Story of St Edmund

Saint Edmund was a 9th-century king of East Anglia who later became England’s first patron saint, later replaced by Saint George. His life and death and martyrdom played a key role in shaping Bury St Edmunds as a centre of pilgrimage and spiritual importance for centuries.

Edmund became king around 855 AD, when he was still a teenager. His rule coincided with a turbulent period in English history, marked by the growing threat of Viking invasions. In 869 AD, Viking forces led by the Danes invaded East Anglia. According to tradition, Edmund was captured after refusing to renounce his Christian faith or submit to pagan rule. The Vikings tied him to a tree, shot him with arrows, and eventually beheaded him. This earned him a reputation as a martyr for the faith.

As the legend goes, Edmund’s body was left in the woods—beaten, pierced with arrows, and beheaded. The Vikings threw his severed head into a thicket to prevent a proper Christian burial. His followers searched for him for some time before they heard a strange sound; a voice crying out, “Here, here, here!” Following the noise through the forest, they discovered a wolf guarding Edmund’s head. Miraculously, the wolf was not acting aggressively but was gently cradling the head between its paws, as if protecting it.

The men approached, expecting the wolf to flee or attack. Instead, it calmly allowed them to take the head and return it to the body. When Edmund’s head was reunited with his body, it was said to have fused back together, leaving only a faint red line. This was considered a miracle and later, he was venerated as a saint.

In 1020, Cnut sponsored the construction of a stone church to house St. Edmund’s remains, marking the beginning of the Abbey of St. Edmund. Over 500 years later, during the dissolution, his remains were reportedly spirited away. The location of his relics became a mystery. Some believe they were hidden, others claim they were taken to France.

Today, although the abbey is in ruins, St Edmund remains a central figure in the town’s identity. His legacy lives on in the name of the Cathedral, the ruins of the great abbey, and the continued reverence of him as the patron saint of Suffolk. The story of Saint Edmund continues to be an important part of the town’s identity today.

History of the Abbey and ruins

The Beginnings of the Abbey

A Benedictine abbey grew around Edmund’s shrine and The Abbey of St Edmund quickly became one of the richest and most powerful monasteries in medieval England. For hundreds of years, pilgrims flocked to to visit Edmund’s shrine, which was lavishly decorated and known throughout Europe. The abbey church became one of the largest in England, and the surrounding town prospered from the steady flow of visitors.

The Dissolution

In 1539, during the Dissolution of the Monasteries under King Henry VIII, the Abbey of St Edmund was officially closed. The monks were expelled, the shrine of Saint Edmund was dismantled, and the abbey’s vast wealth was seized by the Crown.

Over the next few decades, the abbey buildings were stripped of valuable materials. Lead from the roofs, stone from the walls, timber, and even furnishings were removed and sold off or repurposed for local buildings. The once-glorious abbey church, which had housed the shrine of Saint Edmund and was larger than nearby Ely Cathedral, fell into ruin.

17th–18th Centuries: Private Use and Gradual Decay

In the 17th century, the abbey precinct came under the control of local landowners, most notably the Davies family and later the Greene family, who incorporated parts of the former abbey grounds into private gardens. Some of the gatehouses, like the Abbot’s Bridge and Great Gate, survived and were reused. The Norman Tower, which had served as the bell tower for the abbey church, continued in use as the bell tower for St James’ Church (now St Edmundsbury Cathedral).

19th Century: Public Access and Preservation

In the 19th century, efforts were made to open the abbey grounds to the public. In 1831, the Abbey Gardens were formally laid out and made accessible, turning the former monastic site into a landscaped park. Victorian interest in medieval history and ruins helped foster appreciation for the remaining structures.

20th Century: St James Becomes a Cathedral

In 1914, the Diocese of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich was created, and St James’ Church was elevated to cathedral status, becoming St Edmundsbury Cathedral. Throughout the 20th century, restoration and construction efforts improved the Cathedral, including the addition of the Millennium Tower, completed in 2005, reviving the skyline once dominated by the abbey church.

21st Century: Legacy

Today, the Abbey Gardens are a central part of Bury St Edmunds’ identity, attracting a million visits each year. The ruins are preserved as a scheduled monument and remain a powerful symbol of the town’s religious and historical heritage.

Archaeology

Before construction begins, an archaeological evaluation has to take place to see what impact the project may have on existing archaeological remains. This evaluation took place in August 2025. Two trenches in and around the Anselm Building were opened at a size of one metre square. These explorations help us to uncover evidence of the long history of the site and improve our understanding. Evidence such as the landscape before the Abbey, the earlier Anglo-Saxon settlement, or land use after the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the 16th century.

Findings from the evaluation are below:

  • Geotechnical surveys recorded depth and profile of Anselm building and Precinct wall foundations. Window sampling to 4m depth recorded soil, water, moisture, gas and contamination conditions. 
  • Archaeological surveys evaluated two small trenches north and south of the Anselm building. Small finds dating from C17, including pins, tabaco pipes and animal bones. A significant find was the original monastic ground level and ‘suggested’ boundary ditch, parallel to the Precinct Wall.
  • Additional archaeological surveys within the Abbey ruin area confirms very shallow building remains in 3 of the 5 test pits along the route of the proposed path network.

Recommendations from each survey will guide the design of a suitable building foundation and path design, based on the investigations final findings reports and Historic England’s guidance.

Abbey Area

Including Cathedral, Great Churchyard and St Marys Church

Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry’s standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged. It was popularised in the 1960s with the release of Letraset sheets containing Lorem Ipsum passages, and more recently with desktop publishing software like Aldus PageMaker including versions of Lorem Ipsum.

Gardens and biodiversity

An improved and extended 1.4km network of footpaths and gateways will take in all the greatest elements of the Abbey and make it easy for everyone to access the site. The footpath will start and finish at the Visitor Centre but can be joined at any point if entering from other entrances to the Abbey Gardens.

Biodiversity improvements through the project will include

  • Pollinating plants along the routes of the new Abbey ruins footpaths
  • Improved maintenance
  • Pollarding willow stools / thinning trees along the River Lark to favour aquatic and riparian plant growth.
  • Greening the boundaries of the path linking the Crankles to the Great Churchyard
  • Vegetation and tree management to enhance the ground flora and associated fauna
  • A green corridor (long, narrow pollinator-friendly flower bed) across the Shire Hall car park public right of way
  • Suppressing the taller more vigorous plants in the Great Church Yard and increasing plant diversity by selectively introducing native wildflower planting