmunds Town Council.[110] The town council election in 2007 was won by the "Abolish Bury Town Council" party,[111] but they lost their majority shortly afterwards and the town council was not abolished.[112] In 2020, the town council moved its meetings to the Guildhall.[113]
In 2019, St Edmundsbury and the neighbouring district ofForest Heath merged into a new West Suffolk district (which covers a smaller area than the pre-1974 administrative county of the same name).[114]
Notable people from Bury St Edmunds includeBishop of Winchester andLord High Chancellor of EnglandStephen Gardiner,[115] the 18th-century landscape architectHumphry Repton,[116] the hymn writerAlice Flowerdew, the artist and photographerWilliam Silas Spanton, the author Maria Louise Ramé (also known asOuida), the engineer and inventorHiram Codd,[117] the cyclistJames Moore, and the portrait painterRose Mead. More recent figures from the town include artist and printerSybil Andrews, artist and suffragetteHelen Margaret Spanton, CanadianWorld War II generalGuy Simonds, Winston Churchill's secretaryElizabeth Nel, theatre directorSir Peter Hall,Norwich City footballerLiam Gibbs, Canadian journalist and authorRichard Gwyn, actorsBob Hoskins[118] andMichael Maloney,[119] speedway riderDanny Ayres,[120][121] television presenterBecky Jago, digital writer and artistChris Joseph, author, archaeologist and television presenterJohn-Henry Phillips, professional football playerEd Upson, and writer/directorAdrian Tanner.
Thomas Clarkson, a leadingabolitionist, lived in the town for parts of his life. Though born inBedford, actorJohn Le Mesurier grew up in the town.[122]Sir James Reynolds, junior,Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer, lived in the town for much of his life and was buried in the Cathedral in 1739.Messenger Monsey, later physician to theRoyal Hospital Chelsea and a man notorious in London society for his bad manners, practised in Bury in the 1720s.[123] Children's writerA.M. Howell moved to Bury St Edmunds in 2001.[124]
Among notable people who have chosen to retire to or have second homes in Bury St Edmunds are former members of parliament and government ministersLord Tebbit,[125]Sir John Wheeler,[126] SirEldon Griffiths,[127][128] and former seniorRoyal Air Force commander,Air Marshal Sir Reginald Harland.[129]
Notable bands and performers from Bury St Edmunds includeJacob's Mouse,Miss Black America,The Dawn Parade,Kate Jackson ofThe Long Blondes,Paul Hopfensperger ofThe Teazers and siblings Sean andAndi Oliver ofRip Rig + Panic. Sean Oliver also performed withTerence Trent D'Arby now known as Sananda Maitreya, Sean is credited by Sananda Maitreya for being the inspiration behind the international number 1 bestseller of Sananda Maitreya "Wishing Well".
State-fundedprimary schools that serve the town are Howard, Westgate, Hardwick, Sebert Wood, Abbot's Green, Sexton's Manor, Guildhall Feoffment, St Edmund's, St Edmundsbury and Tollgate Primary Schools.
The town has foursecondary schools:Bury St Edmunds County High School,King Edward VI School,St Benedict's Catholic School and Sybil Andrews Academy.[130]
In 2019 the town's firstSixth Form College, Abbeygate Sixth Form College, opened. It is located on Beeton's Way. Upon its opening, King Edward VI School closed its Sixth Form provision.[131]
The closestpublic school (for a period post-war, aDirect grant grammar school) to the town isCulford School, located just north of the town in the village ofCulford. The town has one independent preparatory school, South Lee School. The formerMoreton Hall Preparatory School closed in 2020.[132]
The town's largestfurther education provider isWest Suffolk College, with over 10,000 students studying with the college every year.[133] The college was set to expand in September 2018, following a £7m government grant to help pay for an £8m energy, engineering and manufacturing teaching centre.[134] From 2015, students have been able to study foundation and undergraduate degrees at theUniversity of Suffolk at West Suffolk College.[135]
Bury St Edmunds railway station serves the town, operated byGreater Anglia, on theIpswich to Ely Line. Trains run seven days a week, every two hours to Peterborough and hourly toIpswich andCambridge. Trains fromPeterborough continue to Ipswich after Bury St Edmunds. Onward train connections fromCambridge link withLondon King's Cross,London Liverpool Street andStansted Airport, whilstIpswich provides connections to Liverpool Street viaColchester.
The main interchange for bus and coach services for Bury St Edmunds is the bus and coach station, located on St Andrews Street North in the town centre. Bus services link the town centre with the main residential housing areas of the town. From November 2012 Sunday bus services were introduced over some of these routes. There are regular bus services to the neighbouring towns ofBrandon,Cambridge,Diss,Haverhill,Ipswich,Mildenhall,Newmarket,Stowmarket,Sudbury andThetford and many of the villages in between. DailyNational Express coach services betweenVictoria Coach Station in London and Bury stop at the town's bus and coach station, as does the cross-country service betweenClacton-on-Sea andLiverpool which travels via Cambridge, Peterborough,Leicester,Nottingham,Sheffield andManchester.
The town is partly bisected by theA14 trunk road, running east–west and serving as a major transport corridor between the east coast and the Midlands. There are three junctions serving Bury St Edmunds, numbered 42-44 and denoted west, central and east respectively.
Bury St Edmunds istwinned with:
Bury St Edmunds is a location mentioned several times in the short ghost storyThe Ash-tree byM.R. James published inGhost Stories of an Antiquary in 1904.
AuthorNorah Lofts, though born inShipdham, Norfolk, bases many of her stories in Baildon, a fictionalised Bury St Edmunds, where she was educated and lived.[137]
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