Bury St Edmunds Abbey

It was a centre of pilgrimage as the burial place of the Anglo-Saxon martyr-king Saint Edmund, killed by the Great Heathen Army of Danes in 869.

The abbey church of St Edmund was built in the 11th and 12th centuries on a cruciform plan, with an apsidal east end.

At some 505 feet long, and spanning 246 ft across its westerly transept, Bury St Edmunds abbey church was one of the largest in the country.

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.

One of the best surviving examples of its type, this two-storey gate-hall is entered through a single archway which retains its portcullis.

In the late 12th century, the Abbot Adam Samson forced the Dean Herbert to destroy the new windmill he had built without permission.

The monks charged tariffs on every economic activity, including the collecting of horse droppings in the streets.

Two years later Henry VI moved into residence at the abbey for Christmas, and was still enjoying monastic hospitality four months later.

More trouble arose in 1447 when the Duke of Gloucester died in suspicious circumstances after his arrest, and in 1465 the entire church was burnt out by an accidental fire.

Subsequently stripped of all valuable building materials and artefacts, the abbey ruins were left as a convenient quarry for local builders.

The Abbey Gardens are currently owned and managed by West Suffolk Council in conjunction with English Heritage.

[14] In the late 19th century, a manuscript discovered in Douai, France revealed the burial location of eighteen of the Abbey's abbots.

[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.