Bury St Edmunds buildings [94]

Image: © Michael Dibb Taken: 14 Sep 2020

The former post office at 17 Cornhill was built in 1896. The facade remains but the rest of the building was re-developed in the 1960s. The post office moved next door to number 15 Cornhill Image and the 1960s part of the building will be rebuilt. Happily, the facade will be retained. Cornhill, Buttermarket and The Traverse are the commercial heart of the town. Cornhill incorporates the market areas set out in the 12th century where twice weekly markets are held, Buttermarket with The Traverse extend to the south connecting with Abbeygate Street and Guildhall Street. The area has some of the town’s finest and most important buildings. Bury St Edmunds is a market town which is the cultural and retail centre for West Suffolk and is known for brewing (Greene King) and sugar (British Sugar). There is scattered evidence of earlier activity but essentially Bury St Edmunds began as one of the royal boroughs of the Saxons and a monastery was founded which became the burial place of King Edmund. A new Benedictine abbey was built in 1020 which became rich and powerful and the town was laid out on a grid pattern by Abbot Baldwin. After the dissolution the abbey became ruinous. A new church, later the cathedral, was begun in the early 16th century.

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