Bury St Edmunds Abbey
The Abbey of Bury St Edmunds was once among the richest
History
In the early 10th century the allegedly "incorrupt" (i.e. not decomposed)
The abbey church of St Edmund was built in the 11th and 12th centuries on a
Abbey Gate, opening onto the Great Courtyard, was the secular entrance which was used by the Abbey's servants.
The Cloisters Cross, also referred to as the "Bury St Edmunds Cross", is an unusually complex 12th-century Romanesque altar cross, carved from walrus ivory. it is now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. The sculptor is not known. Thomas Hoving, who managed the acquisition of the cross while he was Associate Curator at The Cloisters, concluded that it was carved by Master Hugo at the Abbey. There is no certain evidence to suggest that the cross was even made in England, however, although this is accepted by most scholars, and other places of origin such as Germany have been proposed.
In 1327 the Abbey was destroyed during the Great Riot by the local people, who were angry at the power of the monastery, and it had to be rebuilt. The Norman Gate dates from 1120 to 1148 and was designed to be the gateway for the Abbey Church and it is still the belfry for the Church of St James, the present cathedral of Bury St Edmunds. This four-storey gate-hall is virtually unchanged and is entered through a single archway. Abbey Gate is an impressive 14th-century stone gatehouse, designed to be the gateway for the Great Courtyard. One of the best surviving examples of its type, this two-storey gate-hall is entered through a single archway which retains its portcullis. The Crankles was the name of the fishpond near the river Lark. The vineyard was first laid out in the 13th century. There were three breweries in the Abbey as each monk was entitled to eight pints a day.
of St Edmundsbury Cathedral in the background.
The Abbey's charters granted extensive lands and rights in Suffolk. By 1327, the Abbey owned all of West Suffolk. The Abbey held the gates of Bury St Edmunds; they held wardships of all orphans, whose income went to the Abbot until the orphan reached maturity; they pressed their rights of
The town of Bury St Edmunds was designed by the monks in a grid pattern. The monks charged tariffs on every economic activity, including the collecting of horse droppings in the streets. The Abbey even ran the Royal Mint. During the 13th century general prosperity blunted the resistance of burghers and peasants; in the 14th century, however, the monks encountered hostility from the local populace. Throughout 1327, the monastery suffered extensively, as several monks lost their lives in riots, and many buildings were destroyed. The townspeople attacked in January, forcing a charter of liberties on them. When the monks reneged on this they attacked again in February and May. The hated charters and debtors' accounts were seized and triumphantly torn to shreds.
A reprieve came on 29 September 1327 when
On 18 October 1327, a group of monks entered the local parish church. They threw off their habits, revealing they were armoured underneath, and took several hostages. The people called for the hostages' release: but monks threw objects at them, killing some. In response, the citizens swore to fight the abbey to the death. They included a
In 1345, a special commission found that the monks did not wear habits or live in the monastery.[10] Already faced with considerable financial strain, the abbey went further into decline during the first half of the 15th century. In 1431 the west tower of the abbey church collapsed. Two years later
The ruins are owned by English Heritage and managed by St Edmundsbury Borough Council.
Abbey Gardens
The Abbey Gardens are currently owned and managed by West Suffolk Council in conjunction with English Heritage. The maintenance of and improvements to the gardens are carried out by the council as well as support from volunteers.[12]
The Abbey Gardens surrounding the ruins had an "Internet bench" installed in 2001, which people could use to connect laptops to the Internet. It was the first bench of its kind.[13] There is a sensory garden for the visually impaired.[14]
Burials
- Jurmin
- Edmund the Martyr
- Alan Rufus (d. 1093) was first buried outside the south door, then reinterred inside the abbey church.
- Thomas of Brotherton (d. 1338) Earl of Norfolk, Lord Marshal of England, son of King Edward I and Margaret of France, buried in the choir.
- Mary Tudor, Queen of France, Princess of England (d. 1533), (daughter of King Henry VII), whose remains were removed to nearby St Mary's Church at the Dissolution five years later.
In the late 19th century, a manuscript discovered in Douai, France revealed the burial location of eighteen of the Abbey's abbots. The antiquary and author Montague R. James, an authority on the Abbey's history, published an account of the Abbey that made extensive use of the Douai Register.[15] He oversaw an excavation of the chapter house, and on New Year's Day 1903 the coffins and remains of five of the abbots were shown to the public.[16][17][18]
Holders of Corrodies
- until 1511: Hugh Denys of Osterley(d.1511), Groom to the King's Close Stool of Henry VII.[19]
- from 1511: William Gower, Groom of the Chamber to Henry VIII.[20]
See also
Notes
- ^ Gransden, A. "The Alleged Incorruption of the Body of St Edmund King and Martyr" in The Antiquities Journal, Vol. 74, March 1994, pp. 135-168
- ^ Evans, Margaret Carey "The Contribution of Hoxne to the Cult of St Edmund King and Martyr in the Middle Ages and Later" in Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology & History, Vol. XXXVI, Part 3 (1987), p. 182
- ^ Briggs, Keith "Was Hægelisdun in Essex? A New Site for the Martyrdom of Edmund" in Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology & History, Vol. XLII, Part 3 (2011), p. 278
- ^ Young, Francis (2018) Edmund: In Search of England's Lost King London: I B Tauris ISBN 978-1-78831-179-3, pp. 61 - 66
- JSTOR 2902996.
- ^ https://drfrancisyoung.com/2015/10/29/st-sigebert-east-anglias-first-martyr-king/ Retrieved 29 July 2023
- ^ https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/bury-st-edmunds-abbey/history/ Retrieved 29 July 2023
- ^ With the manors granted by Edward the Confessor, the abbey was in possession of fully a third of Suffolk (A History of the County of Suffolk).
- ISBN 978-1-4090-7045-0.
- ^ Terry Jones, Medieval Lives, page 106
- ^ "Abbey of St Edmunds study reveals site's hidden secrets". Rhoda Morrison. Bury Free Press. 21 July 2018.
- ^ "Official site". Abbey Gardens Friends. Retrieved 22 March 2015.
- ^ "Bad start for internet bench". BBC News. 9 August 2001. Retrieved 30 December 2007.
- ^ "Abbey Gardens". www.westsuffolk.gov.uk. Retrieved 23 April 2018.
- ^ James, M.R. (1895). On the Abbey of S. Edmund at Bury: I. The Library. II. The Church. Cambridge: Cambridge Antiquarian Society.
- ^ "Discoveries at Bury St Edmunds". The Times. 9 January 1903. p. 9.
- ^ Bury St Edmunds Past and Present Society, burypastandpresent.org.uk Archived 4 April 2010 at the Wayback Machine
- S2CID 160982792.
- ^ Letters & Papers, For. & Dom. Henry VIII, vol 1 (1920)
- ^ "William Gower, Groom of the Chamber, grant of a Corrody in the Monastery of St. Edmund's Bury vice Hugh Denys deceased. Greenwich, 4th Jan. 1512". Letters & Papers, For. & Dom. Henry VIII, vol 1 (1920)
External links
- suffolkchurches.co.uk page
- 'Houses of Benedictine monks: Abbey of Bury St Edmunds', A History of the County of Suffolk: Volume 2 (1975), pp. 56–72
- English Heritage page
- Abbey Gardens Friends
- Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). . Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
52°14′39″N 0°43′09″E / 52.2441°N 0.7192°E
