Bury St Edmunds

Bury St Edmunds is a town in the county of Suffolk, England. It is the main town in the borough of St Edmundsbury and is probably most famous for the ruined abbey that stands near the town centre. The abbey is a shrine to Saint Edmund, the Saxon King of the East Angles, who was killed by the Danes in 869 AD. The town initially grew around Bury St Edmunds Abbey, a site of pilgrimage, and developed into a flourishing cloth making town by the 14th century. The town is closely associated with Magna Carta, in 1214 the barons of England met in the Abbey Church and swore that they would force King John to accept the Charter of Liberties, later known as Magna Carta.

The abbey was largely destroyed during the 16th century with the dissolution of the monasteries but Bury remained a prosperous town throughout the 17th and 18th centuries. As would be expected of a town in such a rural area, Bury fell into relative decline with the onset of the industrial revolution and accordingly remains an attractive market town.

Next to the abbey is Bury St Edmunds Cathedral, created when the Diocese of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich was formed in 1914. The cathedral was extended with a new eastern end in the 1960s, and a completely new Gothic revival cathedral tower was built as part of a major millennium project running from 2000 to 2005. The opening celebration for the new tower took place in July 2005, and included a brass band concert and fireworks display. Despite all this work, there are still parts of the cathedral that need completing. The cloisters remain unfinished, and there are still many areas of the cathedral that are inaccessible to the general public due to ever ongoing building work. The tower makes St Edmundsbury the only recently completed cathedral in the UK; only a handful of Gothic revival cathedrals are still being built worldwide. The tower was constructed using original fabrication techniques. Six highly skilled masons cut and placed every stone individually.

For an important service at the new cathedral in the 1960s Benjamin Britten wrote his Fanfare for St Edmundsbury, a work for three trumpets which is now well-known.

The town has the small but enormously significant Theatre Royal, Bury St Edmunds built by National Gallery architect William Wilkins in 1819. It is the sole surviving Regency Theatre left in the country and even after nearly 200 years remains a vital part of the town's cultural identity. The theatre began a major restoration in late 2005 which is due for completion in early 2007. Appeal Patron Dame Judi Dench: "The Theatre Royal, Bury St Edmunds holds a unique place in the history of theatre in this country as well as a special place in my heart. The restoration of one of the last Georgian theatres in the country will ensure a vital part of our theatrical heritage will survive for future generations".