| Bury St Edmunds Guildhall | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Location | Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk |
| Coordinates | 52°14′39″N0°42′43″E / 52.2443°N 0.7120°E |
| Built | 1220 |
| Architectural style(s) | Medieval architecture |
Listed Building – Grade I | |
| Designated | 7 August 1952 |
| Reference no. | 1363726 |
  Location of Bury St Edmunds Guildhall in Suffolk | |
Bury St Edmunds Guildhall is a municipal building in the Guildhall Street, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk. It is a Grade I listed building. [1]
The Guildhall is one of the largest and most impressive secular medieval buildings in the country, and a rare survival of a civic building from this period. [2] The building, which was built with financial support from the wealthy Bury St Edmunds Abbey, dates back to 1220. [3]
The Bury Chronicle records that John of Cobham and Walter de Heliun visited the guildhall in 1279. [4] The oldest part is the thirteenth-century stone entrance arch, [2] within the highly decorative porch was added in the late 15th century. [5]
Its unique roof structure combines East Anglian queen posts with king posts and has been attributed to the fifteenth century, although some suggest it is midfourteenth century. Many timbers are covered in yellow ochre, usually a sixteenth-century feature. [2] Following the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the late 1530s, the guildhall passed to the control of the town of Bury St Edmunds. [4]
During the nineteenth century the Guildhall housed the West Suffolk Library, in which room the first Quarterly General Meeting of the Bury and West Suffolk Archaeological Institute was held in 1848. [6]
During the Second world War the Royal Observer Corps established a control centre in the guildhall. [7] [8] After the war the condition of the building deteriorated and it was placed in the Heritage At Risk register in the 1980s. [9]
In July 2015 the Bury St Edmunds Heritage Trust launched a project to convert the guildhall into a heritage centre. [10] [11] The project was undertaken at a cost of £2 million, with support from the Heritage Lottery Fund, [12] and the works, which involved access improvements and a new lift as well as repairs to the roof, walls and ceilings, were completed in 2018. [13] The project enabled visitors to see the newly-refurbished courtroom, the banqueting hall, the Royal Observer Corps operations room and the Tudor kitchen. [13]
In 2019, dating of the roof and entrance door was requested by Historic England to inform on-going restoration work. Eighteen timbers were sampled from the roof, showing likely felling dates between AD 1263 and 1376. Two of the samples still had complete sapwood and were felled in the winter of AD 1376/77, implying that construction of the roof took place in AD 1377 or soon thereafter. The door boards were made from oak imported from the Baltic region, three samples indicating felling between AD 1253 and 1439, with the latest possible date of AD 1461. [2]
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Bury St Edmunds, commonly referred to locally as Bury, is a historic market and cathedral town and civil parish in Suffolk, England. The town is best known for Bury St Edmunds Abbey and St Edmundsbury Cathedral. Bury is the seat of the Diocese of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich of the Church of England, with the episcopal see at St Edmundsbury Cathedral.
Guildhall is a municipal building in the Moorgate area of the City of London, England. It is off Gresham and Basinghall streets, in the wards of Bassishaw and Cheap. The building has been used as a town hall for several hundred years, and is still the ceremonial and administrative centre of the City of London and its Corporation. It should not be confused with London's City Hall, the administrative centre for Greater London. The term "Guildhall" refers both to the whole building and to its main room, which is a medieval great hall. The nearest London Underground stations are Bank, St Paul's and Moorgate. It is a Grade I-listed building.
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East Suffolk County Council was the county council of the non-metropolitan county of East Suffolk in east England. It came into its powers on 1 April 1889 and acted as the governing authority for the county until it was amalgamated with West Suffolk County Council to form Suffolk County Council in 1974. The county council was based at East Suffolk County Hall in Ipswich.
All Saints Church is a redundant Anglican church in the village of Wordwell, Suffolk, England. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade I listed building, and is under the care of the Churches Conservation Trust. It stands in a small community alongside the B1106 road between Bury St Edmunds and Brandon.
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The Church of Our Lady Immaculate and St Joseph, otherwise known as Coldham Cottage is the oldest continuing Roman Catholic church in Suffolk. It is in Bury Road, Lawshall and is part of the Diocese of East Anglia. It is in the Catholic parish of Bury St Edmunds. In 1998 it was designated as a Grade II Listed Building.
Lavenham Guildhall is a timber-framed municipal building in Lavenham, Suffolk, England. It is Grade I listed.
The Holy Trinity Church is the parish church of the village of Blythburgh in the East Suffolk district, in the county of Suffolk, England. It is part of the Church of England Halesworth deanery in the diocese of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich, and has been listed Grade I on the National Heritage List for England since December 1966.
The Shire Hall Complex is a group of municipal buildings in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, England. The complex, which was the headquarters of West Suffolk County Council until its abolition in 1974, is a Grade II listed building.
The Athenaeum is a Grade I listed building and a major venue in Bury St Edmunds, England. Even before substantial rebuilding the site was used as an Assembly Rooms for the town in the eighteenth century. The building was rebuilt in 1789 and further developed in 1804 under a subscription scheme established by its new owner, James Oakes. Lord Arthur Hervey founded the Athenaeum in 1853, originally operating out of Bury St Edmunds Guildhall. In 1854 the organisation moved into the former Assembly Rooms, since then the building has been known as the Athenaeum.
Cupola House is a building in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, England. It dates from the 17th century, and was restored after a serious fire in 2012. It is a Grade II listed building.
The Corn Exchange is a commercial building in Abbeygate Street in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, England. The structure, which is currently used as a public house, is a Grade II listed building.