90-714: (Redirected from St Edmund ) Saint Edmund may refer to: Saint Edmund the Martyr (d. 869), king of East Anglia who was venerated as a martyr saint soon after his death at the hands of Vikings Saint Edmund Arrowsmith (1585–1628), Jesuit, one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales Saint Edmund Campion (1540–1581), English Jesuit priest and martyr Saint Edmund Gennings (1567–1591), English priest and martyr Saint Edmund Rich (1175–1240), otherwise Edmund of Abingdon, Archbishop of Canterbury MV St Edmund ,
180-539: 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. The name Bury is etymologically connected with borough , which has cognates in other Germanic languages such as German Burg 'fortress, castle' and Bereich '(defined) area' Old Norse borg 'wall, castle'; and Gothic baurg 'city'. They all derive from Proto-Germanic * burgs 'fortress'. This in turn derives from
270-531: A great fire broke out in Eastgate Street, which resulted in 160 dwellings and 400 outhouses being destroyed. The town developed into a flourishing cloth-making town, with a large woollen trade, by the 14th century. In 1405 Henry IV granted another fair. 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
360-623: A British Rail car ferry See also [ edit ] Saint Edmond St Edmund's (disambiguation) Edmund (given name) Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Saint Edmund . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Saint_Edmund&oldid=1250589278 " Categories : Disambiguation pages Title and name disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description
450-597: A hedgehog (just like St Sebastian was). When Ivar the impious pirate saw that the noble king would not forsake Christ, but with resolute faith called after Him, he ordered Edmund beheaded, and the heathens did so. While Edmund still called out to Christ, the heathen dragged the holy man to his death, and with one stroke struck off his head, and his soul journeyed happily to Christ." Ælfric of Eynsham, Old English paraphrase of Abbo of Fleury, 'Passio Sancti Eadmundi' Abbo named one of Edmund's killers as Hinguar, who can probably be identified with Ivarr inn beinlausi (Ivar
540-525: A long poem (now known as Metrical Lives of Saints Edmund and Fremund ) when Henry came to the town in 1433 and stayed at the abbey for four months. The book is now kept by the British Library in London. Edmund's martyrdom features on several medieval wall-paintings to be found in churches across England. The saint features in a romantic poem, Athelston , whose 15th-century author is unknown. In
630-551: A religious community to take care of Edmund's shrine . Following the death of the Danish Guthrum , king of East Anglia, in around 890, the same moneyers who had minted his coins started to produce money in commemoration of Edmund. The coins, whose design was based upon those produced during Edmund's reign, provide the earliest evidence that he was venerated as a saint. All the pennies and (more rarely) half-pennies that were produced read SCE EADMVND REX —'O St Edmund
720-575: A smooth transition of power occurred. The number of coins issued in his name indicates that he reigned for a number of years, but the only contemporary documentary references to Edmund are the records of his death in Asser 's life of Alfred the Great and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle . The twelfth-century Annals of St Neots states that Edmund succeeded on Christmas Day 855 aged fourteen and
810-478: Is St Mary's Church, Bury St Edmunds , where Mary Tudor, Queen of France and sister of Tudor king Henry VIII , was re-buried, six years after her death, having been moved from the abbey after her brother's Dissolution of the Monasteries . Queen Victoria had a stained glass window fitted into the church to commemorate Mary's interment. Moreton Hall , a Grade II*listed building by Robert Adam , houses
900-526: Is a St Edmunds chapel at the East end of Tewkesbury Abbey In about 986, the monks of Ramsey Abbey commissioned Abbo of Fleury to write Edmund's passio , or account of his martyrdom. According to Abbo, St Dunstan , Archbishop of Canterbury, was the source of the story of the martyrdom, which he had heard told long before, in the presence of Æthelstan, by an old man who swore an oath that he had been Edmund's sword-bearer. In Abbo's version of events,
990-513: Is a relic list for Saint-Sernin of around 1425, which included St Edmund among the church's relics. In 1644, after the city was saved from the plague from 1628 to 1631, which the population ascribed to the intercession of a saint known to the church authorities as Aymundus , who they decided was Edmund. In gratitude for its deliverance, the city vowed to build a new reliquary for the saint's remains. Edmund's cult flourished there for over two centuries. The reliquary, designed by Jean Chalette ,
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#17327650112201080-851: Is also home to the Chapel of the Suffolk and Royal 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 the Jesuits in 1763, the present church building is grade II listed . It was built in 1837. It is administered by the Diocese of East Anglia in its Bury St Edmunds deanery. Bury St Edmunds has several former church and chapel buildings: The Theatre Royal
1170-487: Is best known for Bury St Edmunds Abbey and St Edmundsbury Cathedral . 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 . In 2011, it had a population of 45,000. 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
1260-478: Is composed of Abbo's hagiography, followed by Herman's. The hagiographer and musician, Goscelin , soon afterwards produced a revised version of Herman's Miracles , which was hostile to Herman personally. Both versions are printed and translated by Tom Licence . De Infantia Sancti Edmundi , a fictitious 12th-century hagiography of Edmund's early life by the English canon Geoffrey of Wells , represented him as
1350-660: Is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Edmund the Martyr Edmund the Martyr (also known as St Edmund or Edmund of East Anglia , died 20 November 869) was king of East Anglia from about 855 until his death. Few historical facts about Edmund are known, as the kingdom of East Anglia was devastated by the Vikings , who destroyed any contemporary evidence of his reign. Coins minted by Edmund indicate that he succeeded Æthelweard of East Anglia , as they shared
1440-543: Is generally low, at under 600 mm (24 in), and spread fairly evenly throughout the year. 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 an abbey , surrounded by the abbey gardens. The abbey is a shrine to Saint Edmund , the Saxon King of the East Angles . The abbey
1530-623: Is held at the British Library. The Wilton Diptych was painted during the reign of Richard II of England and is the most famous representation of Edmund in art. Painted on oak panels , it shows Edmund and Edward the Confessor as the royal patrons of England presenting Richard to the Virgin and Child . The poet John Lydgate (1370–1451), who lived all his life in Bury St Edmunds, presented his twelve-year-old king Henry VI of England with
1620-636: 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 Rivers Lark and Linnet pass through it. There are two Met 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
1710-588: Is mentioned in a charter that was written when the church and chapel at Hoxne were granted to Norwich Priory in 1101. Place-name evidence has been used to link the name of Hoxne with Haegelisdun, named by Abbo of Fleury as the site of Edmund's martyrdom, but this evidence is dismissed by the historian Peter Warner. The association of Edmund's cult with the village has continued into modern times. Dernford in Cambridgeshire, and Bradfield St Clare (near Bury St Edmunds) are other possible sites for where Edmund
1800-555: Is provided by BBC East and ITV Anglia . Television signals are received from the Tacolneston TV transmitter and the local relay transmitter. The town's local radio stations are BBC Radio Suffolk on 104.6 FM, Heart East on 96.4 FM and RWSfm on 103.3 FM, a community radio station that broadcast from the town. The local newspapers are the East Anglian Daily Times and Bury Free Press . Many pubs in
1890-491: Is said to have given a great sapphire and a precious stone set in gold to the shrine, which he was permitted to keep upon the condition that it was returned to the abbey when he died. Edmund's shrine was destroyed in 1539, during the dissolution of the monasteries . According to a letter (now in the British Library 's Cotton Collection ), the shrine was defaced, and silver and gold to the value of over 5,000 marks
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#17327650112201980-518: 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 magnificent hammer-beam "angel" roof, and is the final resting place of Mary Tudor, Queen of France , Duchess of Suffolk and favourite sister of Henry VIII . St Mary's
2070-650: Is the smaller Old Cannon Brewery . Just outside the town, on the site of RAF Bury St Edmunds , is Bartrums Brewery, originally based in Thurston , and to the north is the Brewshed brewery, located in Ingham. The Greene King pub The Nutshell is situated in the centre of the town, and is one of several that claim to be Britain's smallest public house . Bury's largest landmark is the British Sugar factory near
2160-599: The A14 , which processes sugar beet into refined crystal sugar. It was built in 1925 when the town's MP, Walter Guinness , was Minister of Agriculture , and for many of its early years was managed by Martin Neumann, former manager of a sugar beet refinery in Šurany , then part of Czechoslovakia . Neumann was invited by the British government to oversee the refinement of sugar in Bury St Edmunds and, with his family, immigrated to
2250-622: The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle as "a great heathen army", came to East Anglia. Edmund made peace with them and gave them horses and other supplies, and they stayed there until the summer of 866, when they moved on to York. The army attacked Mercia by the end of 867 and made peaceful terms with the Mercians; a year later the Vikings returned to East Anglia. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle , which generally described few matters relating to
2340-522: The Danelaw . They have mainly been found in the east of England, but the exact location of any of the mints they came from is not known with certainty, although scholars have assumed that they were made in East Anglia. Edmund's cult was promoted and flourished, but it declined, with the production of St Edmund coins ceasing after around 910. The saint did not reappear in liturgical calendars from
2430-526: The Liberty of Saint Edmund , established by Edward the Confessor , and a larger church was built in 1095, into which Edmund's relics were translated. After the Norman Conquest of England in 1066, the abbot planned out over 300 new houses within a grid-iron pattern at a location that was close to the abbey precincts, a development which caused the town to more than double in size. King John
2520-599: The Proto-Indo-European root * bhrgh 'fortified elevation', with cognates including Welsh bera 'stack' and Sanskrit bhrant - 'high, elevated building'. The second section of the name refers to Edmund , King of the East Angles , called Edmund the Martyr, who was killed by the Vikings 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
2610-574: The Second World War , the USAAF used Rougham Airfield outside the town. On 3 March 1974 a Turkish Airlines DC10 jet Flight 981 crashed near Paris killing all 346 people on board. Among the victims were 17 members of Bury St Edmunds Rugby Football Club , returning from France. Near the abbey gardens stands Britain's first internally illuminated street sign, the Pillar of Salt , which
2700-526: The Viking raid on Lindisfarne in 793 , their attacks on England were mainly raids on isolated monastic communities . According to the Annales Bertiniani and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle , a larger-scale attack occurred in c. 844 . By the end of the decade the Vikings had started to over-winter in England. In the autumn of 865 a force probably numbering over 5,000 combatants, described by
2790-465: The abbey . The town is associated with Magna Carta . In 1214 the barons of England are believed to have met in the abbey church and sworn to force King John to accept the Charter of Liberties , the document which influenced the creation of Magna Carta, 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
Saint Edmund - Misplaced Pages Continue
2880-464: The 10th century, Edmund's remains were translated from an unidentified location in East Anglia to Beodricesworth (modern Bury St Edmunds ); they were temporarily moved to London for safekeeping in 1010. Edmund's cult flourished during the Early and High Middle Ages, and he and Edward the Confessor were regarded as the patron saints of medieval England until they were replaced by Saint George in
2970-465: The 15th century. Medieval manuscripts and works of art relating to Edmund include Abbo's Passio Sancti Eadmundi , John Lydgate 's 15th-century Life , the Wilton Diptych , and a number of church wall paintings . The existence of Edmund is known from coins minted by his moneyers , three of whom—Dudda, Eadmund, and Twicga—minted coins for Edmund's predecessor, Æthelweard which suggests that
3060-490: The 1970s. 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 at Cemetry Road . Bury St Edmunds Rugby Football Club has an extensive history, including the devastating plane crash that killed several members who had attended a 1974 Five Nations Championship match. Eastgate Amateur Boxing club
3150-438: The 9th century until the appearance of Abbo of Fleury's Passio Sancti Eadmundi three centuries later. In 1010, Edmund's remains were translated to London to protect them from the Vikings, where they were kept for three years before being returned to Bury. The Danish king Canute , who ruled England from 1016, converted to Christianity and was instrumental in founding the abbey at Bury St Edmunds. The new stone abbey church
3240-784: The Basilica of Saint-Sernin. The relics, believed at the time to be those of St Edmund, were intended for the high altar of London's Westminster Cathedral , which was then under construction. The acceptance of the relics required the intercession of Pope Leo XIII , after an initial refusal by the church in France. Upon their arrival in England they were housed in the Fitzalan Chapel at Arundel Castle prior to their translation to Westminster. Although their validity had been confirmed in 1874, when two pieces were given to Edward Manning, Archbishop of Westminster , concerns were raised about
3330-551: The Boneless), son of Ragnar Lodbrok . After describing the horrific manner of Edmund's death, the Passio continued the story. His severed head was thrown into the wood. As Edmund's followers searched for him, calling out "Where are you, friend?" the head answered, Her, her, her ("Here! Here! Here!") until at last they found it, clasped between a wolf's paws, protected from other animals and uneaten. The followers then recovered
3420-655: The Catholic Church is 20 November. He is also remembered in the Church of England , with a Lesser Festival on this day of the year. Edmund's particular attributes are the arrow and the sword, being an English king, his attributes include the orb and sceptre . According to the Oxford Dictionary of Saints , his attribute can also be a wolf. A stone cross at Hoxne in Suffolk marks one supposed location of Edmund's death. The monument records that it
3510-590: The Confessor made the abbot lord of the franchise. The older monastery was destroyed and, the secular priests having been expelled, a new Benedictine abbey was built. Count Alan Rufus is said to have been interred at Bury St Edmunds Abbey in 1093. In the 12th and 13th centuries the head of the de Hastings family, who held the Lordship of the Manor of Ashill in Norfolk, was hereditary Steward of this abbey. The town
3600-614: The East Angles and their rulers, relates that "here the army rode across Mercia into East Anglia, and took winter-quarters at Thetford; and that winter King Edmund fought against them, and the Danish took the victory, and killed the king and conquered all that land". Where Edmund was killed and whether he died in battle or was murdered by the Danes afterwards is not known. The Great Heathen Army went on to invade Wessex in late 870, where they were confronted by Æthelred of Wessex and his brother,
3690-665: The Great Heathen Army, or if he met his death after being captured and then refusing the Viking leaders' demand that he renounce Christ. A popular cult emerged after Edmund's death, and he was canonised by the Church. A series of coins commemorating him was minted from around the time East Anglia was absorbed by the kingdom of Wessex in 918, and in about 986, the French monk Abbo wrote of his life and martyrdom. During
Saint Edmund - Misplaced Pages Continue
3780-654: The North Norfolk coast to claim his kingdom. Biographical details of Edmund in the Catholic Encyclopedia , published in 1913, include that "he showed himself a model ruler from the first, anxious to treat all with equal justice, and closing his ears to flatterers and untrustworthy informers". It was written that he withdrew for a year to his royal tower at Hunstanton and learned the whole Psalter , so that he could recite it from memory. Edmund may have been killed at Hoxne , in Suffolk. His martyrdom
3870-585: The Roman Catholic diocese of East Anglia , and Douai Abbey. England did not ever have a single patron saint before the Tudor period ; during the Middle Ages, several saints were considered to have a close association with England and to be nationally important: St Edmund; St Gregory the Great ; St Edward the Confessor ; St Thomas Becket ; and St George . Of these saints, Edmund was the most consistently popular with English kings, although Edward III raised
3960-530: The United Kingdom. The actor and writer Stephen Fry is a grandson of Martin Neumann, as recounted in the BBC programme Who 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
4050-525: The Vikings on the battlefield, but she acknowledges the possibility that such later accounts belong to "the realm of hagiographical fantasy". "King Edmund, against whom Ivar advanced, stood inside his hall, and mindful of the Saviour, threw out his weapons. He wanted to match the example of Christ, who forbade Peter to win the cruel Jews with weapons. Lo! the impious one then bound Edmund and insulted him ignominiously, and beat him with rods, and afterwards led
4140-674: The authenticity of the Arundel relics by Montague James and Charles Biggs in The Times . The relics remained at Arundel under the care of the Duke of Norfolk while a historical commission was set up by Cardinal Vaughan and Archbishop Germain of Saint-Sernin. They remain as of 1993 at Arundel. In 1966 three teeth from the collection of relics from France were given to Douai Abbey in Berkshire . The feast day of Edmund, King and Martyr in
4230-528: The body of Mary of Egypt was said to have been guarded by a lion . The English medievalist Antonia Gransden described Abbo's Passio as "little more than a hotch-potch of hagiographical commonplaces" and argues that Abbo's ignorance of what actually happened to Edmund would have led him to use aspects of the Lives of well-known saints such as Sebastian and Denis as models for his version of Edmund's martydom. Gransden acknowledged that there are some aspects of
4320-578: The campaign stated their hopes that a petition could be used to force Parliament to debate the issue. The veneration of Edmund throughout the centuries has created a legacy of noteworthy works of art. An illustrated copy of Abbo of Fleury's Passio Sancti Eadmundi , made at Bury St Edmunds in around 1130, is now kept at the Morgan Library in New York City . The copy of John Lydgate 's 15th-century Life , written for Henry VI of England ,
4410-437: The cathedral. The town now has seven Anglican churches in six parishes, St Peter's being in the same parish as St Mary's. St James' parish church became St Edmundsbury Cathedral when the Diocese 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
4500-500: The climactic scene of the poem, Edyff, the sister of King 'Athelston' of England, gives birth to Edmund after passing through a ritual ordeal by fire . Bury St Edmunds Bury St Edmunds ( / ˈ b ɛr i s ə n t ˈ ɛ d m ən d z / ), commonly referred to locally as Bury, is a cathedral as well as market town and civil parish in the West Suffolk district, in the county of Suffolk , England. The town
4590-485: 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 did Charles II in 1668 and 1684. 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. The Redistribution of Seats Act 1885 reduced
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#17327650112204680-474: The devout king to a firm living tree, and tied him there with strong bonds, and beat him with whips. In between the whip lashes, Edmund called out with true belief in the Saviour Christ. Because of his belief, because he called to Christ to aid him, the heathens became furiously angry. They then shot spears at him, as if it was a game, until he was entirely covered with their missiles, like the bristles of
4770-532: 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 ( Beodericsworth , Bedrichesworth , St Edmund's Bury ) uncovered evidence of Bronze Age activity in the area. The dig also uncovered Roman coins from the first and second centuries. Samuel Lewis, writing in 1848, notes the earlier discovery of Roman antiquities, and as with several other writers connects Bury St Edmunds with Villa Faustini or Villa Faustina , although
4860-490: The future Alfred the Great . Edmund was buried in a wooden chapel near to where he was killed. At a date generally assumed by historians to have been during the reign of Æthelstan , who became king of the Anglo-Saxons in 924, Edmund's body was translated from Haegelisdun —the location of which has never been conclusively identified—to Beodricesworth , now modern Bury St Edmunds . In 925 Æthelstan founded
4950-503: 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." This expulsion predates the Edict of Expulsion by 100 years. In 1198, a fire burned the shrine of St Edmund, leading to the inspection of his corpse by Abbot Samson and the translation of St Edmund's body to a new location in
5040-410: The head. Abbo failed to date these events surrounding Edmund's translation to Beodericsworth , although from his text it can be seen that he believed that the relics had been taken to Beodericsworth by the time that Theodred became Bishop of London in around 926. Upon exhumation of the body, a miracle was discovered. All the arrow wounds upon Edmund's undecayed corpse had healed and his head
5130-583: The home town of the London and South East Regional Divorce Unit and the Maintenance Enforcement Business Centre (for issues with maintenance payments outside Greater London). 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
5220-640: The importance of George when he associated him with the Order of the Garter . In 2006, BBC Radio Suffolk radio presenter Mark Murphy and David Ruffley , the Member of Parliament for Bury St Edmunds , failed in their campaign to reinstate Edmund as the patron saint of England. In 2013, BBC News reported a new campaign launched by Murphy and the brewer Greene King , which is based in Bury St Edmunds, to reinstate St Edmund as England's patron saint. Supporters of
5310-496: The infamous 1827 Red Barn murder . The Market Cross , today a community space, is a building restored by Robert Adam in 1780s. 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. 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
5400-408: The king refused to meet the Danes in battle, preferring to die a martyr's death. According to Ridyard, Edmund's martyrdom cannot be proven and the nature of his fate—whether he died fighting or was murdered after the battle—cannot be read from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle . Ridyard notes that the story that Edmund had an armour-bearer implies that he would have been a warrior king who was prepared to fight
5490-417: The king!'. Some of them have a legend that provides evidence that the Vikings experimented with their initial design. The St Edmund memorial coins were minted in great quantities by a group of more than 70 moneyers, many of whom appear to have originated from continental Europe; over 1800 specimens were found when the Cuerdale Hoard was discovered in Lancashire in 1840. The coins were widely used within
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#17327650112205580-408: The location of this Roman site is also discussed by E. Gillingwater (1804), who notes the lack of evidence for it being here. The town was one of the royal boroughs of the Saxons . Sigebert , king of the East Angles , founded a monastery here about 633, which in 903 became the burial place of King Edmund the Martyr, who was slain by the Danes in 869, and owed most of its early celebrity to
5670-479: The now-closed Moreton Hall Preparatory School. Bury St Edmunds Guildhall dates back to the late 12th century. Bury St Edmunds has one of the full-time fire stations run by Suffolk Fire and Rescue Service . Originally located in the Traverse (now the Halifax bank), 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. Since March 2015, Bury St Edmunds has been
5760-427: The plant has spare crystallising capacity. The sugar is sold under the Silver Spoon name (the other major British brand, Tate & Lyle , is made from imported sugar cane ). By-products include molassed sugar beet feed for cattle and LimeX70, a soil improver. The factory has its own power station, which powers around 110,000 homes. A smell of burnt starch from the plant is noticeable on some days. The town council
5850-477: The puritan theologian Richard Sibbes , master of St Catherine's Hall in Cambridge , antiquary and politician Simonds d'Ewes , and John Winthrop the Younger , who became governor of Connecticut. The town was the setting for witch trials between 1599 and 1694. The population had reached 12,538 by 1841. A permanent military presence was established in the town with the completion of the Militia Barracks in 1857 and of Gibraltar Barracks in 1878. During
5940-399: The rank of a borough . Henry III in 1235 granted to the abbot two annual fairs, one in December and the other the great St Matthew 's fair, which was abolished by the Fairs Act of 1871 . In 1327, the Great Riot occurred, in which the local populace led an armed revolt against the abbey. The riot destroyed the main gate, and a new, fortified gate was built in its stead. On 11 April 1608
6030-442: The representation to one. The borough of Bury St Edmunds and the surrounding area, like much of East Anglia , being part of the Eastern Association , supported Puritan sentiment during the first half of the 17th century. By 1640, several families had departed for the Massachusetts Bay Colony as part of the wave of emigration that occurred during the Great Migration . Bury's ancient grammar school also educated such notables as
6120-458: The reputed miracles performed at the shrine of the martyr king. The town grew around Bury St Edmunds Abbey , a site of pilgrimage . By 925 the fame of St Edmund had spread far and wide, and the name of the town was changed to St Edmund's Bury . In 942 or 945, King Edmund I had granted to the abbot and convent jurisdiction over the whole town, free from all secular services, and Canute in 1020 freed it from episcopal control. Later, Edward
6210-433: The same moneyers . He is thought to have been of East Anglian origin, but 12th century writers produced fictitious accounts of his family, succession and his rule as king. Edmund's death was mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle , which relates that he was killed in 869 after the Great Heathen Army advanced into East Anglia. Medieval versions of Edmund's life and martyrdom differ as to whether he died in battle fighting
6300-416: The story—such as the appearance of the wolf that guards Edmund's head—that do not have exact parallels elsewhere. Herman the Archdeacon , who was an excellent Latinist, wrote another hagiography of Edmund, the Miracles of St Edmund , at the end of the eleventh century. His original text does not survive, but a shortened version is part of a book dating to around 1100 produced by Bury St Edmunds Abbey, which
6390-399: The tower took place in July 2005, and included a brass band concert and fireworks. Parts of the cathedral remain uncompleted, including the cloisters . 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
6480-513: The town centre, and Honington (elevation 51 m or 167 ft), about 6 + 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 36.7 °C (98.1 °F), recorded in August 2003. The lowest recent temperature was −10.0 °C (14.0 °F) during December 2010. Rainfall
6570-555: The town have closed over the years, but the town still has a variety of pubs The Angel Hotel is a Georgian building on Angel Hill. Charles Dickens stayed there while giving readings in the Athenaeum , as mentioned in The Pickwick Papers . Angelina Jolie stayed there while filming Tomb Raider . A coaching inn has existed on the site since the 15th century. Greene King , is situated in Bury St Edmunds, as
6660-434: The youngest son of 'Alcmund', a Saxon king of Germanic descent. 'Alcmund' may never have existed. Edmund's fictitious continental origins were later elaborated upon in the 15th century by the poet John Lydgate in his The Lives of Saints Edmund and Fremund . Lydgate spoke of his parentage, his birth at Nuremberg , his adoption by Offa of Mercia , his nomination as successor to the king and his landing at Old Hunstanton on
6750-676: 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 main football club, Bury Town , is the fourth oldest non-league team in England. They are members of the Isthmian League and have played at Ram Meadow since moving from Kings Road in
6840-661: Was built by National Gallery architect William Wilkins in 1819 and is the sole surviving Regency Theatre in the country. The theatre, owned by the Greene King brewery, is leased to the National 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. An additional arts venue, The Apex,
6930-608: Was built in 1935. The sign is at the terminus of the A1101 , Great Britain's lowest road which is mostly below sea level. There is a network of tunnels which are evidence of chalk -workings, 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 caused subsidence within living memory, for instance at Jacqueline Close. Among noteworthy buildings
7020-450: Was built on the site of an ancient oak tree which fell in 1848 and was found to have an arrow head embedded in its trunk. Some fifty-five Church of England parish churches are dedicated to Edmund, perhaps the most notable being the Church of St Edmund, King and Martyr , Lombard Street in the City of London . The Benedictine community of Douai Abbey also has Edmund as its patron. There
7110-401: Was built on the site of the former cattle market in 2010. 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 example Mary Beale , costume, e.g. Charles Frederick Worth , horology , local and social history, including Witchcraft . It holds an original death mask of William Corder who was hanged for
7200-457: Was completed in 1032, having possibly been commissioned by Canute in time to be consecrated on the 16th anniversary of the Battle of Assandun , which took place on 18 October 1016. Edmund's shrine became one of the most famous and wealthy pilgrimage locations in England. The abbey's power grew upon being given jurisdiction over the western half of the county of Suffolk by the creation in 1044 of
7290-574: Was crowned by Bishop Hunberht on Christmas Day 856 at a royal vill in Burna in Suffolk, but no source is known for these statements. The devastation in East Anglia that was caused by the Vikings destroyed all the charters that may have referred to Edmund. Edmund cannot be placed within any ruling dynasty. The 10th century French monk Abbo of Fleury stated that Edmund was ex antiquorum Saxonum nobili prosapia oriundus , which according to Ridyard "was probably Abbo's rather verbose way of saying he
7380-591: Was descended from the ancient nobility of his race". A variety of different coins were minted by Edmund's moneyers during his reign. The letters AN , standing for 'Anglia', appear on the coins of only Edmund and Æthelstan , another 9th century king of the East Angles; the letters appear on Edmund's coins as part of the phrase + EADMUND REX AN[GLORUM] ("Edmund, King of the Angles"). Edmund's later coins read + EADMUND REX ("Edmund, King"). Otherwise, no chronology for his coins has been confirmed. For decades after
7470-561: 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. Local news and television programmes
7560-490: Was for a time the home of a thriving Jewish community, and it is likely, although not certain, that Moyse's Hall belonged to a Jewish merchant. On 18 March 1190, two days after the more well-known massacre of Jews at Clifford Tower in York , the people of Bury St Edmunds massacred 57 Jews. Later that year, Abbot Samson successfully petitioned King Richard I for permission to evict the town's remaining Jewish inhabitants "on
7650-463: Was formed in 2003. The election on 3 May 2007 was won by the "Abolish Bury Town Council" party. The party lost its majority following a by-election in June 2007 and, to date, the town council is still in existence. In March 2008 a further by-election put Conservatives in control but in the council election of May 2011 the lack of Conservative and other parties' candidates resulted a Labour majority before
7740-496: Was martyred. In a preface to Lydgate's Life , in which Edmund's banner—depicting three crowns set on a blue background—is described, the crowns are said to represent Edmund's martyrdom, virginity and kingship. The ancient wooden St Andrew's Church, Greensted-juxta-Ongar in Essex, is said to have been a resting place for his body on the way to Bury St Edmunds in 1013. Edmund is the patron saint of pandemics as well as kings,
7830-404: Was reattached. The last recorded inspection of the body whilst at Bury St Edmunds was in 1198. The resemblance between the deaths of St Sebastian and St Edmund was remarked upon by Abbo: both saints were attacked by archers , although only Edmund is supposed to have been decapitated. His death bears some resemblance to the fate suffered by other saints: St Denis was whipped and beheaded and
7920-544: Was sacked by the townspeople in the 14th century and then largely destroyed during the 16th century with the Dissolution of the Monasteries , but the town remained prosperous throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, only falling into relative decline with the Industrial Revolution . Until the building of St John's in 1840, the town had just two parishes, St James's and St Mary's. The former has now become
8010-589: Was silver and adorned with solid silver statues. In 1644, the relics were verified and catalogued for interment in the newly-completed shrine, by which time the cult's origins had been forgotten. Edmund's shrine was removed in 1794 during the French Revolution . The saint's relics were restored to the Basilica of Saint-Sernin in 1845 and placed in a new reliquary. In 1901 the Archbishop of Westminster , Herbert Vaughan , received "certain relics" from
8100-467: Was taken away. The abbot and his monks were expelled and the abbey was dissolved. In 1664, a lawyer from the French city of Toulouse publicized a claim that Edmund's remains had been taken from Bury by the future Louis VIII of France following his defeat at the Battle of Lincoln in 1217. The relics had then been donated by Louis to the Basilica of Saint-Sernin, Toulouse . The first record of this
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