Bury St Edmunds houses [199]

Image: © Michael Dibb Taken: 9 Sep 2020

This 17th century house is now two properties, numbers 38 and 38A Southgate Street. Timber framed and stuccoed with a rear wing to the north (left). Alterations have been made in the 19th and 20th centuries. The large shop window is 19th century. Listed, grade II, with details at: https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1272122 Sparhawk Street runs from Honey Hill via the open space of St Mary’s Square to Southgate Street which leads to Southgate Green, the site of the town’s Southgate and where St Petronella’s Hospital was located, established in the 12th century for the treatment of female lepers. The area is rich in history and has a great variety of 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.

Images are licensed for reuse under creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0