IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
New Shire Hall, Raingate Street, BURY ST. EDMUNDS, IP33 1RX

The Registry Office displays quite a mixture of architectural styles, including a 1960s raised walkway to the adjoining office block. This was formerly the Suffolk County Council premises, briefly the library while the real one was refurbished, and now lays empty looking for a new tenant.

A regional headquarters of Suffolk County Council, situated towards the south of the town centre.

Glimpsed from alongside the Old Shire Hall is St Margarets House. Built, in red brick with lighter rubbed brick dressings, in the early 18th century and altered and extended in the early 20th century. The house incorporporates part of the Abbey's precinct wall. Some 17th and 18th century internal features remain. The house was used as offices of West Suffolk County Council from 1932 until it was sold and re-converted to private residential accommodation circa 2013. Listed, grade II*, with details at: https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1375562 Honey Hill, with its wealth of history used to finish at Sparhawk Street from thereon it was known as Schoolhall Street when the Abbey’s song school was here. The Abbey’s St Margarets Gate was taken down to allow free passage into The Great Churchyard. 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.

Shirehall Bury St.Edmunds Suffolk.

The front entrance to shirehall Bury St.Edmunds Suffolk.

Suffolk County Councils records office in Bury St.Edmunds, Suffolk.

Number 79 Raingate Street, is on a corner site with Honey Hill. Built in the early 19th century in random stone and flint with red brick dressings with the side facing Honey Hill in red brick. The house was restored in 1988. Listed, grade II, with details at: https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1244888 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.

The county crest over the entrance to shirehall Bury St.Edmunds Suffolk.

The old shire hall Bury St.Edmunds Suffolk now a small part of the shire hall complex this building is now houses magistrates courts.

Bury St.Edmunds police station Raingate street Bury St.Edmunds Suffolk.