Bury St Edmunds buildings [266]

Image: © Michael Dibb Taken: 12 Sep 2020

This is the gate house and entrance to St Andrews Castle in St Andrews Street South. The castle was built circa 1795 as a house, and was later used as accommodation and classrooms for the Sisters of St Louis's Roman Catholic school. The gatehouse in red brick with a white brick castellated parapet in Gothik style is linked with the red brick wall with wrought-iron gates between octagonal piers. Listed, grade II, with details at: https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1245010 Much of the centre of the town has suffered from redevelopment and most buildings are later than the mid 19th century. There are some uninspiring modern buildings along Parkway and the Arc shopping centre is particularly ugly, especially the building occupied by Debenhams. 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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