Historian and tour guide Martyn Taylor looks at how Abbot Baldwin laid out Bury St Edmunds’ historic medieval grid
Bury St Edmunds was once called Sinte Edmund Byrig, previous to this it was Beodericesworth, or variations of that spelling.
The meaning being “The worth or homestead of Bederic”. Who he was is unknown, but it is thought that a stepson of the famous King Raedwald of Sutton Hoo fame, King Sigeberht, a Saxon convert to Christianity established a monastery here at Beodericesworth in the early 7th century hence why Edmund’s body ended up here in 903 AD.
In 1065 a year before the Norman Conquest the French Abbot Baldwin of St Edmundsbury Abbey, 1065-1097, laid out the town grid thus making it the oldest purposely laid-out Norman town in the country.
Respected historian Bernard Gauthiez put forward a credible theory in 1998 that Baldwin’s Norman town was possibly laid out on the Anglo-Saxon settlement using a mathematical formula used elsewhere.
By the time of the compilation of Domesday in 1086 an astonishing 342 houses were built in the town “on land previously under the plough.”
Such a large quantity of homes were obviously required for the workforce building the Abbey. It is by no accident that the abbey was founded near the confluence of two rivers, as it was possibly looked upon as a place of spirituality.
The Lark, aka The Bourne or Burn and the Linnet aka The Maydewater (hence where Maynewater Lane gets its name).
As was the usual procedure in the building of any religious house, Baldwin started construction of the Abbey Church of St Edmund from the east in 1081, the completion of which would not take place until 1210.
Due to the enormous length of the Abbey Church some 505 feet long (155metres) it became apparent that the Saxon road that went from Northgate Street (then known as High Street) into Sparhawk Street and St Mary’s Square and then onwards down Southgate Street would encroach on to the West Front of the Abbey Church.
Therefore a new road was created to go around the church of St Denys that preceded the later St James. This road was to become Churchgovel Street better known today as Crown Street.
St James’ church along with St Mary’s would later have their entrances outside the abbey precinct wall to avoid the abbey’s control.
Evidence of this lost Saxon road was discovered with the removal of St James’ Victorian chancel allowing Stephen Dykes Bower, the architect for the Diocese to proceed with a new chancel, quire, song school, refectory, offices, lecture room etc from 1960 onwards.
It was during some of these works when an archaeological dig was being carried out that the Saxon road was discovered.
THE TOWN TODAY
The modern-day map of Bury St Edmunds shows the obvious street names pertaining to the gates of the town, Westgate Street, Eastgate Street, Southgate Street, Northgate Street and Risbygate Street. With these were locations outside of the gates, hence, Out Risbygate (a suburb of the town), Out Northgate, Out Eastgate and Out Southgate.
Curiously Out Westgate has also been called Westgate Road. Other locations within the grid itself have names associated with their existence - Guildhall Street, College Street and Bridewell Lane.
Bridewell the name for a ‘local nick’ but was in the past known as Master Andrews Lane whilst the College of Sweet Jesus a retirement home for priests from St Mary’s and St James’ is no longer.
Woolhall Street derives its name for “as it says on the tin” the woolhall demolished in 1828 to make way for access to the new beast market in St Andrew’s Street South.
As for the Guildhall, perhaps the longest continual civic building in the country, a theory has been put forward that Churchgate Street used to sit nearer to it; Number 79, Guildhall Street aka Norman House possibly once stood opposite Churchgate Street, a street now slightly moved over from its original position.
According to legend, you could stand here and see a candle lit at St Edmund’s shrine in the abbey. It is called Norman House because behind its front door there is another doorway, probably 12th century; Romanesque in design and origin with a strong rounded stone arch.
This building may even have been a “wash & brush up chapel” for pilgrims on their journey’s last leg down through the Churchgate (Norman Tower) to worship at St Edmund’s shrine.
At the bottom of Churchgate Street is Chequer Square, once known as Paddock Pool because of the accumulation of water there that cascaded down Churchgate Street. Baret House, no 3, that sits in the corner is a survivor from the 14thC.
As with so many houses in the Medieval Grid, it has been “Georgianised” with Suffolk White bricks. Others, along with plaster and stucco, have facades hiding their ancient interiors.
A major case in point is that of nos 47, 48 and 49 Churchgate Street with no 1, College Street they are grade II* listed and could be described as a Hall House from the 13thC. Much altered it is probably the oldest timber-framed property in the town.
Other fine timber-framed houses are at 16-18 Bridewell Lane and 61-63 Whiting Street. All of these properties and many more survive only because the reaches of the terrible fire of Bury St Edmunds in 1608 which started in Eastgate Street stopped in the town centre.
The town centre was gutted, the Market Cross the most notable property to suffer. One account of the day described the lead on its roof being likened to a ‘molten river’.
A total of 160 houses and 400 outbuildings were destroyed causing £60,000 worth of damage, an enormous sum. The church bells rang to summon the townspeople to fight the fire but all they had were buckets and ‘squirts’ - suction based hoses made of stitched leather.
The fire raged for three days and the only way of containing it was by the use of fire breaks, houses etc pulled down using long poles with hooks on called cromes.
There were consequences of the fire: the town centre and north of the town burnt out so no properties here today predate 1608, these in the south and southwest of the town.
Francis Pynner a merchant and grocer of the town suffered heavily from the fire’s devastating consequences but was able to ‘rise like a phoenix from the ashes’ prospering so much in the future he was able to leave the town in his will £50 to build a cistern to hold water for protection of market traders against any future fires.
The aftermath saw thatch banned in the town, many people ruined and ‘Briefs’ issued (in effect royal warrants whereby church collections were used to alleviate the fire victims’ suffering). James VI & 1st who issued the Briefs even sent 500 cartloads of timber to help in the re-build of the town.
Some of the medieval market names then were: Neete/Meat Market – Part of Cornhill, Cheesemarket – Buttermarket, Great Market/Beast Market – Cornhill, Ironmongers Row – Part of Cornhill and Rotten or Rattan Row – in a line from today’s Café Nero nearly up to the Market Cross. Nearby we still retain the closest what we have to a medieval street that of Skinner Street.
The names of parts of Abbeygate Street such as Frenchman’s Street, Barber Row and Cook Row are no more, however where Abbeygate Street led to, today’s Angel Hill once called Le Mustowe (from to muster) and that name has been memorialised as Mustow Street.
One part of the town, todays Hatter Street but once known as Heathenmen’s Street - the Jewish quarter of Bury - has a tragic history.
From here at Easter in 1190, 57 members of the Jewish faith would lose their lives when denied sanctuary at the Abbeygate by Abbot Samson, “they are not St Edmunds men” he stated. A Teardrop Memorial is in the Abbey Gardens to mark this tragedy.
With an absolute wealth of history, listed buildings and stories that could be told, it is impossible to do justice in covering the Medieval Grid.
Today, residents and sightseers can still wander the streets the pilgrims once traversed however the modern-day visitor will not be encountering the numerous pubs and alehouses that once peppered the grid as only a handful now exist.
It has been stated Bury St Edmunds is one of the post popular places to live in the UK, its medieval core a magnet for lovers of history.
However, those moving into the town’s heartland have to realise that Abbot Baldwin’s town was not designed with motor cars in mind.
That came centuries later with a one-way system in place and of course problems associated with that modern-day scourge - parking!
