Timely tracks through town's past

BURY FESTIVAL REVIEW: Sundials, clocks and a drinking fountain plus Bury's fascinating history were brought to life during the Time on Your Hands festival walk.

Written by tour guide John Saunders this gave a new and refreshing look at the town and its timepieces.

The walk is one of three newly created tours during the festival offered by the Bury St Edmunds Association of Registered Tour Guides.

We started at Angel Corner, the original home of the town's Gershom Parkington Clock Collection, now on show at Moyse's Hall Museum.

Walking us through the wide range of timepieces we learned that time varies from solar time to GMT and Bury time - three minutes ahead of GMT and created by the Bury curve, outlined at the drinking fountain in the Abbey Gardens.

John's talk shared a multitude of facts and interesting anecdotes about the people involved in time in Bury from the bells in the Norman Tower which denoted time for the monks to the newest timepiece at Fulchers Funeral directors.

Blink and you would miss the tiny sundial on the corner of St Mary's Church while the Hundleby armillary solar sundial is a thing of beauty and the Eastern Counties Omnibus Company clock still sits in place at Looms Lane in the days when there was two way traffic through the town and no A14.

For more on the town's history and to book a tour contact Bury St Edmunds Tour Guides at www.burystedmundstourguides.org