Local historian Martyn Taylor wanders back in time along Queen's Road in Bury St Edmunds

Still a very desirable part of Bury St Edmunds, many of Queen's Road's homes have been extended over the years, though the street suffers from that most modern of scourges . . . parking.

Some tradesmen lived in the houses they constructed, for instance builder and carpenter George Barbrooke built numbers 8 and 9 but left a gap between them (now filled in) so he could store his ladders.

George was also responsible for number10 in 1886. Here, in 1907, clerk Henry Hinnels lived. He had obtained a mortgage of £425 from the Trustees of the Royal Oddfellows Pride Lodge, quite a sum of money then, though nothing like the value nowadays. It passed into the ownership of Godfrey and Mable Hinnels in 1955 and when she died in 1975 the house was put on the market.

Adjacent to this property, with its 130ft-long garden, is a small track with an old brick and flint barn that was thought to be a dairy at one time. It has now been successfully converted into dwellings.

At the top of this track horses used to be kept in a meadow, sandwiched between the cemetery and Queen's Road. Further along, part of number 23 was removed to allow access to a small development on the meadow now called Cherry Tree Close.

Up the road, at the rear of number 43, where the coal, coke and wood yards of S Frewer were, there was just sufficient gap between him and his neighbour at 44 to trade. This was built in1887 and was later to become the grocery and provisions store of Alfred Howlett, then Queen's Road Post Office. Alfred’s son, Brian, ran it until it sadly it closed on June 18, 2003.

Opposite is Rose Cottage. A strange, apocryphal, story concerning this property was that the owner of 64 Queen's Road had it built for his mistress in 1909.

Half way up Queen's Road, on the north side, are flats that are numbered 99-104 and houses 105-110.

These properties are built on the site of a residential care home called Queen's Close (1965), previously the site of 15 post World War Two corrugated asbestos-type prefabs that were erected soon after the war as a solution to the housing shortage.

The demolition of the council-run Queen's Close led to a new development in 2008 by Havebury Partnership.

Martyn Taylor is a local historian, author and Bury Tour Guide. His latest book, Going Underground: Bury St Edmunds, is widely available.