Abbey of Bury St Edmunds - Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk
Posted by: SMacB
N 52° 14.693 E 000° 43.143
31U E 344277 N 5790727
The Abbey of Bury St Edmunds was once among the richest Benedictine monasteries in England, until the Dissolution of the monasteries in 1539.
Waymark Code: WMM3HA
Location: Eastern England, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 07/15/2014
Views: 1
"Two of the conventual churches, St James (now the Anglican cathedral) and St Mary, survive pretty well intact, along with a wall and charnel house of a third, St Margaret.
So do two of the gateways; one is still the main entrance to the park, and the other, considered one of the finest survivals in England, temporarily houses the Anglican cathedral bells.
But it is the ruins of the great Abbey church of St Edmund that astound. A vast, cruciform building, it was more than 500 feet long and 200 feet wide.
You could fit Suffolk's biggest parish church, St Peter and St Paul at Lavenham, into the nave and transepts four times, and still have room for Thornham Parva up in the sanctuary.
One is able to trace it almost in entirety, apart from the south aisle and west front, which have been swallowed up by later buildings."
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