Bury is supposed to have been the Villa Faustina of the Romans, and became a considerable town of the East English. It derived its chief fame and importance, however, from becoming the burial-place of St. Edmund the Martyr, King of the East Angles. The parishes are two, St. Mary’s and St. James’s. Here are held the spring assizes for Suffolk, and the quarter sessions for the franchise of St. Edmund, of which this is the chief place. This is the place of election for West Suffolk, and a polling place. It is a borough, returning two members to Parliament, and has a municipal corporation, with separate jurisdiction, consisting of a mayor and the usual functionaries. The market days are Wednesdays and Saturdays. At the former the dealings in corn and cattle are large; the latter is chiefly for provisions. The fairs are on Easter Tuesday, October 2, and December 1. The October fair is the great fair, and much resorted to. The December fair is a great cattle fair. Bury is a grand market for agricultural produce of all kinds. The town is well built, and is lighted with gas, and there are some good public buildings and private dwellings.
St. James’s church was not finished till the reign of Edward VI., who gave £200 towards its completion; it was thoroughly repaired in 1820, when a new gallery was added; it has about 2,000 sittings, of which 250 are free; the benefice is a donative, endowed with a stipend, and is in the patronage of Henry Wilson, Esq., of Stowlangtoft Hall, Suffolk; the Hon. Rev. Edward Pellew, M.A., is the present incumbent. The church, dedicated to the Virgin Mary, was commenced in 1424. In the chancel is a monument in memory of Mary, daughter of King Henry VII., first married to Louis XII., King of France, and afterwards to Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk; she died at Westhorp, in 1533, and was buried in the abbey church here. It has been thoroughly repaired, at a cost of between £6,000 and £7,000. The repairs were made under the superintendence of Mr. Cottingham, architect, Mr. Nash of London, Mr. Farrow of Diss, and the chancel by Mr. Darkin, of this town; it has 2,000 sittings, of which 500 are free. The benefice is a donative, endowed with a stipend, in the patronage of John Fitzgerald, Esq.; the Rev. Charles James Phipps Eyre, M.A., is the present incumbent.
St. John’s church is an elegant structure, built by subscription at a cost of about £6,000, and consecrated October 21st, 1841; it has 850 sittings, half of which are free. The church, dedicated to St. John the Evangelist, is a perpetual curacy, endowed by the Marquis of Bristol and Earl Jermyn with £100 per annum, out of land at Little Saxham; the Bishop of Ely is patron, and the Rev. Robert Rushdall, M.A., incumbent.
A Roman Catholic chapel, dedicated to St. Edmund, was erected here in 1837, from designs by C. Day. The Grammar School, in Northgate street, was founded by King Edward VI., and is well endowed. The Norman tower of the grand abbey, erected in the reign of William the Conqueror, and now forming the grand entrance of the churchyard of the two churches, St. James and St. Mary, to the former of which it serves as the bell tower, is considered one of the noblest specimens of Norman architecture in the kingdom, and has undergone a complete repair, under the superintendence of Mr. Cottingham, at an estimated cost of £3,000, contributed by the parish and by public subscription. King Edward IV. founded a college of priests in College Street, and the building is now occupied as a workhouse. There were formerly several hospitals in the town, the principal of which are God’s House at Southgate, dedicated to St. John the Evangelist: St. Nicholas’s Hospital, at Eastgate, near the roads leading to Ixworth and Fornham, founded by one of the abbots of Bury; the extensive remains of the hospital and chapel form the principal part of a farm-house: St. Saviour’s Hospital, founded by abbot Sampson, belongs to St. John’s College, Cambridge. Without Risby Gate stood an hospital dedicated to St. Peter, founded by abbot Anselm in the reign of Henry I. In the wall forming the eastern boundary of the abbey precinct, are some arches, commonly known by the name of “The Abbot’s Bridge,” which seem intended to form an occasional foot-bridge, by means of planks laid from buttress to buttress, through which there are passages, the greatest distance being about 24 feet.
There are many other vestiges of ancient structures to which the antiquary, and others, will attach considerable interest. Exclusive of those appropriated to divine worship, are the following: The Shirehall, a modern erection in the churchyard, comprising two convenient courts for the trial of civil and criminal causes. The Guildhall is for the town court of sessions, and the transaction of the general business of the borough; petty sessions are held here every Thursday. It is vested in the trustees of the Guildhall feoffment, by whom it is kept in repair: it has an ancient porch, and some portraits of local worthies. The County Gaol, which serves also for the borough and the liberty of St. Edmund, is an extensive building at Southgate Green, on the London road; it was erected in 1803 at an expense of £30,000, and is calculated to contain 140 prisoners, with a separate bed for each. The Police Station is a fine specimen of a Norman house; the age of its erection is obvious from its general appearance and circular windows. The Theatre, a neat structure in Westgate Street, was opened for dramatic performances in October, 1819. The Subscription Rooms, on the south side of Angel hill, comprise ball, billiard, and reading rooms, and were completed in 1804, at an expense of about £5,000. There is an exceeding good public library at the Guildhall, which contains many valuable books. The Botanic Garden, the entrance to which is under that magnificent remain, the Abbey Gate, is an important acquisition to this branch of scientific study; it was established in 1820, and is under the superintendence of N. S. Hodson, Esq. The Suffolk Hospital is a handsome structure in an open and healthful situation; it has been repaired and enlarged by adding considerably to the wings.
CLERGY, GENTRY, &c.
Adams, Mrs. Elizabeth, Guildhall street
Andrews, Mr. Peter, Risbygate street
Barton, Mr. John, College street
Barton, Miss Mary Ann, Hatter street