Description

BURY ST EDMUNDS

TL8564SE ABBEY PRECINCTS
639-1/8/96 Abbey Gate and Gatehouse
07/08/52
(Formerly Listed as:
ABBEY PRECINCTS
Abbey Gateway and Gatehouse)

GV I

The great gate of the Abbey of St Edmund. Begun after the
riots of 1327 but before 1346; completed after 1353. Barnack
stone.
EXTERIOR: 2 storeys and battlements. The west facade is richly
decorated: a broad segmental entrance arch has 3 niches over
it and a large ogee gable above has foiled circles to left and
right. Buttresses to each side with ogee-headed steeply gabled
niches in 3 tiers, the top tier relating to the upper storey,
which has 5 tall blank niches. The taller centre niche has a
crocketed gable, flanked by 2 circles containing 6-pointed
stars. The east facade has a shafted doorway: leaf capitals to
the shafts and an arch with a double quadrant moulding. A
large transomed 3-light window to the upper storey. The
entrance arch leads from the Angel Hill into an outer chamber
with a longer principal chamber beyond it; between them are
C17 timber gates with heavy outsize dumb-bell balusters.
INTERIOR: the inner side walls of both chambers have large
blank arches with bold flowing tracery; both originally had
vaulting with ribs and tiercerons, now fragmentary. The
principal chamber on the upper storey has the remains of an
original fireplace.
Scheduled Ancient Monument.
(BOE: Pevsner N: Radcliffe E: Suffolk: London: 1974-: 138;
Official Guidebook: Whittingham AB: Bury St Edmunds Abbey:
London, HMSO: 1971-: 29).

Listing NGR: TL8554464220

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17526846

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

• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990: Updated version
• 
  Listed Buildings: The Law and Practice of Historic Buildings, Ancient Monuments and Conservation Areas
• 
  Northamptonshire: Buildings of England Series (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Dorset (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  [(Cumberland and Westmorland)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1967)
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)