IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
St. Botolphs Lane, BURY ST. EDMUNDS, IP33 2AU

The stone tablet over the door says 'Old Mission House' which seems a little strange, as no-one names something as Old - it only becomes known as Old after a new one is built. The building displays lots of interesting brickwork - the sections over the lower windows are not even the same. The different coloured bricks under these windows suggest that the sills may have been raised.

View is from St Botolph's Lane.

Old malting, Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk. For view 17 years earlier see http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/302743

Old maltings Bury St.Edmunds Suffolk. Photo taken in march 1990 see http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/302737 for view now 17 years later.

Oast houses are normally associated mainly with Kent, and I had lived in Bury St. Edmunds for decades before I discovered that we have one in the town. It has obviously been converted to housing and/or offices. In the foreground we see a storage yard for a builders' merchants.

This part seems to be disused since a recent refurbishment, and the newer part can be seen in Image The road is Raingate Street and the field behind is No Man's Meadows, a flood plain beside the river Lark. So it is a good job Suffolk suffers very little from flooding, or we would soon lose our power.

Numbers 35A, 36 and 37 Southgate Street are three former almshouses. Built in the 16th century with 17th century rear extensions. Timber framed and stuccoed. All the windows and doors are 20th century. Listed, grade II, with details at: https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1272120 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.

These low lying meadows have a complex network of man-made waterways as part of the abbey fish farm and the water supply to the abbey watermill. This is just behind the rugby club.

This main feed to Bury St. Edmunds has had a recent refurbishment - the old parts remain to the south of the site.

These low-lying meadows on the outskirts of Bury St Edmunds, owned by the Guildhall Feoffment Trust, are designated as a Local Nature Reserve. The mature willow in this photo is a fine example of a wetland tree.