Description

BURY ST EDMUNDS

TL8564SE ANGEL HILL
639-1/8/187 (East side)
07/08/52 Cathedral Church of St James

GV I

Parish church; became the Cathedral church of the Diocese of
St Edmundsbury and Ipswich in 1914. Early C16, on an earlier
site; by John Wastell, master mason at the Abbey of St Edmund.
C19 alterations by GG Scott, partly replaced by further
extensions of 1960-70 by SE Dykes Bower. Faced in coursed
squared limestone on the south and west apart from the
clerestory which is in rubble flint. A steeply-pitched stone
slate roof to the nave.
PLAN: nave, north and south aisles, crossing and transepts,
chancel and an incomplete central tower.
EXTERIOR: cloister range on the north. The nave, begun in
1503, was completed c1550. In 9 bays. A range of eighteen
2-light windows with cusped heads to the clerestory. 9 bays to
each aisle with a range of 3-light windows, panelled and
cusped, and stepped full-height buttresses between them. Doors
below the windows in the 4th and 8th bays. Battlemented
parapets. A 5-light transomed window to the embattled west end
of each aisle and a very large transomed 7-light west window
to the nave with a decorated base. Diagonal buttresses with
ornate panelling to the aisles.
The pinnacled west gable was designed by Scott, but the
chancel, rebuilt to his design in 1865-9, was demolished to
make way for the work of the 1960s, still not fully completed.
This is in a Tudoresque style using a combination of Clipsham
and Doulting stone with flint flushwork panels to the outer
walls.
INTERIOR of the nave is very high with arcades of 9 bays to
north and south. The piers are lozenge-shaped with 4 thin
shafts and 4 broad hollows in the diagonals. The
brightly-painted roof, replaced by Scott, has arched-braced
hammer-beam trusses and is in 18 short bays. Every alternate
hammer-beam has a carved figure bearing a shield. A
heavily-decorated cornice and frieze.
(BOE: Pevsner N: Radcliffe E: Suffolk: London: 1974-: 141).

Listing NGR: TL8559764117

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• St Edmundsbury Cathedral at Wikipedia
• St Edmundsbury Cathedral official website
• Wikidata Q1989407

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Staffordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Bristol (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)
• 
  Gloucestershire 1: The Cotswolds: Cotswolds Pt. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Worcestershire Revised Edition (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Harrow on the Hill: A photographic portrayal of listed buildings and structures (Historic Buildings Picture Guides)
• 
  Maintaining and Repairing Old Houses: A Guide to Conservation, Sustainability and Economy