Redgrave Hall had been requisitioned for troops during the war, and following this period, and the massive repairs needed, it was demolished in 1946, like many other large houses of the time.

The airfields and military installations in our area naturally began to be wound down. In 1945 307 and 85 Squadrons flew from RAF Castle Camps in Mosquitos but the station now closed down in January 1946.

Honington remained as HQ for the American VIII AF Fighter Command until 26th February 1946. This meant that of the 122 bases of the Mighty Eighth, it was the last to be vacated.
In March 1946 RAF Transport Command moved in at Honington, and the base would become crucial to the Berlin Airlift of 1948-49. RAF Honington has since seen Canberras, the Valiant V-Bomber, Buccaneers and Tornadoes.

Stirlings from RAF Shepherd's Grove continued to deliver mail and stores overseas until March 1946.
In May 1946 the station was taken over by 60 Group as a satellite of Watton Radio Warfare Establishment, and some Ansons and Lancasters were positioned here.

The RAF left Newmarket Heath in Summer 1945 but after 1946 light aircraft continued to deliver people to the races at this airstrip.

Number 622 Squadron had disbanded at RAF Mildenhall in August 1945 and been replaced by 44 (Rhodesia) Squadron, who would remain here until August 1946. The base remained active, but on 26th May, 1946, the second open day since the end of the war was held. RAF equipment was on show, together with some captured enemy ordnance, including a V-1 flying bomb. Proceeds were donated to St Dunstan's Hostel for the Blind.
On 8th August No 3 Group's Major Servicing Unit was installed at RAF Mildenhall, and the two operational squadrons were then removed to RAF Wyton.

After the war Stradishall left 3 Group and passed to 48 Group Transport Command and in August 1945 Number 51 and 158 Squadrons arrived in Stirling CV's and these flew until March 1946 when 51 Squadron received Yorks. In September 1946 Stradishall reverted to 3 Group and five squadrons of Lancasters were based here until February 1949.

In April 1946 Numbers 149 and 207 Squadrons had arrived at RAF Tuddenham, although only on half strength. The local air training squadron had its gliding school moved here from Westley, although it had been used for gliding purposes for several years as an adjunct to Westley. Tuddenham closed for flying in November 1946, but would return to duty in 1954. The Gliding School of the ATC would move to RAF Honington.

On 6th January 1946, Arthur Boreham was posted to the 3rd Infantry Training Centre at Bury St Edmunds. In his book, "Saga of a Suffolk Soldier", he described finding the Officer Commanding to be Lt Colonel Anstee of the Beds and Herts Regiment. The old Suffolk Regiment Training Centre had been merged with the Beds and Herts ITC in July, 1942, and based in Bury. Arthur had to arrange for the reception of 180 new call-up men, despite the ending of hostilities. However, it was inevitable that cutbacks would soon take place.

The large establishment for training the recruits needed by the Third Infantry Division at Gibralter Barracks and Blenheim Camp, (West Lines), was now scaled down. It was re-designated as Number 12 Primary Training Centre under Lt Colonel Milnes, late of 1 Suffolk. Major Pereira was now left in command of the Gibralter barracks, designated as depot of the Suffolk Regiment once again. Number 12 PTC would exist for only two more years. In 1948 its training role would transfer to Colchester.

Back in Civvy Street the authorities had to cope with large numbers of men returning from the war, and houses and public utilities that had been neglected for six years.

• 13 prefabricated bungalows off York Road, at York Close
• 15 prefabricated bungalows off Queens Road, at Queens Close
• 20 prefabricated bungalows off Eastgate Street at East Close
• 17 prefabricated bungalows at Perry Close on the Priors Estate.

By 31st March 1946 Bury St Edmunds Borough Council had spent £30,000 on its post-war housing programme, of which £5,729 was for the siteworks and roads for these pre-fabs. Council accounts noted that, "the bungalows and their foundations provided by HM Government. Cost not known."

By this date the total of £24,271 of 1946 Act expenditure on the Mildenhall Road Estate was for buying the land, associated compensation and tithe redemption payments, and for constructing the necessary roads and sewers. While £17,000 of this sum was paid to contractors for this work, £3,079 was spent on "Prisoner of War labour."

In Haverhill pre-fabricated homes were started at Burton End, just past Primrose Hill, including the ten homes of Castle Square. Huts and military buildings at Hamlet Croft were also used for temporary homes until plans for Parkway Estate could start. Some families at Sudbury were housed on the ex-American air base while waiting for housing. Make do and mend was to remain the ethos for many grey post - war years.

Major Lake's twin sister, Miss Muriel Dewe Lake had stood as Mayoress to the Major, and had worked tirelessly throughout the war. In July, 1946 she was elected an Honourary Freeman of the Borough of Bury St Edmunds in recognition of her war work.

In March 1946 Winston Churchill referred to an iron curtain descending across the continent. The cold war began because of the struggle for control of the politics of the eastern european nations between the Soviet Union and the western democracies.

Westley Airfield was officially de-requisitioned in March 1946, and by May a new venture was being considered by East Anglian Flying Services to establish an air taxi business and flying school at Westley. There was local opposition and the idea fizzled out.

In August 1946 the Women's Timber Corps was finally disbanded, having kept the country's timber supplies going since 1942. Many women continued with jobs in the Forestry Commission after this time.

The Education Act of 1944 did not come into force until 1946. Thus in 1946 the Bury St Edmunds Borough Council lost its elementary education powers when the West Suffolk County Council Education Committee was established by law. On August 1st 1946 the King Edward VI Grammar School in Bury was taken into the state funded sector as a voluntary controlled school. Financial pressures had increased as demands grew ever greater for the provision of universal education, regardless of means.

The harvest of 1946 was a wet and muddy affair. Many women of the Land Army were needed to remain to help out, despite the end of hostilities.

As well as the German POWs, there were large numbers of foreign troops who had fought alongside British forces, and now needed to be returned home. One particular group did not wish to return, and these were people whose homes were now under Soviet occupation or control. The Polish were particularly fearful of returning, particularly as Stalin had already deported a million Poles to Siberia during the years since annexation of eastern Poland under the Ribbentrop and Molotov Pact of late 1939. In addition, there were rumours about the Katyn massacre, which was a series of mass executions of Polish nationals carried out by the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (NKVD), the Soviet secret police, in April and May 1940. Some 250,000 Poles therefore chose to remain in Britain and were eventually joined by their families and dependents from wherever the war had left them. The only way such numbers could be accommodated was by placing them in camps recently vacated by the British armed forces or by the Americans. A Polish Resettlement Corps (PRC) was raised in 1946 as a corps of the British Army into which Poles were enlisted for the period of their demobilization up to 1948.

More photographs by the Pictorial Press of this Council Meeting in 1946 can be viewed by clicking here: Council Meeting 1946

Shortages included the ingredients for making plaster. This had the very long lasting effect that whole streets of newly built houses in Mitchell Avenue, Acacia Avenue and the other new roads of the Mildenhall Road Estate had unplastered kitchens until the very end of the 20th century. A few examples still retain this "feature" in 2012. Building the Mildenhall Road Estate would continue until 1960, when over 50 new roads, avenues, closes and streets were finished, and this estate would eventually house 4,000 people.

The winter of 1946/47 was unusually harsh, following a wet and muddy summer. It was a miserable beginning to peacetime.

In December 1946 the fraternisation ban, which had prevented local people from associating with Prisoners of War, was finally lifted. So Christmas Day for many POW's was spent in British homes. The public felt the German POW's had a raw deal and should have been sent home earlier.

The payments previously made to the Borough of Bury St Edmunds by the Guildhall Feoffment trust to reduce the rates burden on the town were ended. They had been paid since 1843, and the final payment was £7.3s.6d.

Since 1933 the library of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology was found in the Athenaeum. In 1946 it was moved into the School of Art building in the Traverse, in the next room to the Cullum collection of books.

During 1946 the large maltings behind the railway station was sold by Gough's to Peachey, but the name Gough's Maltings lingered on.

To show that traffic was now being taken seriously, there was a one-way system set up in the town of Bury.

In the country, things were naturally slower to get started again after the war, but in 1946 rural West Suffolk had hardly any sewerage, no piped water and little electricity. The rural district councils had to take action.

Before the war there had been little enough good roads, and no industry outside Bury. By 1945, the wartime building of airfields had improved roads, and left large areas of building and hardstandings where once had been agriculture. Gradually, sites at Stanton, Rougham, Chedburgh and Barnham would become used by a variety of size and type of industry.

At Chedburgh Airfield 304 squadron had been equipped with Halifaxes in early 1946 and were used for trunk routes overseas until December, 1946. RAF Chedburgh was now closed in December, 1946. It had been home to 1,600 RAF personnel and 240 WAAFs.

While Chedburgh Airfield stood empty it seems that the buildings of the technical site of the RAF station were taken over by a small farmer called Mr Fred Blower, from Cornwall. He kept dairy cattle in some nissen huts, pigs in the MT Store, chickens in air raid shelters and Aylesbury ducks enjoyed the static water tank.

He also kept hives of bees and lived in the office of the Flare Path Party. Apparently he paid rates but no rent.

Presumably Mr Blower or Blewitt lost his home when the site was sold in 1952, and light engineering gradually moved in to the site.

British Pathe News have a short film about this farmer which can be found here:

The derelict Aerodrome Farm Chedburgh August 1950

During 1947 about 15,000 foreign POW's a month were sent home. By the end of 1947 some 24,000 German POW's had stayed on in Britain mainly because they had met local girls, or their homes were in the Soviet zone, and they feared further reprisals.

"The message reads;-
Rougham Camp 1.vii.47.
My beloved Marzenko!
Today I have received your letter of 8 VII for which I thank you. I am still in the same place. We shall leave here to go to Poland in the first days of August that is in four weeks time. I would love to visit you in France but we are not allowed to go on holiday to France. We can go on holiday here in England, so my dear I very much regret leaving France, life there was much more fun than here. This card is a view of a town 3 kilometres away, from time to time I go there to the cinema. That is everything for now, I end with words of good wishes,
Franek"

For those who wished to stay in the UK, there was usually the formidable issue of the need to learn English and adapt to local ways. On April 1st. 1947 the Committee for the Education of Poles in Great Britain was set up. The committee was responsible for the administration of Polish education at all levels in Great Britain. By 1949 there were 16 nursery schools and 34 primary schools with over 2000 children that resided in National Assistance Board camps and hostels scattered through out the UK. The Committee also concerned itself with adult education, teaching English language to all in the camps who wished to learn, and was active until 1954.

The website "http://www.polishresettlementcampsintheuk.co.uk/PRC/PRC.htm" lists as many camps as are known. In the eastern region, the military units and their camps are as follows:

• SUFFOLK
  
• 7 Putk Utenow Lub.--- (7th Regiment of Cavalry ??) --- Livermere Camp, near Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk
• 3 Baon S.K. --- (3rd Battalion ??) --- Freckenham Camp, near Newmarket, Suffolk
• Zgrup. Pol. Ośr. Akadem.--- (Polish academy???)--- Sudbury, Suffolk
• 
  
• NORFOLK
  
• 3 Karp. Baon C.K.M. --- (3rd Carpathian Heavy Machine Gun Battalion) --- Riddlesworth Camp & Riddlesworth Hall School nr Thetford, Norfolk
• Gimn. Rolnicze 3 D.S.K. ---(Divisional Agricultural college of 3rd Lancers) --- Bodney Airfield 129 North, Thetford, Norfolk
• Karp. P.A.L. --- (Carpathian Light artillery regiment) --- Quadrilateral Camp 109 nr Thetford, Norfolk
• 3 Karp. P.A.L. --- (3rd Carpathian Regiment of Light Artillery) --- Dixon East Camp, Thetford, Norfolk
• Gimn. i Liceum 3 D.S.K.--- (School and college of 3rd Lancers)--- Bodney Airfield North, Norfolk
• Polish School Centre --- (Same as above? ie Duplicate?)--- Bodney Airfield Camp 190, Thetford, Norfolk
• 13 Dyw. Komp. Zaop --- (13th Supply Company ) --- 21 Shakers Wood Camp, Norfolk
• 3 Karp. Baon Saperów --- (3rd Carpathian Battalion of Sappers) --- London Rd. Camp, Brandon, Norfolk
• Karp. PAL. --- (Carpathian Light Artillery)--- Dixon West Camp, Brandon, Norfolk
• 1 Kom. Sanitarna --- (1st Medical Company)--- Weeting Hall Camp, Brandon, Norfolk
• Karp. P.A.L --- (Carpathian Light Artillery) --- Weeting Hall Camp 108, Brandon, Norfolk
• 
  
• CAMBRIDGESHIRE
  
• 2 Baon S.K --- (2nd Battalion SK ???) --- Chippenham South Camp, Cambridgeshire
• 1 Baon S.K. --- (1st Battalion SK ???) --- Chippenham North Camp, Cambridgeshire

During financial year 1946/1947 various contracts for house building were let and started on the Mildenhall Road estate in Bury St Edmunds. These were listed as

• Bury Allied Builders contractor - 30 houses in Mitchell Ave, Trent & Shelley Rds, Dovedale Wlk, Acacia Ave
• R Costain Ltd - 22 "Airey" Houses in Gloucester Road
• Bury St Edmunds Development Co - 50 houses Acacia & Anselm Ave, Bunbury, Conway & Wordsworth Rds
• H Frost by Apprentice Labour - 4 houses - two pairs in Acacia Avenue

In October 1947 the Bury Borough Council began to build its own first 16 houses in Mitchell Avenue by Direct Labour. The council had just set up its own Direct Labour Organisation or DLO to hasten its progress in constructing homes when contractors were in short supply, or fully occupied.

Eventually 86 Unity Houses and 16 Unity flats would also be erected in Haverhill by Haverhill UDC. (These Unity homes all survive in 2013, but have all required external insulation and rendering to keep them up to standard, and prevent deterioration.)

During January, Melford Rural District Council had been given authority to take over half of Acton Place Camp for temporary accommodation. As the Germans left, their hutments were frequently to be taken over for this purpose. Nevertheless, many remained stuck in camps, as reported in this extract from the Suffolk Free Press, January 2nd, 1947:

"Prolonged applause greeted the arrival of Lavenham Salvation Army Band to the German P.O.W. camp at Acton for a musical programme which lasted two hours, a crowd of over 400 listened attentively and the singing was hearty, a cornet solo by Bandsman Bert Alderton who until recently was a P.O.W. in Japan also a flute solo by Eric Walker who is only a lad, two songs by the German P.O.W. ‘s choir was much appreciated."

Bury St Edmunds officially adopted RAF Honington in recognition of its valuable work during the war, and its close relations with the town.

RAF Mildenhall was mobilised to help rescue the flood victims. The worst day was 16th March, when 110 flood victims were collected by RAF Mildenhall transport and given temporary accomodation on the base. Mobile searchlights were deployed along with wood tracking to lay on sodden earth, and teams sent out to known danger spots. On 21st March the base used an Auster aeroplne to view the flood situation from the air. Some 44 NCOs and men were then deployed to Lakenheath Lode on 22nd March to help with heavy flood relief work. On 23rd March, another party of 28 volunteers and 36 former POWs went to help at Southery Pumping Station. Flooding was less bad during April, but RAF Mildenhall continued to supply lighting equipment to allow night working to help restore the damage.

This widespread destruction led to serious discussions of how to intercept run-off from inland rivers and divert it around the Fens. The idea of a Cut-Off Channel from Barton Mills to Denver Sluice was to be the outcome of these discussions.

Other incidents reported in the Suffolk Free Press were:

March 16th - "The blizzard last week disorganised local bus services in the Sudbury district in spite of gangs of men including German P.O.W’s working on the roads. In the Hitcham district roads were blocked for several days, drifts of up to 10 feet were reported."

March 27th - "One of the worst floods in living memory cut off the Ballingdon area of Sudbury, rising water from the river Stour was the cause. "

The war had been over for nearly two years, but there were many issues still being sorted out in its aftermath. On 6 May 1947, Lieut.-Colonel Geoffrey Clifton-Brown MP, stood up in the House of Commons and asked the Secretary of State for War, "why it has become necessary to recondition and re-equip Fornham Park Camp, Bury St. Edmund's, which has stood derelict for 18 months; what will be the cost of this work; and if there is no barrack or permanent camp more suitable for peace-time military occupation."

Mr. Bellenger replied that, " Fornham Park Camp, Bury St. Edmunds is being reconditioned and re-equipped to accommodate a regiment returning from overseas. The camp was evacuated approximately six months ago by Polish Forces when it was certainly not in a derelict condition. The cost of the work being carried out is estimated at £700, and there is no more suitable barrack or permanent camp available at present for the purpose for which it is required."

Lieut.-Colonel Clifton-Brown had been the MP for Bury St Edmunds since 5th July, 1945. He did not agree with the Secretary of State's answer. "Could the Minister look again at his answer, because no Polish troops had been there until six weeks ago? In fact, Polish troops in a neighbouring camp were given permission to go and take the stuff out of this camp with the result that the camp is empty. Is it the policy of the Government to allow one part of the Service to take it somewhere else so that money has to be spent to take it back again?"

Mr. Bellenger replied, " No, Sir, we do not give that permission to the Polish troops, but, as the hon. and gallant Gentleman will know, sometimes they do not wait for permission."

Another ex-military MP joined in. Major Legge-Bourke, "Will the right hon. Gentleman bear in mind that general negligence in regard to empty camps only leads to looting and destruction of very valuable equipment?"

In addition, there is the eye-witness report of one Richard Ashton, the son of the newly appointed Camp Commandant to confirm that Fornham Park became Camp 186.

"Father's final posting was just outside Bury St. Edmunds, in the East Anglian county of Suffolk. Fornham Park was a large country house with extensive grounds, and he and mother had their quarters in a portion of the house, the rest of which was occupied with all of the offices associated with a military unit, rather like a colonial era Government House. He had the dubious honour of commanding the last prisoner of war camp in England to close, one that was high security, and which had a large garrison of soldiers to ensure the security.

Now for the conflicting info. I have seen online two different locations for 186 Base Camp. I can assure you when dad commanded it, it was at Fornham Park, a couple of miles north of Bury St. Edmunds in Suffolk. He retired from there.

As a child I remember during school holidays (while staying there) being sneaked into the soldiers' movie theatre, run by the Army Kinema Corporation, and the film being shown was 'Of Mice and Men', hardly appropriate, but I don't remember any detail of the film. This would undoubtedly have been another Nissen Hut, and thinking back they had two projectors in a make-shift 'bio-box' like a real cinema, and were thus able to do reel changeovers on the run.

It was rumored that Rudolph Hess, one of Adolf Hitler's aides-de-camp, was detained at what was eventually father's camp at Fornham, after his capture in Scotland, and the Allies not entering into the negotiated peace he appeared to have parachuted in to arrange. Hess's whereabouts were never actually divulged, so this is all pure speculation. Father would have known if he were an inmate there, but would never have divulged it.

The summer of 1947, in contrast to the floods of March, was very hot. It was also dry because restrictions by government, and shortage of supplies meant that Greene King could not produce enough beer to meet demand. Greene King pubs in Haverhill were closed for three days a week.

Despite problems with production, the new managers at Greene King knew that they had finished the war with old and outdated equipment throughout the brewery, except for their magnificent brewhouse of 1939. From 1946 to 1947 the Rink Maltings on Westgate Street was fitted with four brand new Malting Drums, designed by the brewery maltster, and built by the Bury engineering firm of Robert Boby's. The old malting floor system had needed a large input of skilled men to turn the grain, and they were no longer available.

Early Anglo-Saxon potsherds were evident in rabbit scrapes all over the knoll. At what turned out to be the north east corner of the settlement site, a sand pit was being dug for building material. This sand pit revealed sections of Anglo-Saxon buildings, and was the first evidence of the existence of a settlement here.

Meanwhile the West Stow sewage farm to the south of the site was having problems. It dealt with all the foul and waste water from Bury St Edmunds. Consultants were asked to advise on restructuring the sewage farm as it had suffered continuously from smells and operational problems. Progress was slow and difficult. By 1951 it would be decided to abandon these works and open a new Sewage Works elsewhere.

Across the country gas works were nationalised during 1947, and the production of town gas in Haverhill was soon halted. The fuel office still operated in the Council Offices at Swan Lane, Haverhill, as petrol and paraffin was still on ration.

The West Suffolk County council now needed more office space and in 1947 acquired the Manor House on Honey Hill, built by the First Earl of Bristol in 1736-8. It had left the Hervey family in the 1780's, and it had been owned by Walter Guinness, Lord Moyne from 1908 to 1933. Now it was ignominiously turned into office space.

In September, 1947, one of Bury's more pleasant institutions first opened its doors to members. This was the Farmers' Club, located then, as now, at number 10, Northgate Street. The club had been the idea of K J Underwood, but he soon found that F W Barker, chairman of the local branch of the NFU had similar ideas, so a joint meeting had been held to sound out prospective members in May of 1947. At first it was to be called the Town and Country Club, to emphasise the links between market town and agriculture, but the current name was soon settled upon. The premises had been the Judges Residence, retained by the West Suffolk County Council for this purpose, but by this time a new Judges House was found in Great Barton. The club bought these premises for £4,500.

On 20th September, RAF Mildenhall held another Battle of Britain Memorial Open Day.

In these post war years emigration to the colonies such as Australia, New Zealand and Canada came to be increasingly attractive to many people, particularly ex-servicemen. Sybil Andrews and her husband decided that a better life could be found in Canada, and emigrated in 1947. She would never return to her home town of Bury, and had only been a visitor since 1922. Since 1951, working in Canada, she has obtained international recognition as an artist of merit. Most of her work is today in the Glenbow Museum in Calgary, Alberta, but a few pieces were donated to the Bury Museums Service.

Also in Bury a bus station was built next to Moyse's Hall, on the site of today's Macdonalds restaurant. Buses still stopped on the Cornhill for town services, opposite Market Thoroughfare.

Through 1947 the Suffolk Free Press reported various incidents involving German POWs, who were awaiting repatriation.

August - "The Suffolk Football Association have ruled that German P.O.W.’s may not play for civilian clubs in the league games but games between civilians and P.O.W.’s may take place with the consent of the camp commandant and no admission charges may be made."

October16th - "German P.O.W.’s from Halstead, Borley and Liston almost filled the public section of Sudbury Town Council on Tuesday night to watch how Local Government conducted their affairs."

During October, five German P.O.W.,s were fined 10s each for distilling spirits without a license at Tendering Hall Camp at Stoke by Nayland.

In 1947, Bury St Edmunds was keen to redevelop the town, and it was possible that it would be designated a London overspill town. As well as developing a new council housing estate off the Mildenhall Road, there were ideas to demolish and redevelop parts of the town centre. However, the development proposals caused consternation on a national level, and the council came under pressure to commission an objective, external report on the architecture of the town, in accordance with the guidelines of the Town and Country Planning Act of 1944.

Therefore, the Bury St Edmunds Borough Council had commissioned the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings to make a survey of the historic buildings in the town. This was published in 1948, written by J MacGregor and M Sisson, entitled: ‘Bury St Edmunds: A report on the buildings of architectural and historical interest prepared for the corporation of Bury.’ which remains an unpublished report, but a copy is available at the Suffolk Record Office, in the Bury St Edmunds Box File. In 1952 this exercise would result in 300 buildings becoming listed for their historic importance.

Bury St Edmunds Council were pressing on with new contracts for houses on the Mildenhall Road Estate. Contracts let in 1948 were as follows:

• Harvey Frost - 2 "Apprentice" houses in Avondale Walk
• Direct Labour - 20 houses in Gloucester Rd & Baldwin Ave
• LCJ Sewell and Sons - 28 houses in Prince Charles Avenue
• Direct Labour - 8 houses in Mitchell Ave
• Direct Labour - 4 houses in Prince Charles Ave
• Direct Labour - 8 houses in Gloucester Rd and Prince Charles Ave
• GW & HC Knights - 32 houses in Acacia & Anselm Avs, Avondale Wlk, Mitchell Ave, Waveney & Wordsworth Rds
• Direct Labour - 18 houses in Gloucester, Trent & Severn Rds
• GW & HC Knights - 36 houses in Acacia & Mitchell Avs, Bunbury & Gloucester Rds, Severn Rd

Hospitals such as the West Suffolk Hospital in Hospital Road, Bury, now became taken over by the new NHS.

The LNER and all other railway companies, were nationalised to became under the British Railways Board. Rail closures had been carried out by the old companies in the 1930's as motor vehicles spread and became more popular. The war had halted these closures, and recovery needed them for a time. However, the march of the motor car would continue in the 1950's.

Similarly, on 1st April, the electricity supply industry was also taken into public ownership, following the Electricity Act of 1947. The Eastern Electricity Board took over local suppliers like the East Anglian Electric Supply Company, the Newmarket Electric Light Company, and the Ipswich Corporation electricity undertaking. The Bury St Edmunds Corporation had already sold out its own electricity business to the East Anglian Supply Company before the war.

Work was in hand to bring electricity to the countryside. Chevington got mains electricity in 1947 and 1948, making the villagers' paraffin lamps redundant. However, the electric light bulb did not give off the heat of a paraffin lamp, so some people had to spend more on heating.

In 1948, a start was made on the Parkway Estate in Haverhill, and the first twelve houses were built in Park Avenue.

At Greene King's Brewery, the new maltings had ample capacity for the brewery's needs. The barley store on Sparhawk Street was now inadequate. Farm mechanisation meant that the new combine harvesters could take the harvest within six weeks. Previously the delivery of barley had spread over a six month period when the stooks were slowly and laboriously threshed by steam threshing units. So the old Foundry Maltings were converted to a second grain store.

The Soviet Union blockaded all surface transport into West Berlin in June 1948. In July 1948 RAF Lakenheath came to life again, having been deactivated by the RAF in May 1944. The USAF flew in B29's of 2nd Bomb Group to help in the Berlin airlift, and the Americans stayed on. Transports and tankers followed and in 1951 93rd Bomb Group flew B50's from the base. Giant B36's and Globemasters followed.

RAF Honington proved vital to the Berlin airlift by supplying aircraft parts and maintenance facilities from June 1948 to the end of the blockade in September 1949. These efforts did a great deal to reconcile the RAF and USAF with the people of Western Germany who they had been bombing until 1945.

At RAF Mildenhall, the No 3 Group Major Servicing Unit was disbanded in July. The runways and perimeter tracks were resurfaced to take No 230 Operational Conversion Unit. However, the use of next door Lakenheath by heavy American bombers caused this idea to be shelved. In December the base was used as temporary accomodation for Nos 35, 115, 149 and 207 Squadrons from RAF Stradishall.

John T Appleby's book "Suffolk Summer" was published. The author gave the copyright to the Borough Council of Bury St Edmunds. All royalties would be used to maintain the Old English Rose Garden in the Abbey Gardens as a permanent memorial to those American servicemen who gave their lives in the cause of freedom. It was officially named the Appleby Rose garden, and is still maintained in good order to the south of the main central beds and the bowling green.

In 1948 there were excavations carried out in the chancel of the abbey church by the Borough Council, and a short note was published by H J M Maltby, as ‘Excavations of the Abbey Ruins’, PSIA xxiv, Part iii. The dig began on 13th December, 1948, under Mr Maltby, the Curator of Moyse's Hall Museum, and Mr Goldsmith, the Council's Borough Engineer and Surveyor. They established that the remains of the crypt were still present, and finds included some mouldings and painted plasterwork. Unfortunately the fine plasterwork and traces of original tempera wall paintings noted by Maltby, had long since vanished by 2013.

At Hardwick Heath, the huts which had housed POW's were now pressed into service as temporary housing while families were waiting for one of the new houses on the Mildenhall Road Estate. Many of these were ex-servicemen with new wives and babies. Families who were prepared to go into the Hardwick Heath huts were given first choice of a new house on the Mildenhall Road Estate as these were slowly completed.

Fornham Park Camp closed down later in 1948. Its last commandant was Lieutenant-Colonel John Forbes Ashton, of the Border Regiment. He and his wife then retired to a cottage at Beyton.

The Borough Council at Bury St Edmunds now decided to buy its own stock of library books instead of hiring county books. Moyse's Hall Museum acquired a copy of the Bury Chronicles from the Creation up to 1283. It was Lot 22 in Sotheby's Sale of February 9th 1948.

During 1948 there was a redistribution of Suffolk's parliamentary seats. Since 1918 the County of West Suffolk had two constituencies, called Bury St Edmunds and Sudbury, dividing West Suffolk in the middle by an east to west boundary. Despite protests, West Suffolk was abolished as a parliamentary county, and was replaced by Suffolk as a whole. Bury St Edmunds constituency was enlarged to take in about half of the old Sudbury constituency. The remainder of the old Sudbury area was merged with the Woodbridge constituency to make "Sudbury and Woodbridge".

Elsewhere in the same article it was stated that "Though England is on a near privation diet, nothing seems to damp the spirits of the young. They even make a joke of the restrictions to show that they can 'carry on' whatever happens."

In July 1949 the RAF station at Stradishall became Number 203 Advanced Flying School for Meteors, a few Spitfires, Vampires and Harvards into the 1950's. Number 203 became redesignated 226 Operational Conversion Unit but continued to fly many types of aircraft until 1955.

Also in July 1949 the West Suffolk County Council had its Development Plan for Primary and Secondary Education approved by the Minister of Education. The Education Act of 1944 had introduced full time education for all children between five and fifteen years old. There would be an examination at age 11, called the Eleven Plus, to determine which children could go to the Grammar Schools, and who should go to the newly introduced Secondary Modern Schools. This Act came into force in Suffolk in 1946.

Under the 1944 Education Act, the town of Bury St Edmunds ceased to be the Education Authority for elementary education. Education was now to be a three tier process, namely the primary schools, the secondary schools, and the Further Education sector, all provided locally by West Suffolk County Council. The 1949 Plan provided for the closure of all the existing Infant Schools. In Bury those to close were the Eastgate Controlled Voluntary, St John's Aided Voluntary, St Mary's Controlled Voluntary and Victoria Controlled Voluntary. The Guildhall Feoffment Junior County School was also earmarked for closure.

The new list of Primary Schools in Bury was to be:

• The new Tollgate County Primary, construction ready to start.
• Eastgate Junior and Infants
• Southgate Green area proposed school
• Westgate area and Priors Estate
• St Edmundsbury Juniors
• Roman Catholic School

• Silver Jubilee Boys' Modern Secondary School, as modernised
• Silver Jubilee Girls' Modern Secondary School, as modernised
• King Edward VI Grammar School, enlarged to give two form entry
• Bury St Edmunds County Grammar School, to be re-organised from mixed sex to a two form entry girls' school
• Some free places to be provided at Culford School from April 1950

During 1949 work continued on the building of the Mildenhall Road Council Housing Estate. New contracts were approved to be built as follows:-

• Direct Labour - 12 Houses at Baldwin Avenue and Curtis Road
• Direct Labour - 20 Houses at Philip Road and Gloucester Road
• Direct labour - 24 three storey flats at Birch House, Willow House, Curtis Road
• GW & HC Knights - 10 houses at Gloucester and Severn Roads, and Acacia Avenue

By 1949 over 2,000 acres of Lakenheath Fen was carrying crops of wheat, barley, potatoes, sugar beet, chicory and market garden crops - largely thanks to the hard work of the Womens Land Army. This work was still at the mercy of floods, as had happened in 1947.

Greyhound racing tracks had started in this country at Belle Vue, Manchester, in 1926, and soon became hugely popular, drawing large crowds. In 1920s London alone there was racing every night at White City, Harringay, Wembley, West Ham, Clapton, Wimbledon or Hackney Wick. By the end of the 1920s, annual attendances totalled 17 million. The famous track at Walthamstow was established in the 1930s, on the site of an existing flapper track. The attractions of dog racing would decline markedly by the 1970s. Even the celebrated Walthamstow stadium would be struggling in its later years, and would close in 2008.

At Clare the Clare Rural District Council purchased, and moved into, new headquarters at Stone Hall, Clare. The offices of Clare RDC had been located in Haverhill until this time. Stone Hall retained some medieval features, but had been modernised in 1931. It had been a private house for most of its life, but had been used as the Town Institute and Reading Rooms in former years.

The survey covered the geography, past history, population, industry, housing shortages, communications, utilities, special local features, openspaces, education, health and welfare. The outline plan covered road proposals, residential land, industrial land, agriculture, commerce, open spaces, and the Cathedral.

For Refuse Disposal, the survey had this to say:

"105. Domestic refuse is collected weekly with the aid of both mechanical and horse drawn transport, and a daily collection is made in the town centre.

106. Since the war there has been more refuse than can be burned in the central destructor near the cattle market and the remainder, together with the cinders from the destructor, has been disposed of by controlled tipping on the Haberden and part of Tayfen."

The electricity supply by now was imported as "Alternating Current at standard pressure and frequency." The imported bulk supply was brought by 33,000 volt overhead power lines from Stowmarket into Raingate Street, where a main transformer station had been built. From here the voltage was reduced to 11,000 volts, and distributed to various sub-stations around the Borough. The town's generating station had been shut down, but the refuse destructor was still operating in the old generating station building off Kings Road.

Most of the town's electric system was now 3 phase 240 volts lighting and 415 volts power. Single phase lines still existed in older parts of the town.

Petrol rationing had been first imposed in September 1939 and its continuation five years after the war ended was a hotly debated issue, especially during the 1950 general election campaign. The Conservative opposition had argued it was no longer necessary, but the Labour government believed that the nation had a severe dollar shortage and could not afford to buy US supplies.

After the 1950 election, in which Labour's majority was greatly reduced, the government realised the public would no longer tolerate rationing. On May 26th 1950, the government announced that petrol rationing would come to an end. Sweet rationing would continue until February 1953, and sugar rationing would not end until September. The end of all food rationing did not come until 4 July 1954, with meat and bacon the last to go.

• Direct Labour - 24 three storey flats at Cedar House, and Maple House in Lake Avenue
• Direct Labour - 18 houses at Severn Road
• Bury St Edmunds Development Co Ltd - 20 Maisonettes at Derwent Road
• GW & HC Knights - 24 houses at Gloucester, Bunbury, Severn and Waveney Roads, and Lake Avenue
• Bury St Edmunds Development Co Ltd - 36 Maisonettes at Tennyson Road and Lake Avenue
• GW & HC Knights - 8 houses at Mitchell Avenue and Waveney Road

In 1950 the international tension leading up to the start of the Korean War in June led to European re-equipping and consideration of the deployment of tactical nuclear weapons.

In March 1950 the four squadrons of Lincoln Bombers based at RAF Mildenhall were disbanded after only a few months of existence. Personnel mostly deployed to RAF Marham for retraining on American purchased B-29 bombers, renamed the Washington bomber by the RAF. The Mildenhall base was made available to meet lend-lease obligations to the USA.

On 12th July RAF Mildenhall was re-formed under Group Captain Thomson, but his job was to hand over the base to the United States Air Force.

In mid-1950 the Americans came to Mildenhall, took it over from the RAF and high security was installed. On 12th July, American staff arrived and on 15th July one squadron of B-50s of 93rd Bomb Group arrived. They stayed until February 1951 when 509th Bomb Group replaced them. The 2nd and 22nd Bomb Group followed in succession, and both B-50s and B-29s operated from Mildenhall in 1950. July 1950 was the height of the Korean War crisis, and the largest ever USAF bomber force was operational in Britain, greater than during WW2.

A serious accident occurred at RAF Mildenhall, on October 10th, when a B-50 bomber crashed on the main runway.

On 15th November the Control Tower at Mildenhall was handed over to the USAF, but base security remained with the RAF Regiment until February 1951.

In 1950 the RAF station at Shepherd's Grove was put on a care and maintenance only footing.

At RAF Honington the 94th Maintenance Unit (MU) arrived in March. Their job was the care and maintenance of the RAF's bombs and weaponry. They were joined by the 58th MU, who recovered and repaired crashed aircraft. Honington was a maintenance facility through until 1956.

The Stanford Battle Area was a source of post-war controversy when its inhabitants were never allowed to return to live there. In 1950 its future was settled when the Ministry of Defence bought it by compulsory purchase for £25.00 an acre. The open market value was said to be £250.00 an acre. No value at all was placed upon the wooded areas because the timber had been damaged by shrapnel and military action during training there.

In addition to Fornham Park itself, the estate included seven farms, the Old Rectory, school and school house and the Woolpack in Fornham St Martin, cottages, allotment land, meadows and the two park entrance lodges. The total acreage up for sale was 2,400 acres. Lot 42 was an arable field of 46 acres, tenanted by the farmer Mr C Stennett. Lot 41 was the 10 acre Tollgate Farm, tenanted by Mr D Boughton. Together these 56 acres of land were purchased by Bury St Edmunds Borough Council, and were earmarked to become an extension to the Mildenhall Road Council Estate, and would become known as the Howard Estate. (The first contract for 40 new houses would be let in 1952.)

Bury St Edmunds Golf Course had never been officially requisitioned during the war years, but nevertheless it had been used extensively for infantry training by the nearby barracks and West Lines camps. An assault course and rifle range and various excavations and tunnels had to be made good. The War Ministry at first offered £800 in compensation, but the club rejected this amount. In February, 1950, the revised offer of £1,028 was accepted, equivalent to more than a year's subscriptions from club members.

Local government was now starting to enforce basic hygiene requirements. Thingoe RDC surveyed the public houses in their area. In many of them there were earth closets shared by the customers and tenants, male and female. None of the 58 inns had both mains water and mains sewerage. The state of rural housing was much the same.

Norwich had 120,000 people, with 60,000 in Ipswich and Cambridge. Kings Lynn, Yarmouth and Lowestoft had 40,000 inhabitants. Bury St Edmunds, despite its 20,045 residents in 1951, scarcely rated a mention in this guide, and the Gazetteer mentioned it as a place producing agricultural machinery, spending a few more lines upon its historic remains. The Guide felt that production of cheap clothing in Haverhill would help to keep agricultural workers' families in employment. Great Yarmouth was still landing up to 400 million herrings in one season, and Scottish migrant female workers were still a feature of the fish preparation and packing industry of the time.

The section entitled "Bury St Edmunds of the Future", was written by the Town Clerk at the time, J W H Knight. John Knight would later enter private practice as a solicitor, become a Borough Councillor, be made Mayor in 1966 and 1980 and after a long local government service at Borough and County level, be made a Freeman of the Borough in 1991. Mr Knight, never one to under sell an idea, wrote that, "there is a well established school of thought which looks upon Bury St Edmunds as a convenient administrative centre for much of East Anglia."

Mr Knight referred to the outline Development Plan for the Borough, including the extensive road improvement works, and a population growth to 25,000. Wanting to add light industries to the town's industrial life, building work had already started on a Trading Estate near the railway line. (Although un-named by Mr Knight, this trading estate would later become known as Western Way.)

The Town Plan for Bury St Edmunds was reprinted with amendments in July, 1951. The housing shortage was thought to be so important that the number of dwellings provided in the Borough since the end of the war was listed as follows:-

• Permanent living units built including flats - 425
• Prefabricated houses - 65
• Requisitioned properties - 22
• Ex-Service hutments - 56
• Dwellings built through private enterprise - 80
• TOTAL - 648

Slum Clearance Demolition orders in place as at July 1951 were for 15 cottages in Westgate Place and 3 cottages in Southgate Street. A further 230 properties were considered unfit for human habitation, but demolition orders would not be made in view of the acute shortage of housing.

The Plan also noted that the Housing Act of 1949 had introduced government grants for repair and reinstatement of old cottage properties, and this, "may have considerable influence on any future slum clearance schemes."

At the Mildenhall Road Estate, contracts were still being let during 1951, as follows:-

• Bury St Edmunds Development Co - 26 houses at Jocelyn Close
• Direct Labour - 20 houses at Severn Road
• Direct Labour - 8 shops with maisonettes in Lake Avenue
• Direct labour - 8 houses in Bunbury Road
• Direct labour - 30 houses in Lydgate Close

You can view more pictures of progress on the new Water Tower by clicking here, and returning by using the browser's "Back" button:
Building the Water Tower in West Road, 1951-1952

In the new Town Guide, Mr Knight also referred to "a scheme for reorganising completely the sewage disposal arrangements for the borough is also in the course of preparation". Sewage disposal was now another major problem. Bury's waste was piped to a sewage farm at West Stow, which had been plagued with problems for years. Plans to upgrade West Stow Sewage Farm were finally abandoned in 1951. It was decided that a new works was to be commissioned in Fornham Park at Fornham St Genevieve instead.

The problems of water and sewage had to be resolved in order to support the growth which the Development Plan had envisaged. New homes were being built and the council "can look with pride upon post-war results so far achieved. Not satisfied that the ambitious 80 acre project now half completed at Mildenhall road will meet the needs of the community, the Corporation have recently purchased a further 56 acres of land adjoining."

Plans were also being considered for an all-purpose public hall, modern swimming baths, library extensions and more improvements to the Abbey gardens.

The Cullum Reference Library and the Free Lending Library were both located in the old School of Art building, under the control of the Bury Borough Council.

In October 1951 Strategic Air Command (SAC) took over formal control of RAF Mildenhall. The final elements of the RAF had now left, but in practice the USAF had been flying from the base since July 1950. It has been a USAF airbase ever since.

Starting in 1951 the main runway of RAF Mildenhall was extended at both ends, and new taxi ways added. The area of the base was extended so that several roads had to be diverted or closed, including the Mildenhall to Littleport road.

Many American bombers were withdrawn from Britain in 1951, and Bomb Wings began to rotate in and out of Mildenhall for the next seven years.

On 29th August an American Thunderjet fighter from RAF Manston, crashed into St Johns Street in Beck Row. It had been flying at low level and had hit the tail of a parked B-50 bomber at RAF Mildenhall. The pilot died, but no civilians were hurt.

By mid 1951, despite public misgivings, the demolition of Fornham Hall was approved. In September work began and the salvage operation yielded 20,000 feet of timber alone. All the doors and windows and fittings that could be extracted were also sold off. Even the bricks and rubble found a ready market. Only the stable block and estate cottages survived. Some of the stables were converted into dwellings and put up for sale as recently as 2009.

Wizard Fireworks began manufacturing fireworks in 1951 at Chedburgh.

Greene King had suffered many restrictions since 1945, both in terms of raw materials, and government regulations. It had enjoyed a boom in bottled beers, but draught beer had contracted badly. Since 1948 they had tried out some new recipes. Suffolk Ale was strong and took a long time to produce, but proved a popular buy in bottles. In 1951 they tried out a higher quality draught beer. This was called Abbot Ale and was first released in 1951. It would become one of their best known beers in the future.

Just next door to the new gasholder there still remained a remnant of medieval times. In January, 1952, osier beds were still being cropped to make willow baskets. One basket maker, Sidney Craggs, had been working on the osier beds in Tayfen Meadows, when he was fatally run down by a tractor as he returned to his home in Blomfield Street.

On 8th February 1952, Queen Elizabeth II came to the throne following the death of her father, King George VI. Her coronation would not take place until 2nd June, 1953.

The Americans made Lakenheath airbase secure as part of its cold war preparations. High security arrived in 1952 with a high wire fence so that B47's could arrive in 1953 together with other "secret" planes including the U2 high flying spy plane.

During 1952 the Bury St Edmunds Borough Council was committing itself to extend the Mildenhall Road Estate. During financial year 1951/1952 It had bought new land south west of Baldwin Avenue, and paid off the necessary tithe redemption lump sum. During financial year 1952/1953 it was ready to let its first contract of 40 houses, to be developed by the Bury Development Company.

This newly planned development was not given its new name until November, 1953. But this was the birth of the Howard Estate, and the first contract was for 40 houses in Baldwin Avenue. The even numbers were already under construction as part of the Mildenhall Road development. The odd numbers would now be built as the first stage of the yet to be named Howard estate development. This is why it has been said that one side of Baldwin Avenue marks the end of the Mildenhall Estate, and the other marks the start of the Howard Estate. The Howard Estate would now be gradually developed and expanded over the following decades.

The Robe of Purple Velvet to be worn by the Queen as she left the abbey after her coronation was also hand woven by Warners at Braintree, from silk "thrown" at Glemsford Mill.

Silk for the coronation coach and other robes was meanwhile being woven at the Sudbury Silk Mills of the Walters family. This raw silk also passed through the Glemsford throwing process, where the silk ended up wound on to bobbins.

Identity cards were finally withdrawn in 1952. When war came the National Registration Scheme required all civilians to carry the cards at all times. Although people had more or less got used to them, in 1951, a Mr Willcock was prosecuted for refusing on principle to produce his card for a motoring offence. The case ended in the High Court in 1952, when his conviction was upheld, but the Lord Chief Justice openly criticised the continuance of the scheme.

"Its modern industries are those natural to an agricultural centre. Engineering works, and those for the manufacture of framing implements, the brewery, the timber yards, and more recently, the beet sugar factory, have risen on the borders of the old town and outside its limits. The west end of the town has been developed as a residential area, by private enterprise, and a fine new housing estate, of about 134 acres, acquired by the corporation on the Mildenhall Road, north of the town, is growing. The layout will include shopping and communal centres and open spaces, and, when completed, will be one of the finest and best planned estates among the smaller towns in the country."

Not mentioned in the new guidebook was the fact that since the war Bury St Edmunds Borough Council had completed 661 new houses with another 149 under construction.

The Jersey Heritage Trust has summarised the provisions of his will as follows: " Will and Testament of Frederic Gershom Parkington, known as Frederic Gershom-Parkington, of 5, Douro Terrace, St Helier. Desires to be cremated and have his ashes buried with his wife. Bequeaths to his late violinist, Tom Jones, his music and quintette arrangements; to the town of Bury St Edmonds, all time pieces and books relating to the measurement of time in memory of his son John Gershom Parkington who was killed in the last war. Dated 22/12/1951."

Myxamatosis first arrived in Britain in Kent in 1953 and within 5 years 96% of Britain's rabbits were dead. This was of particular importance in the Breckland, where rabbit grazing had largely determined the shape of the landscape. Many open heaths would now become invaded by scrub.

The Ipswich Museum curator, Norman Smedley, along with Harold Spencer and Stanley West lifted the eight foot long row of loom weights found at Pakenham, and shown here. At the time it was believed that these were laid out for firing, because the idea of such a wide loom was dismissed. However in 1964, Marta Hoffman would conclude that this was evidence of one of the largest known Anglo-Saxon looms in North Western Europe. By 1999 Steven Plunkett had concluded that, "This Suffolk discovery was, in fact, one of international significance." (SIAH, 1999)

On 19th September, 1953, the 358th (Suffolk Yeomanry) Medium Regiment, RA (TA), was granted the Freedom of the Borough of Bury St Edmunds.

World War II wrought tremendous destruction of railway goods facilities, particularly those in London. Reconstruction in many cases consisted simply of patching up the bomb-damaged structures. Otherwise, rebuilding was confined to the very worst examples, such as at Bury St Edmunds, where an old timber shed that had been condemned in 1913 was replaced in 1954 with this concrete-framed structure. (To be converted in future years to Rollerbury).

The decision was taken in 1953 to decontaminate the mustard gas sites at Barnham and redevelop them. The Barnham Mustard Gas depot was finally emptied of the last of Pot A in October, the gas being sent back to ICI in Cheshire. During 1954 Pots B and C were also emptied and sent by rail to ICI. Here it was used to fill new bombs during 1954 and 1955.

On 4th November 1953, a Canberra bomber from RAF Bassingbourne crashed on the edge of RAF Mildenhall. The crash demolished the scullery of a nearby house occupied by Mr E J Lockwood. The pilot was killed and the navigator seriously injured.

John Saunders has recorded that, "Interestingly, the origin of the name of Howard Estate is not clearly documented but the Bury Free Press of 6 November 1953 had revealed that Bury Town Council would the following week consider the names of the streets on Mildenhall Road Estate and naming the new Estate after a former well-known landowner. The following week’s edition of the newspaper reported that the names of the latest streets on the Mildenhall Road Estate were to be selected from the names of English Counties and that the extension of the Mildenhall Road Estate adjoining Baldwin Avenue was to be known as Howard’s (sic) Estate."

The derivation of the name 'Howard Estate' remains somewhat obscure. However, it perhaps reflected a feeling that 'Mildenhall Road estate extension' was not the best of names to give it. It was too late to rename the Mildenhall Estate, as it was more commonly called by now, and perhaps considered a bit misleading to outsiders. The land covered by both estates had once been part of the Fornham Park Estate of Captain Macrae, a descendant of Sir William Gilstrap, who had bought it in 1862 from Lord Manners. From 1789 to 1843, it had been owned by Bernard Edward Howard, who became the 12th Duke of Norfolk. Perhaps it was the same urge for historical respectability that would lead the public house built to serve the new housing to be called 'The Greengage'. This reference was to the Gage family who had owned this land at an even earlier period, from 1540 to the 18th century.

(It is interesting to note that, by the 1980s the Howard Estate would be extended to cover a large area stretching down to the A14, and by that time Baldwin Avenue, Lancaster Avenue and Northumberland Avenue etc would become regarded as part of the Mildenhall Road Estate, not the Howard.)

Several towns in East Anglia had expressed a wish to expand and in January 1954 came the earliest official announcement from the London County Council of the towns they were considering for the reception of an overspill population. The towns named were Haverhill, Sudbury, Bury St Edmunds and Thetford. These towns, the LCC stated, have signified their agreement, in principle, to a policy of expansion and now experts are scrutinising the extent of population that each can take.

By now Westley airstrip had largely reverted to agricultural use, but was still owned by the Borough Council. The farmer on the land Mr Lawson, also purchased the redundant hanger, and it was taken down and re-erected at his Bridge Farm, in Ixworth. As the housing shortage continued, and in view of town expansion thoughts, the Council planned to build a new housing estate on the land. It was intended that the frontage on to Newmarket Road would be private homes, and during 1954 the first of these were built.

In 1954 the Suffolk Show was held at Lark Hall at Cavenham.

Sweets and chocolate had come off ration in April, 1953, but sugar remained rationed until September 1953. Clothes rationing ended in May, 1949. Petrol ended in May, 1950.
Meat and bacon was the last item to be taken off ration. The final day saw celebrations across the country.

Greene King bought the Wines and Spirits business of Cawdrons of Fakenham and Wells in Norfolk. It was merged with Peatlings, bought 20 years earlier, to form Peatling and Cawdrons, which still trades in Bury today.

At Ixworth, the Thingoe RDC modernised its 1893 houses in Stow Road. They were given bathroom extensions and both hot and cold water systems. Thingoe RDC regained the spirit which had built these innovative homes in the first place, and in the next 20 years would build about 1,200 dwellings, with model sheltered housing schemes and extensive schemes of rural sewerage.

With the 94th Maintenance Unit based at nearby RAF Honington, Barnham Camp was designated a Special Weapons Storage Area in June of 1954. The existing area was modified to store High Explosives, but a separate secure location was needed for atomic material.

In September 1954 the new site at Barnham was taken over. Its location is easily seen today as it is now the Gorse Industrial Estate. Armed guards were easily supplied by a track from the rear of RAF Barnham Camp. Construction took place through 1955 and 1956 in conditions of secrecy. Although this was to be a massive installation it was not shown on any Ordnance Survey maps for many years.

By the end of 1954 large areas of Barnham Heath were declared free of Chemical Warfare agents following decontamination by deep application of bleach. The empty underground storage pots were sealed. The RAF held the site until 1963.

In December 1954 the moth balled base at RAF Tuddenham transferred to the USAF as a sub-station of Pickenham.

The Playhouse Cinema in Bury converted to show films in Cinemascope, but post war austerity had dried up the film studios, and television was becoming widespread.

Many people will remember the excitement of going for shoes at Quants in Abbeygate Street, because in 1955 they installed a refurbished X-Ray machine. The shop had already had an X-Ray "Ped-o-scope", as far back as 1931. The idea was that the shop assistant could tell if the shoes properly fitted on young feet by viewing them through the machine. No doubt today this would be seen as a hazard to health, but then the kids loved it.

Milk Bars for tea, coffee and milk shakes were in fashion and at this time Bury had a Milk Bar on the Cornhill where Dixons stood until the internet undermined high street electronics shops. By 2006 the wheel had turned again and specialist coffee bars returned, and Starbucks opened in this location.

A qualified librarian was first appointed by Bury Borough Council.

The Archivist service which managed the records held at Angel Corner in the Records Office, now came under the control of West Suffolk County Council. The service had previously been managed by a Joint Committee of the County Council and the Bury St Edmunds Borough Council. It continued to be called the Bury St Edmunds and West Suffolk Record Office until 1974.

In 1955 the area of Bury St Edmunds's abbey ruins was placed into the guardianship of the Ministry of Public Buildings and Works. Today, (2013) the MPBW is known as English Heritage, via various name changes along the way. This effectively meant that Ministry permission was required for any further work to be carried out within the designated area of the Abbey Gardens.

Meanwhile, the West Suffolk County Council had opened the first Country Park in Britain at Knettishall Heath in 1955.

In Haverhill, the Council acquired land to the south of the town for industrial development in readiness for a town development scheme with the London County Council for the transfer of 5,000 people.

During 1956 building of the first new factories started at Haverhill, and Polak and Schwarz said that they hoped to start production in September in their new premises off Duddery Hill. This was the beginning of what is today the vast Haverhill complex of IFF.

The Great Ouse River Board continued to rebuild the crumbling locks along the River Lark where these were becoming a problem for the flow of the river. The lock at Fullers Mill was rebuilt in 1956, but no lock gates were installed. Gradually such repairs and rebuilds changed the nature of the river's locks and staunches into weirs and sluices to control the flow of water to remove risks of flooding. The needs of navigation were now mostly ignored.

In 1955 Canberra bombers of XV, 44 and 57 Squadrons had arrived at RAF Honington. By 1956 they were joined by 10 Squadron. On 6th September, the base was visited by the Commander in Chief of Soviet Forces, Marshall P F Zhigarev.

The job of 94 Maintenance Unit was to store the material safely and keep it ready for action, and fully tested. The installation was intended to support bomber squadrons at Honington, Marham, Watton, Wyton, Upwood and Bassingbourn.

As far as is known the Blue Danube was effectively obsolete technology by the time it was built and only about 20 were ever made, ending in 1958. A large part of the military thinking behind the deterrent was to convince the enemy that any attack could be met by overwhelming retaliation. Thus Barnham also existed to convince the Soviets that Britain had many more atomic bombs than was, in fact, the case. It probably never held more than a handful of weapons of mass destruction, although it had the capacity to hold over 50 bombs.

Theodora, Marchioness of Bristol of the Hervey family died and caused Ickworth House to be presented to the National Trust in lieu of death duties. The family were able to lease back the east wing to live in. The public got access to the Park with its lake, and also to part of the house.

During 1956 the West Suffolk Constabulary installed VHF wireless in its control room, giving communications with patrol cars and motor cycles. A dog handling section was also set up.

Petrol was in short supply after Egypt's President Gamal Abdul Nasser took over the running of the Suez Canal from a Franco-British company in July 1956. He had been refused funds to build the Aswan High Dam because of his links with the USSR and he nationalised the canal as a sign of Arab defiance against western powers.

Petrol rationing, following the Suez Crisis, was not finally ended until after five months of restricted supplies on 14th May, 1957.

One hundred and eight dwellings were to be erected at Burton End, Haverhill for men with families moving with a new factory from London. This would be the first stage of the LCC part of the Parkway Estate. In the early days this was also known as the London Estate.

In Bury in June, May Gurney began the site works on 54 acres of the old Westley Airfield site to start the Westley Estate.

The main trunk sewer through Buy St Edmunds was also upgraded at this time.

The Treaty of Rome set up the European Economic Community. Britain did not join in.

The Magna Carta Trust was formed under the patronage of distinguished leaders of Church and State. Today, the Mayor of St Edmundsbury remains one of the Trustees.

Work began on excavating the Abbey site by the Ministry of Works and would continue for seven years. From 1957 the Ministry undertook a series of clearances of areas within the Guardianship land, in order to facilitate excavations and stabilisation of the remaining ruins. This work would continue until 1964. This included excavations of the transepts, crossing, eastern chapels and crypt of the church by the Ministry of Public Buildings and Works (R Gilyard-Beer, ‘The Eastern Arm of the Abbey Church at Bury St Edmunds’, PSIA xxxi, 1969, p256-262). Many of the finds from the excavations were removed to their headquarters in Saffron Walden.

New housing continued to be built in Bury. On May 9th, the Mayor opened the 1,000th house built on the Mildenhall Road Housing Estate. The Northumberland Avenue Methodist temporary hall and the Plymouth Brethren's Lancaster Hall were both opened to serve the expanding area. The Lancaster Hall was actually located on Tollgate Lane.

RAF Honington had opened in 1937, was transferred to the USAF in September 1942, and returned to the Royal Air Force in 1946. The Valiant Squadrons began to form in 1956 to replace the Canberra bombers previously stationed there. In 1958 it was home to No 7 Squadron, No 90 Squadron and No 199 Squadron. The Vickers Valiant was the first of the three "V" bombers to enter service. The Valiant, Victor and Vulcan bombers could all be seen, with others, in a static display at the Open Day. Flying displays featured throughout the afternoon.

You can read the whole programme for this event here:

RAF Honington At Home 1958

On 7th October 1958, the Suffolk Records Society held its Inaugural meeting at County Hall, in Ipswich. Members, who had been recruited through 1957 and early 1958, and paid their subscription, were presented with the first volume to be produced by the Society. It was a collection of documents concerned with agriculture in the period between the Napoleonic Wars and the First World War, entitled "Suffolk Farming in the Nineteenth Century". There were 219 members at this time. This first volume was dedicated to the memory of Vincent Redstone and his daughter, Lilian Redstone, who had pioneered archive management in Suffolk.
By 2007, the Suffolk Records Society would have completed 50 such volumes, a steady output of one volume each year.

In 1958 the Thor intermediate range missile first arrived in the UK.

Greene King closed their Panton Brewery in Cambridge, which they had acquired in 1925.
Greene King also took over the small Sudbury Brewery of Mauldon's, with 22 public houses on the Essex border. This brewery was old, and it was agreed to close it down, and supply the pubs from Bury.

The Mayor, Monty Banks, officially launched the great scheme to extend St James's church to make it more suitable for its role as a cathedral for the Diocese. This work had been envisaged since 1914, but two world wars and economic depression had always held things back. As it was, this major phase of work would not be finished until 1970.

The cinema trade was beginning to decline, and this year the Playhouse Cinema closed down. Its site became a large Co-op General Store, called Quality House. The Playhouse Bar, however continued to serve the drinking public for several more years until 1975.

William Prince Plumpton started his draper's shop and sold carpets by 1851. In that census he was recorded as a draper and lived at 7 Abbeygate Street. In 1861, he is resident at 36 Buttermarket and was described as a draper employing 14 hands. In 1871 he was employing 21 hands. In 1881 and 1891, he was living at 87 Guildhall Street, draper. He died in 1898 and the drapery business passed on to his sons William and Richard Plumpton.

William Plumpton junior died in 1917, and Richard Plumpton died in 1933. The shop continued to trade as W Plumpton until 1961, when the name was changed to Palmers.

Bury's population was estimated at 20,800 in 1959, but plans were afoot to drastically increase this number.

In London, the LCC, (London County Council), were continuing to promote the idea of moving to expanding towns. In May 1959 the customary hoardings went up around Eros to prevent vandalism on Cup Final Day and on the hoardings were posters which read:
"There is space for growing industry in expanding towns, Bletchley, Swindon, Aylesbury, Haverhill, Bury St Edmunds and Thetford. Ample labour is assured. Financial assistance possible, Modern homes for work people."

At Bury, work began on the Pigeon Lane pumping station and the Fornham Park treatment works to replace the West Stow works. Plans had been drawn up, amended and discussed for sewerage improvements since 1947.

The West Suffolk Technical Institute moved from its site at the Silver Jubilee School on to its present site in Out Risbygate.

The East Anglian School for girls makes up the large cluster of buildings at centre left, together with its playing fields. The buildings shown below the school in the picture are the Boby's Northgate Foundry, together with allotments visible alongside the railway line to Cambridge. This area was known locally as 'The Chalks'. Across the railway line at the lower right can be seen the Greyhound Track, which was reached off Spring Lane, but that access is just out of the picture.

Brand new diesel locomotives were now to be seen entering service in the area. By early 1960 Ipswich engine shed was the first all-diesel depot in the country. As the number of new diesels built up, steam locomotive numbers rapidly declined, but continued to ply their trade until the last departed from Norfolk and Suffolk in mid 1962. These were the first counties in the country to be fully converted to diesel power.

In the picture ex-Great Eastern locomotive 65561 is seen approaching Bury St Edmunds Junction with the return of the daily Bury to Watton pick up freight on 7th August 1959, passing the store yard of Whitmores timber business on the right. The Ipswich based loco is probably three quarters of the way through a long day working return pick-up freights between Ipswich and Bury, with the same between Bury and Watton in between. It was withdrawn from service by the end of the year.

In 1961 the line would close to passengers, and in 1965 to freight as well. Today the A14 traffic occupies the former railway land.

This type of 2-4-0 Holden E4 locomotive was designed in 1891 to meet the Great Eastern Railway's (GER) need for a mixed traffic locomotive. It was intended to haul the increasing agricultural traffic and it also had to haul cross-country and slow main line passenger services. They were slowly withdrawn over a period of decades, with the diesel railcars finishing them off after 1954. One surviving example still survives in the National Collection. In 1997 it worked as a tourist attraction on the North Norfolk Railway, and has also been an exhibit at Bressingham Steam Museum. It has been restored to its pre-British Railways livery and its original number of No. 490.

In 1959 the American occupied RAF Mildenhall airbase became a transport centre and the C124's arrived and Mildenhall became the home of the 322nd Air Division. Later the controlling unit became 513th Tactical Airlift Wing.
Mildenhall was to become the USAF's "Gateway to Europe" as a staging post for flights from the USA. Galaxies, Starlifters and C130 Hercules all flew through Mildenhall.

RAF Tuddenham also became a Thor Missile base in July 1959 when the Americans formed 107 Squadron . This sinister period lasted until July 1963, when the base at Tuddenham was sold off.

Thor missiles were made in the USA by the Douglas Aircraft Company, and flown in to Britain at Lakenheath airbase. As they were 65 feet long and 8 feet in diameter special 90 foot long vehicles were needed with steerable rear axles to carry them to their bases. In some places the road had to be widened to take the size. Three Thor missiles were delivered to each site, and periodically rotated back to USA for routine maintenance in the reverse direction.

These new estates catered mainly for local families, but the town's infrastructure had changed little to reflect this.

The main A45 from Ipswich passed up Southgate Street, and went on to Cambridge via Risbygate Street, although by now through traffic was diverted away from Abbeygate Street, and bypassed the town centre by way of Westgate Street and St Andrews Street South. Vehicles wishing to reach the Cornhill and Buttermarket could do so with ease, with travel in both directions even on market days. The attached street map shows the layout of Bury on the cusp of the great changes which would take place to the shape of the town over the coming fifteen years. The Western Way industrial estate was just being laid out, but an influx of factories had yet to take place.

West Suffolk County Council had been discussing improvements to its accommodation at the Shire Hall since a new complex of offices was proposed in 1954. By 1960 a competitive proces between eight architects led to the appointment of Donald Hank McMorran being appointed to draw up a preliminary report on the provision of a council chamber and office accommodation, including a library. In 1960, the scheme was revised to provide a police station (built in 1962-4), a library (built in 1963-5), and a scaled-down version of the council offices (built in 1966-8). The buildings were to be developed piecemeal as the sites became available, and site clearance began in August 1962 for the police headquarters.

The West Suffolk Greyhound Stadium at Tayfen Meadows is not shown on the map, but its location alongside the Tayfen Brook on low lying ground meant that heavy rains could flood it. Such a flood occurred in Autumn 1960 when the greyhound circuit was turned into a lake by rising waters, with the track, spectator areas and equipment submerged. Thankfully the weather spared a trio of greyhounds housed on site. A BBC Look East television news report from the time concluded with a shot of a car driving through the shallow floodwaters which still covered some roads. This can be viewed here:

East Anglian Film Archive

RAF Lakenheath became home to the USAFE 48th Fighter Wing who are still there today. In 1960 the Americans removed their nuclear capable fighters out of France and the 48th Wing moved into Lakenheath from Chaumont with F100 Super Sabres, and were reassigned from the 17th Air Force to the 3rd Air Force. Both Mildenhall and Lakenheath became Strategic Air Command bases with this move.

At Honington the Valiant squadrons were joined by a new bomber, the Handley Page Victor. These were operated by 55 squadron and 57 squadron from 1960 to 1965. The Victor was introduced to carry the Blue Steel missile, but eventually these planes were converted to mid air refuelling tankers. These planes were known as "V Bombers", along with the Avro Vulcan.

The London County Council had continued to relocate people outside London and Bury St Edmunds Borough Council now signed up to take 10,000 so-called "overspill" population. The Eastern Way Industrial Estate was being set up on 40 acres, beginning with ABM's silos and malt-houses.

John Saunders has noted that, "On 9 September 1960 the local press reported that Barber, Greene and Olding, a firm of world-wide connection and repute, was to establish its European headquarters in Bury St Edmunds bringing with it the first batch of workers and their families from the London area under the town’s council link with London County Council’s industrial selection scheme. The scheme involved the purchase of 18.95 acres of land on the Council’s Western Industrial Estate along Newmarket Road. The firm also entered two further contracts:
‘To purchase from the Bury Rugby Club their ground extending over some three acres abutting Beeton’s footpath and also with Mr F H Fenner to purchase a portion of backland extending approximately 2¾ acres adjoining the south western extremity of the land’".

Throughout the 1960's about 2,000 new homes were built each year in West Suffolk. Slum Clearance was the term under which whole streets were demolished and replaced by modern homes, but most new houses were on what we now call "Greenfield" sites around the edges of towns.

Between 1955 and 1961 the Bury St Edmunds Borough Council had demolished 267 unfit properties. Closing Orders and Demolition Orders had been placed upon a further 237 properties.

In August 1961 the Berlin Wall was built and stood for 28 years.

Gerald Brown informs me that, "A final passenger train – a ramblers special - ran between Liverpool Street and Lavenham via Long Melford in June 1961 and an enterprising gentleman hired the train to run a last publically available passenger train to Bury and back while it would have otherwise stood at Lavenham.
A further private and last passenger train is believed to have run between Bury and Lavenham in connection with a wedding."

Road haulage had destroyed railway traffic as the road network was improved. As a final insult to rail, the line of the cuttings for the Sudbury railway track where it entered Bury would be used to provide part of a new trunk road and bypass for Bury, opened in 1973.

The two County Territorial Army Units were merged to form the 308 (Suffolk and Norfolk Yeomanry) Field Regiment, Royal Artillery, (TA).

A new porch was completed on the Cathedral of St James, at its west end, but on the north side.

Early in 1961 the Greene King brewery acquired Wells and Winch at Biggleswade. With its 287 pubs, it was the biggest acquisition ever made by the firm. The Redman family wanted this brewery to remain open, and Greene King wanted to be big enough to remain independent. This deal gave them access to Bedford, Luton, and Watford, and a total of 900 tied houses.

Even at this late date there was an outbreak of measles in Bury St Edmunds, with 634 cases being recorded. One death resulted, but others may have suffered some degree of eyesight and hearing loss. Medical treatment was much improved since 1931, when there were 4 deaths from measles and the infant mortality rate in Bury was 46.61 per 1000 live births. By 1961 infant mortality had fallen to 13.4 per 1000 live births. However, for both years the infant death rate in Bury St Edmunds was well below the national average, which was 66 per 1000 in 1931 and 21.4 in 1961.

The 4th Suffolk (TA) unit was amalgamated with 1st Cambridgeshire to become 1st Battalion the Suffolk and Cambridgeshire Regiment. This regiment only lasted until it was disbanded in 1967. The 358th Suffolk Yeomanry was amalgamated with the Norfolk Yeomanry to form 308 (Suffolk and Norfolk Yeomanry) Field Regiment, RA (TA). Along with the regular army, the TA was being cut back.

In Haverhill the town centre improvements got under way when much of Peas Hill was demolished, the 1,000th tenants were given keys to their new homes and the population was 5,200.

After the war the Rothschild family never returned to live there. There were attempts to find an institutional use for the property, but these all failed , and for several years the house had stood empty and abandoned. It was said that it needed five tons of coal a day to heat it, and by 1961 it was full of dry rot.

In 1961 demolition was begun, and some pieces were recycled. Some of the oak panelling was given to Thingoe RDC for the Council Chamber. This was later moved to the Borough Offices on Angel Hill in 1974. The chimneypiece from the hall and two large doorcases went to the Roman Catholic Church in Westgate Street.

Further salvage work was thwarted when the house caught fire and burnt down. "Undoubtedly its destruction was amongst the greatest losses in the history of Suffolk houses", wrote W M Roberts.

The spire which topped out Westley parish church's tower was removed, as it was thought to be unsafe.

In the late 1950's, David Bellamy had studied the fen and found a diverse and fascinating mosaic of fen communities, rich in rare species of both acid and alkali loving plants. This richness was a result of the fen's unique water regime, complex geology and soil structure and the traditional management practices of local people as a Poor's Fen over many years. In 1954, Redgrave and Lopham Fen was designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in recognition of its outstanding conservation interest.

By 1960 the fen was in grave danger. Scrub was rapidly encroaching as the fen dried out, caused by river dredging and a local water borehole, extracting the precious water. Something had to be done.

The major impetus for these efforts to safeguard Redgrave's future came from core members of The Suffolk Naturalists' Society and for a short period this organisation effectively took over the management of the fen. However, it was felt that another specialist organisation, whose main objective was primarily to manage nature reserves, should be set up to look after Redgrave Fen. In 1961 the Suffolk Trust for Nature Conservation, later to become The Suffolk Wildlife Trust, was formed and Redgrave Fen became its first wildlife reserve.

John Saunders has pointed out that, "On 30 March 1962 the front page of the Bury Free Press confirmed that in less than an hour that week Bury St Edmunds Town Council had decided to embark on the biggest land deal in its history. They had agreed to buy Mr Boughton’s 57 acres (off Beetons footpath) at a cost of £140,000 or almost £2,500 per acre, he having previously been refused planning permission to develop it himself as it was owned for residential purposes. It would be used to build an extension to the Howard Estate.

The old settling beds at West Stow were to become used as a landfill site for rubbish from Bury St Edmunds to replace tipping at the Haberden and Mount Road. By 1962 most West Suffolk villages had piped water, and many parishes had mains drainage. Work continued throughout the 1960s.

In Haverhill the Colne Valley Railway Line was finally closed down for goods traffic, leaving the Stour Valley line to continue until 1967. Haverhill South had not seen passenger traffic since 1924.

"They had just reached the secure site area and were walking across the main runway to the Dining Room when they were suddenly aware of a very low flying F100 aircraft circling above. They were surprised and then startled as they became aware of what they believed was gunfire behind them and could then see a large plume of smoke in the direction of the tobacco houses. (They subsequently discovered that the ‘gunfire’ was the ammunition exploding in the crashed aircraft) The F100 after making several passes above their heads eventually left and they continued over to the missile site.
When they arrived, they were told that there had been a major incident and that an aircraft had crashed into the tobacco houses. All those that were not needed at work were then put into vehicles and taken to the quarters to assist until the USAF could arrive with their own personnel.....
We were then approached by one of our Launch Control Officers (Flt Lt Stubbs) to assist him with checking the runway to ensure it was clear and we went in his car, stopping to remove any small items from the surface that we thought may constitute a hazard to aircraft. Eventually, a C47 Dakota aircraft fitted out for casualty evacuations landed and taxied up to us, inside was a medical crew including a doctor who we took back to the incident site.
By this time, the fire was out and the aircraft could be approached. Concern was then expressed about the disappearance of Peter Hammond, who most of us knew as he had recently worked at the missile site. The doctor suggested that we should form search parties and look for him, as it was possible that he was in shock and had run away. This was done, but to no avail. We were later told that Peter was eventually found beneath the aircraft. We were also told that Peter had been outside the front of the building (up a ladder?) and had seen the aircraft coming towards him over the top of the house, he had time to enter through the front door and warn the occupants who went out of the back. Unfortunately, Peter went back out the front and was hit by the aircraft that had hit at the rear of the house, skipped over it and landed in the road."

By April a new and much more sophisticated Observation Post was completed to replace the 1950's platform used by the Royal Observer Corps at the edge of the old Westley Airfield. It was opened as Nuclear reporting Cell 4/17 in October 1962. These nuclear bunkers were completely underground, constructed of reinforced concrete. The top was 7.5 inches thick, with a 3 inch covering of grassed over soil. The hatch covered a 15 ft long ladder down to two small but self contained rooms, with kitchen and toilet facilities as well as the trappings of a nuclear observation post. Equipped with a weeks supplies this was one of a network reporting to 4 Group HQ at Colchester. Westley had phone links also to the Bacton (4/15) and Beyton (4/16) Bunkers.

In 1968 the well known Pathe News filmed the ABM factory, and declared it the largest malting factory in Europe. This clip can be viewed on their website here:-

www.britishpathe.com/

On the Cornhill in Bury St Edmunds, Smith's Furniture Stores closed down, having traded here since 1866. It was located next to the Castle Inn, on its western side.

In 1962 local author Norah Lofts published the last book in what came to be regarded as her classic work. The 'Suffolk Trilogy' (The Town House, of 1959, The House at Old Vine, of 1961 and The House at Sunset in 1962) spans 600 years in the history of a house, from its beginnings as the h ome of a medieval wool-merchant to the present day. The model for this house is said to be Sun Court in Hadleigh High Street.

Winter 1962 saw a Big Freeze which lasted for months. The weather had been getting worse since about 1950, and the winter of 1962/63 turned into the coldest since 1740. Although never so bad, this cooler time lasted into the 1970's.

Great Livermere lake froze over and the Mildenhall Round Table club challenged Bury St Edmunds, Thetford and Newmarket tablers to a skating tournament all under flood lights. Children were shown in this picture from the Bury Free Press having fun on toboggans.

February 1963 was the coldest February for 82 years. Standing water was frozen for some 10 weeks, and the populations of Herons, Bitterns and Kingfishers were severely affected.

In his booklet, "Ahead of its Time," John Saunders noted that, "In March 1963 Bury St Edmunds Town Council Housing Committee decided to select the names of 16 roads on the Howard Estate from the names of mayors dating from 1836 onwards. The Committee decided that they should recommend to the Council the name of St Olave as the name of the main road to run between the Mildenhall and Howard Estates because it would be named after the St Olave’s Trust from which the Council purchased the land where the road would run."

James Oakes' diaries had been sold to a dealer in 1955, following its discovery in the library at Nowton Court, the family home. The diaries came on the market in 1963, and the Borough Archivist, Martin Statham, urged the Bury St Edmunds Borough Council to buy them, which they did. These turned out to contain a massive amount of detail of life in Bury from 1778 to 1827, and were eventually published in 1990.

The old industrial regime in Bury was changing. At Greene King the annual ton of coal delivered to each married employee was ended. Not only was the Welfare State providing for the working classes, but the company was under pressure from the Stock Market to show a modern face, and improve efficiency. Paternalism was not thought good business any more.

On 30th November the colours of the 1st Battalion and the 4th Battalion of the Suffolk Regiment were laid up at St Mary's Church in Bury by colour parties of the 1st East Anglian and the Suffolk and Cambridgeshire Regiment.

Thingoe RDC's water undertaking had by now supplied piped water into all of its parishes since the war, and was making bulk supplies to five neighbouring authorities. On November 1st, the whole lot was transferred to the West Suffolk Water Board.

Only two packs of Stag Hounds survived the Second World War, the Mid-Kent and the Norwich Stag Hounds. the Norwich Stag Hounds frequently hunted in Suffolk as well as Norfolk, but they disbanded in 1963. (The Mid-Kent Hunt had disbanded a year before.)

By now, Red Deer were a noticeable feature of the Thetford and King's Forest plantations of coniferous trees, owned by the Forestry Commission, situated to the north of Bury St Edmunds. The large Red Deer are not native to the area. They carry impressive heads, for they are some of the biggest and best-fed reds in the country. Most are thought to be descended from deer that eluded the Norwich Staghounds, a pack that hunted carted deer in the area until 1963. The deer was taken to the meet in a cart (or box), released and given some law (time before the hounds were released). The hunted beast would generally give the hounds a good run before standing to bay. The hounds were then whipped off and the deer put back in its box and taken home.

In latter years the Norwich only hunted hinds and haviers (castrated stags), but some of the hinds eluded the hounds. As they were usually pregnant they were the founders of the current East Anglian herd, members of which can now be found throughout Norfolk and Suffolk. The Norwich Staghounds obtained their deer from the famous herd in Warnham Park in Sussex. According to the authoritative G.Kenneth Whitehead, “on several occasions the Norwich failed to recapture their deer, and as a result, the Warnham strain has been responsible for the fine quality of the feral red deer now in the Thetford forest area.” After 1963 the herds became entirely self supporting, growing only from their own reproduction in the wild.

During 1963, the town map of Bury St Edmunds was being reviewed. One proposal was for the Mount, an area between Shakers lane and Rougham Hill, would be used for industrial development. This alarmed local activists, such as Dr Marcus Bird, and his response was to propose that this area should be turned instead into a new golf course. The existing golf course, he proposed, should be sold for a mixture of new housing to extend the Howard Estate, and light industry to provide adjacent employment. The Golf Club had become well aware that the Howard Estate had been extended right up to their eastern boundary, and that the 90 or so acres of golf club land had now become valuable potential development space. However, the club would soon hear of further threats to their existing location.

At Haverhill, town expansion was well under way. In March the roads and services were being constructed for the Clements Estate in Haverhill and the tender was awarded for the first 142 houses. At Little Wratting, Blunts Hall was demolished by Sainsbury's to make way for the expansion of the thriving Haverhill Meat Products factory complex. The old peoples' bungalows were completed in Withersfield Road, Haverhill, by April that year.

Brooke also described some customs which he claimed still flourished in 1963. "Certainly I know today where I can obtain the services of a local black witch, should I so desire."

The Beeching report on the railway network was published in March 1963. The report, called 'The Reshaping of British Railways' recognised the falling demand for passenger traffic and the growth of the road freight network. The report listed hundreds of railway stations across the country that were considered uneconomic to run in present conditions. The stations of the Stour Valley line (Chappel & Wakes Colne, Bures, Sudbury, Long Melford, Glemsford, Cavendish, Clare, Stoke, Sturmer, Haverhill, Linton, Bartlow and Pampisford) were all listed and recommended for closure.

Many rail line closures would follow in an attempt to keep a viable network going. However, passenger traffic had already ceased at Mildenhall, Thetford, and stops along the Thetford line like Ingham and Barnham, Haverhill's Colne Valley stations, as well as Welnetham, Cockfield, and Lavenham. Haverhill's Stour Valley line from Cambridge to Long Melford and Sudbury would survive until 1967.

After the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 international relations improved considerably. The Thor missile base at Shepherd's Grove was closed down in 1963. The site then changed to agriculture with an industrial estate and extensive use for housing. Similarly the missile base at Tuddenham was closed in July and sold off.

After 1963 the main UK nuclear bomb was called Type WE 177, based on an American design. These would be stored at the nuclear capable bases themselves. This would include RAF Honington. So by April 1963 the nuclear weapons at the Barnham bomb store of RAF Barnham were removed and the site closed down. It would be sold off in 1965.

Associated British Maltsters boasted the largest maltings in Britain, which stood dominating the Eastern Way Trading Estate, as well as the skyline of the town.

Nearby on Eastern Way was the butter packing factory of Lovell and Christmas.

Just up the hill on Hollow Road stood the Bury Sugar Beet processing factory. It had just finished a three year programme of reconstruction, and was the biggest Beet Factory in Britain.

The Cooperative Wholesale Society had its Bakery at Western Way, as did the printing works of Lamson Paragon.

The Town Clerk advertised in the new guide that two industrial estates were now fully occupied, but attractive sites were available on other estates. The population was 22,000 and was increasing to 40,000 wrote the Town Clerk.

The new guide contained an excellent 26 pages called "The Life of Bury", with a full history from Anglo Saxon times to the present day, written by Norman Scarfe. It is interesting to note that Norman Scarfe ended his final perambulation just past Barn Lane in Eastgate Street, as follows:-

"Beyond the railway bridge, Out Eastgate climbs out past the ancient hospital of St Nicholas to Barton and the fields and farmhouses of Suffolk."

Norman Scarfe himself wrote that "There are at present 6,500 houses. A total of 13,800 will be required by 1981. Of these, 7,490 will have to be built on new land.....this would involve building on 750 acres of the Borough's available land."

In technological contrast IBM released its System 360 commercial range of computers including innovations such as upgradeability and magnetic tape drives.

In May 1964 a by-election followed the demise of W T Aitken, who had been Bury's MP since 1950. Another Conservative was duly elected to represent the town. He was Eldon Griffiths, who was to be the town's MP until his retirement as Sir Eldon, in April 1992.

Early in 1964 the Haverhill Urban District Council took a special census which showed that Haverhill's population was then 7,239. By March 1964, 575 houses had been erected and there were a further 238 under construction. Some 26 new factories had also been built under the town expansion scheme.

The Thingoe Rural District Council showed that it continued to be at the forefront of managing rural development by buying up the major part of Hall Park at Great Barton. A master plan was drawn up for private residential development, the council installing roads and sewers, and laying out extensive green amenity areas. Some 113 individual plots of land were to be sold off for "executive" type private houses.

In Westgate Street a long running public battle to raise interest and funds was won when the Theatre Royal was triumphantly re-opened as a living theatre. Eleven years later the brewery would lease it to the National Trust on a 999 year lease. Seating was now halved to only 350 to comply with modern requirements, but this has made it hard to remain financially viable at all times.

The old County school premises in Northgate Street gradually became used as an annexe to the West Suffolk College until 1988.

The Public Libraries and Museums Act required libraries to each certain standards. Pictures, records and films could be lent. These standards were laid down by a Libraries Working Party and included one member of staff for every 2,500 population and the purchase of 7,200 books each year as a minimum.

On 1st September 1964, the East Anglian Regiment became the Royal Anglian Regiment, and the Suffolks made up the 1st Battalion. The Depot remained at Bury, but cutbacks were the order of the day.

In September 1964 a major scheme of flood protection for the Great Ouse was completed. This consisted of a Cut-Off channel from the River Lark at Barton Mills down to Denver Sluice. The aim was that when flood water came down the Lark from the Bury St Edmunds direction, it would flow down the Cut-Off channel to below Denver Sluice. Thus it would avoid the risk of flooding Mildenhall and the washlands around the Great Ouse. It should also have allowed the Lark to be less likely to overflow as it had a second outlet to take water away more quickly.

New Police Headquarters

Mr William Watling Sexton had started this shop at 26, Buttermarket in 1858 as a dyer and scourer, tea dealer and tobacconist, having moved his shop here from 27 Abbeygate Street, and his dye works from the Abbey Ruins in the churchyard. By 1885 Mr Sexton had died and the business was in the hands of his widow, Mrs Harriet Sexton. By 1892 their two daughters, called Miss Anne Sexton and Miss Rosina Watling Sexton, were running the shop.

In their later years, a sedan chair was used to take the two ladies to Sunday services at the cathedral, and this chair can still be seen in Moyse's Hall Museum. Miss Ann died, aged 84, in 1914, and Miss Rosina died at the age of 92 in 1925. After they retired from direct involvement in the shop, it was managed by Dick Baker's father. After 1925 Mr Baker senior bought the shop, abandoned the dying and cleaning part of the business, and changed it to an exclusively tobacconist's business. It was normal for this type of business to also sell walking sticks and other "tobacconists fancy goods."

During the Mid 1960's Bury's Northern Way Industrial Estate was laid out on 30 acres of land in the area of Thingoe RDC.

On the Mildenhall Road Estate the Methodists' temporary chapel in Northumberland Avenue was replaced by a permanent brick built church.

In 1954, Stephen Dykes-Bower, Surveyor of the Fabric of Westminster Abbey was commissioned to produce plans for a suitable extension. An appeal for £275,000 was launched in 1956, and although barely half the target had been raised, work began on the porch and library in 1959. In 1962 the first eight bays of the cloister were built.

In Bury the Corn Exchange was operating as a corn market every Wednesday, and as a public hall for the remainder of the week. There was an annual Trade Fair and Chrysanthemum Show, and wrestling and roller skating were popular.

The Borough Council applied to the Department of Education and Science for the right to keep its library powers. It reasoned that it provided a better service than the County library and it needed to spend less to reach the standards of the Libraries Working Party. Also the Ministry of Housing and Local Government had agreed to the growth of the town to 40,000 within 10 years, and permission was being sought to reach 60,000 under the London overspill arrangements. At this time the Borough Librarian also ran the Citizens Advice Bureau, and the estimated population of Bury St Edmunds was 22,270.

As local railway links were gradually extinguished, land became available for further road building. On the Bury to Sudbury rail line the section between Lavenham and Long Melford had closed to all traffic in April 1961. Freight traffic continued from Bury St Edmunds as far as Lavenham until 1965. The one daily train was a source of excitement for schoolboys as it ran in the cutting at the top of King Edward VI Grammar School playing field. The planned bypass for the town would follow this same route.

In July, 1965, there was a Public Enquiry held into the proposal to build a by-pass to take the A45 Trunk Road away from Bury St Edmunds town centre. Everybody supported the aims of the new road, but the line of the road became controversial as it had a large impact upon the Bury Golf Course, as well as upon other property owners along the proposed line. However, the Enquiry confirmed the new proposals and planning decisions from 1965 until the road's completion in 1973 would now need to take these proposals into account. Talks between the Golf Club and the Council soon revealed that the Council also wanted to extend the Howard Estate on to land containing the 7th to 10th holes of the golf course. The combination of road and housing plans meant that a major change was needed to the Golf Course.

Further traffic measures were under way within the town centre. Looms Lane had been a traffic bottleneck for years, being extremely narrow. Properties from Blomfield House all along the south side of Looms Lane all the way to Northgate Street were demolished. The road was successfully widened up to the junction with Lower Baxter Street, and Blomfield House was replaced by a white tiled health centre offering maternity, dental and school health services. Unfortunately this merely shifted the bottleneck to Brentgovel Street, which remained so narrow that only single lane traffic could traverse it. The other issue about this scheme was the tiled exterior of the health centre, which John Betjeman called "lavatorial splendour." In 1987 the white tiles would be replaced by a red brick facade.

In 1965 Robert Boby Engineering spent £100,000 to improve the throughput of the St Andrews Works. The existing stores block would be demolished to allow an extension to the Fitting Shop. A new stores would be built to the south west of existing buildings.

A large number of coins and two revolvers were stolen from the Moyse's Hall Museum. The £880 insurance money was used to buy replacements. The collection now had one coin from every reign from Edward the Confessor (1042) to Queen Elizabeth II except three unobtainable at the time.

Previously Honington had been an important V-bomber base occupied by Squadrons with Victors, Valiants and Canberras equipped for electronic warfare. Numbers 55 and 57 Squadrons were formed after 1959 to fly the newer Victors, but left for Marham in 1965. The era of the 'V - Bomber' was now coming to a close.
From 1965 the British nuclear deterrent was switched to the Navy with its submarine force. From 1966 to 1968 RAF Honington was put on a Care and Maintenance basis.

During 1966 the Bury St Edmunds Borough Council produced its second self-published Town Guide, within dark blue hard covers. A couple of new colour plates were also added to the production. Dr H Marcus Bird wrote a comprehensive History of Bury St Edmunds for the Guide to replace the version by Norman Scarfe in the 1964 Guide.

The Chalkstone Housing Estate at Haverhill was started by the GLC. All of the town development houses in Haverhill before 1974 were designed, financed and built directly by the London County Council and then by the Greater London Council after 1965. The population of Haverhill in 1966 was estimated at 9,000, a growth of 2,000 in two years.

The foundry was left empty and soon became derelict. It was not demolished until 1972 to make way for the A45 bypass. Raynham Road was developed for housing from about 1975, and this linked Anglian Lane to Northgate Avenue.

The site is today the home of the Anglian Lane Trading Estate, and the only sign of the old ironworks is some iron slag which was used as ballast on the footpath approach from Northgate Avenue, at the end of Maltings Bridge.

The line to Sudbury from Marks Tey remained in operation. That line was originally opened on July 11, 1849. The section from Shelford to Haverhill was opened on June 1, 1865. The final section, bridging the gap and making Haverhill accessible from either direction, was completed on August 9, 1865. Haverhill's hundred years of railway communications was now over.

The Borough Offices Extension was not officially opened until January, 1967, although it had been in use for several weeks. You can view the plans and information about the new extension by clicking here:
Official opening of Borough Offices extension, 1967

West Suffolk County Council's new Howard Primary School opened in January 1967 to serve the growing Howard estate built by the Borough Council.

Another new secondary school was opened in 1967, this time under the auspices of the Roman Catholic diocese. It was named St Benedict's School and was located alongside the County Upper School in Beetons Way. The original preferred site of Fr Houghton and school managers for St Benedict’s was on the Howard Estate but the Education Authority decreed that it should be constructed at Beeton’s Footpath (later to become known as Beetons Way).

The Ipswich Borough Police Force and the East Suffolk force were merged with the West Suffolk Police Force to form the Suffolk Constabulary on 1st April 1967. The new west Suffolk headquarters was now finished at Raingate Street, but the police station in St Johns Street remained in use for another three years. When the new amalgamated Suffolk Constabulary came into being the split between east and west Suffolk policing ended. It had broken apart in 1899.

West Suffolk County Council set up a farm training centre at the independent Chadacre Agricultural Institute to centralise its agricultural training in one place. East Suffolk had already established its own centre at Witnesham in 1960.

The first subsidence occurred after heavy rain on 25th July 1967 and involved the collapse of a road and a rear garden at the southern end of the site. The subsequent crown-hole was 8,1 m deep. Soon after this the council became involved and commissioned a geologist to investigate the site and the event. Excavation and drilling revealed a network of tunnels in which broken material occurred, probably the result of roof spalling. It was recommended that the crown-hole should be back filled and a drainage system installed to convey water away from the site.

Further subsidence occurred on 12th December 1967, this was associated with a soak-away under a road. The subsequent collapse was filled with concrete on 27th December, but worse was to follow.

In Bury St Edmunds, new market bye-laws were introduced.

Since 1939 the agricultural industry in Suffolk had got more prosperous. Cheap food was heavily subsidised by the state, and the industry became increasingly profitable by mechanisation and economies of scale. Small farms were dying out. Arable farming replaced animal rearing. Horses had virtually disappeared in the 1960's, replaced by tractors. In 1958 there had still been 4000 working horses in Suffolk, but in 10 years they were all gone.

In August 1968 the Warsaw Pact countries, mainly the USSR, invaded Czechoslovakia.

At Bury St Edmunds, Grenville Wilson, of 19 Eastgate Street, had just started work at the Sun Alliance Company in the town, and as he left for work on Monday morning the street drains were starting to overflow. When he returned home the river had risen to the level of the retaining wall by the Abbot's Bridge. The water level in the river was well above the level of Eastgate Street and part of this wall collapsed just as he was passing the Fox public house. The force of water swept him into the side entrance of the Fox, which luckily saved him from being swept any further.

Floods overwhelmed the Butts and Friary Lane, and water ran down Raingate Street. Peak loads of 30 tons of water per second were measured at Bury St Edmunds, some 600 times greater than normal. The council had to send out office workers to help rescue stranded livestock from flooded fields. Residents in Eastgate Street were soon stranded, and the army brought in amphibious vehicles to help police and firemen to rescue them. Boats, dinghies and rafts replaced cars on many flooded streets. Water lay along Etna Road and flooded Mulley's coach garage. The Dovecote in the Abbey Gardens was under water, as was practically everwhere along the River Lark through the town. Out of town, Sicklesmere was under water and only the tallest lorries could get through the flood. In Bury itself, some 270 properties were flooded to a depth of up to three feet. You can view more pictures of the flooding by clicking here:
The floods of September, 1968

Ten years after the great Haverhill floods of 1958, despite new drainage levies, floods also occurred there again in mid-September 1968. They were just as bad here as in Bury, and in many ways the effects were greater, and more widespread, because of the nature of the town at the foot of the Stourbrook valley.

Farm mechanisation had picked up again after the war, and with it a reduction in the labour force required. By 1968 Suffolk had 3,000 combined harvesters, compared to 12 in 1938. This represents 6 combines to every parish. These harvesters demanded larger fields, so hedges were removed and ditches filled in to accomodate them. One or two drivers could reap a whole harvest faster than the teams of men, women and boys who turned out to gather in the harvest before the war. Average field size in the 1930's was around 8 acres. By this time it was common for fields to be 40 acres, and as much as 90 acres in some places. The hundred acre farm of pre war days has failed to be viable, and 700 acres or more is now typical. There were drastic consequences for wildlife. Habitat loss was made worse by the use of chemicals like DDT. The Sparrow Hawk was virtually unknown in Suffolk by the end of the 1960's.

The old holes, which had been sold to the council for development, were now excluded from the perimeter fence, and became open to the public. Some of the turf from the greens became re-used on local lawns, and boys ran impromptu golf games for a time.

On 21st July, 1969, Neil Armstrong became the first man to walk on the surface of the Moon.

W John Bridge became Managing Director of Greene King's brewery in Bury. He was the Great Grandson of Fred King, who was the "King" of the merger between Greene's brewery and King's Brewery in 1887.

Bury St Edmunds Borough Council installed its first computer, an NCR 500 based on punched paper tape input and magnetic stripe ledger cards as backing store. The ledger cards were simultaneously updated electronically and information printed on the front of the card. This system, known as a "visible records" computer, mirrored the use of accounting machines and had 400 words of magnetic core memory. This machine was used for the financial records of the council. It would be extended in use to payroll, the rates system, and to the accounting for council house rents over the next few years. It was programmed by members of the Borough Treasurer's Department in Machine Code, where hardware instructions were represented by a three digit code, and memory was addressed in four planes of 100 words each.

The Depot of the Royal Anglian Regiment in Risbygate Street, Bury St Edmunds, finally closed when its depot functions under Lt Colonel Deller were moved to Bassingbourn in Cambridgeshire. By now all but the Keep and front walls had been demolished.

In February a C-141 Starlifter made an emergency landing at USAF Mildenhall. As there was a suspected gas leakage from a rocket engine on board, homes and factories within 2,000 feet of the plane were evacuated. Some 200 people were evacuated to Mildenhall Town Hall, but were soon allowed to return, following what proved to be a false alarm.

James Gorst, the West Suffolk Planning Officer wrote a piece about Bury, in which he said, "Bury St Edmunds claims to be the birthplace of English town planning, as it was the first new town built after the Norman Conquest in 1066."

Town Clerk at this time was Richard R Hiles, who wrote a piece in the new guidebook entitled "A Progressive and Expanding Town." At this time, "The pig market is one of the busiest in the country, attracting buyers from an area stretching from south of the Thames to north of the Humber, and almost to the borders of Wales." "The Wednesday Corn Market, held in the Corn Exchange in the town centre, is rated by the corn trade to be among the country's four leading markets." "The Wednesday and Saturday market of stalls......is now a traffic-free zone on market days." Bury, with its 25,000 inhabitants is the shopping, business and social centre for 80,000 people. "The Council ..has an approved scheme for the redevelopment of an area adjoining the present shopping centre for additional carefully designed shops and a modern bus station." This latter note referred to the plans for St Johns Street, which became hotly contested, and ultimately abandoned.

As for industry, Greene King were malting their own East Anglian barley at their Westgate Brewery. Robert Boby Engineers, part of the Vickers Group, manufactured malting machinery for brewers and distillers throughout the world. The Bury St Edmunds sugar factory held the European record for the highest tonnage of beet processed in a single season. Four new Industrial Estates now supported thirty new industries. "Factory sites, fully serviced, are available for sale or letting to suitable industries and the Borough Council offers all possible assistance to the newcomers and their work-people."

The four new industrial sites referred to included the Western Way and Eastern Way Industrial estates, which had been the first and second respectively, to be set up. With the Town Map review these were not enough, and and as an interim measure the Northern Way Industrial site was set up. This consisted of 30 acres in the parish of Fornham All Saints, in the Thingoe Rural District Council area. The site was on the northern edge of the Bury Borough Council's Mildenhall Road Estate. Within the Borough boundaries, a fourth, much smaller, site had been identified off Beetons Way, served by a new road to become called Anglian Lane. Vitality Bulbs had moved here in 1966.

The council provided modern houses on well planned estates for staff and employees of factories moving out of London, and for people leaving London who subsequently joined one of these businesses. GLC and Government grants helped to keep the rents at a low level.

Bury had its own dedicated railway carriage for its newspapers detached from the 02.45 Liverpool Street to Yarmouth newspaper train at Ipswich and due in Bury at 05.17. The carriage was worked back empty to London every day.

The railways were also still an important player in moving mail around the country, particularly on the Sundays excepted train to and from Manchester. Bury was also a stop in the wee small hours for a mail train running between Peterborough and Liverpool Street and vice versa on which sorting of the mail was carried out. For the hardy, limited passenger accommodation was available on these such that with an 01.01 departure one could be in London by 03.55. For late night revellers in the capital the return train left Liverpool Street at 23.00 for an 01.32 arrival at Bury.

The BR Staff Association still occupied their social club with its bowling green and cricket pitch off Tayfen Road.

Greene King, the Bury Brewers firm, employed a firm of London Marketing Consultants to devise a proper coordinated marketing strategy for the firm. For the first time they were faced with their odd-man-out position in the modern brewing world by consultants. They gave away as much in donations and charitable subscriptions as they spent on advertising at this time. Many of their established ideas were challenged. This was the beginning of the company's rise from successful local brewer to being a national player, which it would be by the end of the century. By 1972 they began advertising on Anglia Television, which mirrored its own distribution network.

The architect Stephen Dykes Bower completed work on a new choir for the Cathedral church of St James for the new diocese of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich. The Quire and Crossing were consecrated in September, and as the project had been started in 1959, and ran through a period of inflation, it left the cathedral in debt. There was not enough money to build a tower, but provision was made for one to be added later.

From October 1970 to January 1971 The Buccaneers of XV Squadron were at Honington. The Buccaneers of 12 Squadron were still in residence there.

St Alban’s Voluntary Aided Primary School opened in Beard Road, on the Howard Estate, on 6th January 1971 as part of the three-tier Catholic comprehensive system of the Deanery. It had been agreed that all Catholic children over the full primary age range from the north of the railway line should transfer to St Alban’s that month, meaning that it would open with around 70 on roll. Children south of the railway line would attend St Edmund’s School but the transfer of children from that School would reduce its roll by 72. Unfortunately this agreement would not last and St Alban's would suffer a loss of numbers over the next three decades, finally closing in July, 2000.

In January 1971 the Ram Inn in Eastgate Street was demolished to make way for an office of the Inland Revenue. The Ram dated back to the 17th century, and had been one of Joseph Maulkin's inns in the 19th century. Only the name of the nearby Ram Meadow Carpark commemorates that inn today.

County Councils had to set up a Social Services Department in 1971. Work was taken from the old Health and Welfare Department and the Children's Department of West Suffolk County Council.

One of the new road bridges was planned to cross the Fornham Road. Later in the year we see the demolition of several homes in Fornham Road to make way for the bridge construction.

In April, 1971, 204 Squadron was reformed at RAF Honington flying the Shackleton MR2 for marine surveillance, and early warning. In 1972 they would be replaced by the Navy's 809 Squadron.

Official opening of Sewage Works extension, 1971

Since March 1970 the F-100 fighter planes from USAF Lakenheath had been stationed at Mildenhall. Lakenheath was closed for runway improvements to be carried out. They were due to return to Lakenheath by the end of August 1971, but the following accident was to spoil their stay. During that August an F-100 Supersabre crashed just off the main runway at USAF Mildenhall. It smashed a corner off a cottage at West Row, and ploughed 200 yards through a field. It demolished part of the perimeter fence and burst into flames on top of a 50,000 gallon fuel tank. The pilot walked out of the wreckage.

The Abbeygate Cinema in Hatter Street changed its name to Studio One and Two, showing two programmes simultaneously to the smaller audiences that the cinema was now attracting.

Comprehensive education arrived in Bury with the abolition of the King Edward VI Grammar School and the Silver Jubilee Secondary Modern Schools. The Vinefields premises of the Grammar School became the St James Middle School, and the King Edward VI Upper School was set up as a co-educational establishment on the site of the Jubilee Schools. Because of the new three tier system, new middle schools were needed. The County Grammar School for Girls became the co-educational County Upper School. The old single sex grammar school system, which divided children by ability was now dead.

In September 1971 the brand new Westley Middle School was opened for 9 to 13 year old as part of the new Comprehensive System. The site of the school had been acquired by West Suffolk County Council in 1967 for use as a secondary modern school, but the new legislation changed this plan. The site still included the Royal Observer Corps Observation Post 4/17.

St Louis Convent School became a state run Catholic School.

Despite all this change John Betjeman called Bury "The most perfect and least spoiled English town."
Nevertheless, a group of concerned citizens decided to set up the Bury Society, to act as a watchdog over any possible excessive zeal in redevelopment of the old features of the town. Their immediate aim was to stop the proposed redevelopment of St Johns Street, and the associated demolition of all the buildings on the east side of that street. Plans had been drawn up in May, and bids invited for the work. A public meeting held on 22nd June had condemned the plans and it was felt that there must be some sort of mechanism developed to avoid the need for such "eleventh hour rescue dramas" as a member of the public put it.

Thus in October, 1971, the inaugural meeting of the Bury Society was held at the Corn Exchange. Local Historian David Dymond became the society's first chairman. There had been 8 years of discussing the future of St John's Street, resulting in considerable deterioration of the street scene due to the "Planning Blight" that inevitably followed the threat of extensive redevelopment. Finally, after this massive display of public displeasure, at the end of November 1971 the Council abandoned the plans for redevelopment of St Johns Street.

When the West Suffolk County Council approved the ultimate expansion of Haverhill from 18,500 to 30,000 they - with the full approval of the Haverhill Council - commissioned the eminent architect and planner, Sir Frederick Gibberd, to prepare a master plan, and this was published in 1971.

At Haverhill the West Suffolk County Council opened an indoor sports centre.

During 1971 the West Suffolk County Council acquired the freehold title of some significant land in the town of Clare. Titles transferred were the Clare Castle on 25/03/71 and the old Clare railway Station on 09/08/71. The aim was to set up the area as a Country Park, albeit within the boundaries of the town. The original conveyance document for land covering Clare Castle between John Antony Lester de Fonblanque and the West Suffolk County Council dated 09/08/1971 included restrictive covenants which would keep the land used for a country park without any further development. It was planned to open the park to the public during 1972. Very soon the new 20 acre Country Park at Clare won a silver medal for safeguarding the Clare Castle ruins and adapting the old railway station. Further land would be acquired in future to add to the area of the park. These were the ex-railway land along the old line in 1973, further ex-railway land on 01/06/90; and land south of the river during 2000.

In January the Haverhill Echo reported that Clare Market was in difficulties. After 13 weeks, the man who revived it, Mr Glazer of Brockley was losing money and was withdrawing. Clare Parish Council were considering whether to take it over.

In April 1972 the Clare Castle Country Park was officially opened to the public by the West Suffolk County Council. It was to be managed by the County Planning Department. The land had been acquired during 1971.

In the City, the FT 30 share index reached 543, the highest it had ever been, following a two year boom in share prices. Following the peaks of May, Stock markets experienced a decline throughout the rest of the year, which would continue into 1974.

The excavations were wound up at West Stow in the summer, but Stanley West had the idea of launching a practical archaeology project based upon actually rebuilding some of the dwellings. His idea for a "living, experimental reconstruction of the past" was supported by the County Planner, and would fit in well with proposals to create a Country Park here.

The West Suffolk County Council opened the Brandon Country Park during 1972. (In 1984 it would receive a Visitor Centre as well.) The WSCC had opened the first Country Park in Britain at Knettishall Heath in 1955. So the proposals for West Stow were well founded.

From the beginning, the West Stow site owners, Bury St Edmunds Borough Council, also supported the project in association with Dr West. However, the passing of the Local Government Act of 1972 meant that on 1st April 1974 the old Borough Council was to be replaced by a new District Council amalgamating the towns of Bury St Edmunds and Haverhill with the surrounding Rural Districts of Thingoe and Clare. The West Suffolk County Council was also to merge with East Suffolk to produce Suffolk County Council. The Local Government Bill had also included plans to move Haverhill, the Thurlows, Bradleys, Wrattings, Kedington, Barnardiston and Withersfield into Cambridgeshire. The Local Government Act which finally emerged in 1972 left them in Suffolk.

At the Old Town Hall in Bury St Edmunds the conversion work from council offices was completed. During 1971 it had been decided to revert its name to the Market Cross. The ground floor was turned into the offices of a Building Society and the first floor became an Art Gallery run by the Bury St Edmunds Art Gallery Trust.

In Bury St John's Church School closed in St Johns Street, and the building became a Church Hall.

Planning permission was sought to turn the old RAF Stradishall base into a prison for 500 men and detention centre for 200 youths. However, in September the site was taken over for use as a Resettlement Centre for Asian refugees who had been expelled from Uganda by its ruler, Idi Amin. A total of 3,169 refugees passed through Stradishall in the seven months it served as a Resettlement Centre. This emergency was largely borne by local authority health staff, many of whom sometimes had to work round the clock.

RAF Honington received the Freedom of the Borough of Bury St Edmunds in 1972 recognising and fostering the close associations with the town since 1937 which had been first recognised when the town "adopted" the station in 1947.

Plans for a 2,000 acre reservoir at Great Bradley were being considered.

The old tradition of free school milk ended in 1972, except for infants.

A long historical introduction went uncredited, but was probably based upon Dr Marcus Bird's work.

Margaret Statham wrote a piece on the life of St Edmund with rather more historical rigour than the Guides had enjoyed in the past.

To deal with part of the traffic problem ,"the most important road proposal now in hand is the replacement of the trunk road A45 which, running through the heart of the town, suffers a continual stream of very heavy container traffic making for or returning from the east coast ports. The new road runs from the east to the west of the town, either alongside the railway line or in place of those sections of line which became disused under the Beeching scheme. Graded interchanges will allow for the linking up with the town roads." The by-pass would open in December, 1973.

In the background the first of the sugar silos at the beet factory is being “slip formed” at the same time. Slip forming is where the builder sets up formwork for concreting, casts a ring, waits for it to go “off” enough and then slides the formwork up using the previously cast section as support. A cylindrical silo is an ideal “subject” for that process.
During 1973 the Bury Sugar Beet Factory became the largest in Europe when two new silos were built. By 1975 it would be processing 6,600 tons of beet every day from late September to the end of January.

With the Town Map amendments now approved, the way was clear for an expansion to 40,000 population. "Much of the land for this purpose lies to the east of the town in what is known as the Moreton Hall site, where, of some 400 acres, about 140 acres have been set aside for housing and about 160 acres for industry." Landscaping was thought to be very important, and so 144 acres were reserved for tree belts, open areas, and the retention of existing woodland belts and coverts.

In other areas of the Borough the town had already outreached its administrative boundary. The Northern Way industrial estate had already had to built within the area of the Thingoe RDC, and was by now well established. New private housing on the south western edge of town, at Horringer Court, was similarly being built just outside the Borough's own boundary. The Horringer Court estate would remain within the parish of Horringer well into the late 1970s.

Britain joined the EEC, some sixteen years after it was set up.

Inflation continued to climb in these first years of the 70's fuelled by international oil price rises. This led to higher wage demands and higher interest rates. During August, rates for money borrowed by local authorities for short term purposes reached 17%. By December even long term rates had peaked at 13% a year.

The Resettlement of Ugandan Asians project at Stradishall was successfully closed down in March 1973, after seven short but hectic months. Over 3,000 people were re-located.

In April, Purchase Tax and Selective Employment Taxes were abolished, but the Value Added Tax was brought in to the consternation of many businesses which had to act as unpaid tax accountants to collect it.

A unique programme of reconstructions of Anglo Saxon dwellings was started at West Stow with the aid of a group of Cambridge students enrolled and directed by Stanley West. They called themselves the West Stow Environmental Archaeology Group. The aim was to explore the techniques of building and woodworking thought to have been used by the early Anglo-Saxons. In August 1973 it was suggested that the best body to oversee the village project would be a trust formed from members of the Borough Council, the County Council and outside experts. It would be called the West Stow Saxon Village Trust.

Official opening of Bury St Edmunds A45 bypass, 1973

Meanwhile West Suffolk County Council was building a link road from a roundabout on Northgate Street to join the A45. This was finished in 1974. The picture shows the central interchange which joins the new roundabout in Northgate Street on the site of the old North Gate. At Tollgate Lane the new A45 road crossed over it at the same point as the recently built underpass to the railway line. The link from Northgate roundabout to the By pass was built by the County Council as Phase two of the scheme to relieve the town centre of cross town traffic.

Robert Boby's engineering works had laid off its production workforce in 1971. A few design staff were kept on at Bury through 1972. Finally it closed its office doors as well at the end of June, 1973, when the remaining design staff were let go. A very few people were transferred with the business to Vickers Engineering, South Marston, near Swindon.

The complete story of Robert Boby Engineering from its beginnings in the early 19th century to its demise can be read here:

The story of Robert Boby Engineering

Meanwhile, across town Phase one of this urban Principal Road scheme came to be called Cullum Road. It crossed the Butts, which were water meadows, and linked Southgate Green to the Butts corner on Westgate Street.

Plans were also being made for the development of the Moreton Hall area with 140 acres of housing, 116 acres for industry and 144 acres of landscaping. At first, much of the housing was designated as Council Houses, but this was never to materialise as circumstances would change so much in the following decade. London was no longer to continue exporting its population, and the finances of council housing would become less economic without the associated government grant aid.

In the Autumn the college of further education at Bury opened its Motor Vehicle Training Centre. The Priory School was opened in Bury for 100 children with special needs.

The Playhouse Bar finally closed, having survived the closure of the Playhouse cinema by some years. This bar had an even longer record as a remarkable survivor. It had been the tap room of the Half Moon inn long before the Playhouse was built, dating back into the days of the coaching inns.

The Chequers pub in Risbygate Street closed in January so that it could be demolished to make way for the Parkway Road. The Chequers originated in the 1820's. This new road would link Westgate Street and the newly finished Cullum Road to Risbygate Street and on to Tayfen Road. Meanwhile, in Kings Road, the Cricketers Inn was closed and demolished as part of the Kings Road/ Parkway roundabout. The Cricketers had been home to the Bury Folk Club through most of the 1960's. The Playfields which had seen cricket,football and swimming over its life was dissected by this new road.

In Risbygate Street there were further demolitions to make way for the new Parkway Road.

Green King now built a new 50,000 square feet wines and spirits store on water meadows behind the Theatre Royal, almost down to the River Linnet. This would win a design award for the use of structural steel in 1975.

In the opening three months of the year Haverhill UDC let its last housing contract to build 306 dwellings on the Chalkstone Estate. All the streets were named after birds. The Council also let a contract for a new swimming pool to be added to the existing indoor sports centre built by West Suffolk County Council. All of these projects would be taken over and completed by St Edmundsbury Borough Council on 1st April to be finished off over the next three years.

Other councils committed projects in their dying days as well. In March 1974 the Borough of Bury St Edmunds entered into a deed of covenant committing its successors to lease the Anglo-Saxon village site to trustees and to allocate the project the sum of £10,000, subject to the setting up of a Trust. The money was to be earmarked from the proceeds of new gravel workings on land it owned, adjacent to the site. It also leased the gravel rights to Amy Roadstone Corporation. In this way the future of the Anglo-Saxon Village reconstruction project was safeguarded, whatever the views of the new councils might be.

The Borough of Bury St Edmunds, its Mayor and Corporation and the office of Recorder of Bury St Edmunds, were all abolished. It was replaced by St Edmundsbury District Council which was made up of the areas of the Borough of Bury St Edmunds, the Urban District of Haverhill, and the two Rural Districts of Clare and Thingoe. There were to be 44 elected Councillors and the unelected post of Alderman was abolished. The town of Bury St Edmunds was divided into 9 wards with 17 Councillors. Haverhill was divided into 5 wards with 8 Councillors, and 19 rural wards were set up with 1 Councillor to each ward. Only the parish councils continued to exist in their old form.

On 15th May the Queen granted a Charter bestowing Borough status on the new district of St Edmundsbury. This status did not include any additional executive powers, but it allowed the office of Mayor, and the ceremonial associated with it, to continue. This status perpetuated the right to have a sword and maces and to appoint "local officers of dignity" - ie sword and mace bearers, and the mayoral traditions continue to this day throughout the enlarged Borough of St Edmundsbury. The Council now needed a coat of arms, and a petition was sent to the Garter King of Arms to obtain approval and a design.

The new St Edmundsbury Borough Council took over responsibility for the Bury markets, and the provision market held in Haverhill on a Friday and Saturday. There was a market held in Clare, but this was run by the Parish Council, and continues to be under their control today. St Edmundsbury lost the power to run a library and this was transferred to the County Council. It also no longer met the expenses of the Coroner's Court.

Under the Water Act 1973, the towns also lost control of the sewage works they owned. The expensive new works at Fornham Park, serving the people of Bury St Edmunds, was transferred to the Anglian Water Authority, together with the outstanding loan debt and all liabilities and assets.
Haverhill's sewage works off Coupals Road was also transferred to the Anglian Water Authority.
The West Suffolk Water Board was also abolished and its water works in Kings Road and the water tower in West Road, all passed to Anglian Water.

The West Suffolk Burial Board was abolished and the powers and duties of burial and cremation passed to the new district and borough councils. The maintenance and upkeep of the Kings Road cemetery in Bury passed to St Edmundsbury Council. At Haverhill, the Urban District Council already ran its own cemetery.

Refuse collection remained a district council function, but disposal of it was removed from them and given to County Councils. This put the future of the West Stow refuse disposal tip and adjacent Anglo-Saxon reconstructions into doubt.

For the first time the eastern boundary of the old Liberty of St Edmund was abandoned. St Edmundsbury was detached from Long Melford and Sudbury which went to Babergh District Council and Thedwastre went to Mid Suffolk D C.

Benwell Fireworks took over the Wizard fireworks factory at Chedburgh.

Despite all the administrative change, Bury's growth was still driven forward by building on the Nowton Estate. The Southgate Church and Community Centre were set up in joint premises. The church was run on ecumenical lines. Just out of town, the girls school at Hengrave Hall closed and the estate was converted into an Ecumenical Retreat and Conference Centre.

The Bury St Edmunds Sports and Leisure Centre was opened in Beetons Way by Sir Alf Ramsey. It had been commissioned by the old Borough council on land owned by the county council, and both councils had worked together to achieve it. Upon opening it was managed by the new St Edmundsbury Borough Council. Its heated indoor swimming pool replaced the old open air pool off Prospect Row, behind Kings Road in the old Playfields, and this was then demolished.

In those heady days of expansion, the town maps of Bury and Haverhill were committed to grow to 40,000 and 30,000 respectively, but the crash would soon make itself felt.

Some of the businesses displayed signs at the entrance.

Despite the severity of the 1968 floods, it took a long time to decide upon the best course of remedial action. There was a public outcry against the idea of demolishing Eastgate Bridge and replacing it with a modern bridge which did less to hold up the river's flow.

By 1975 the banks of the Linnet were strengthened behind Winthrop Road, and large parts of the Lark were dredged out downstream of Eastgate Bridge. In strategic places the banks were lined with concrete to aid water flow out of Bury. A weir was installed just downstream of Eastgate Bridge.

Marlows Builders Merchants finally gave up their premises in Churchgate Street, which they had occupied since 1925. The business moved out to fine new premises in Hollow Road.

The Playhouse Bar, the only remnant of the old cinema of the same name in Bury, finally closed. The Odeon Cinema was renamed as the Focus Cinema, but cinema-going was falling in popularity at this time.

Harry Jarman's son, Oswald, eventually joined him in the business and carried on after Harry's death in 1971. On Oswald Jarman's retirement in 1975 a large number of the early glass negatives were deposited with the Suffolk record office, and were stored in environmentally controlled conditions in the Bury St Edmunds office.

The collection consists of 4000 negatives, and includes the work of Harry and Oswald Jarman, along with photographs taken by William Spanton and his son W S Spanton, and those purchased from John Palmer Clarke. They give a glimpse into life in Bury St Edmunds and a number of smaller towns and villages across the county from the 1860s to the outbreak of WW2.

(Oswald Jarman died in February, 1993, and in 1997 his son donated the negative collection to the Bury St Edmunds Past and Present Society. The Society successfully bid for lottery funding to clean and repackage the collection, and began a programme to digitise and publish the images online.) You can see this collection here:
WWW.burypastandpresent.org.uk

The newly established County Councils were keen to set up archaeology units, and the archaeologists realised that cross-county co-operation would be to their mutual benefit. The Suffolk Archaeological Unit, the Norwich Survey and the Norfolk Archaeological Unit agreed to set up a new joint publication, to be called "East Anglian Archaeology", which would publish periodic reports of the results of excavations and fieldwork. Report Number 1 was published in 1975, and included nine reports and articles on Suffolk. Two reports by R D Carr were on the problem of redundant Suffolk churches, and the archaeological potential of Bury St Edmunds.

By 1975 there were about 2,100 horses in Suffolk, very few of which would be working the land. Even 20 years after tractors became accepted, there were still 26,300 working horses by 1939.

In 1975 there was stagflation and a shortage of oil, but the stock market rebounded 73% in a period of 25 days, following a falling, or Bear , market lasting 3 years.

The weather was extremely dry in 1975, and, in fact, this would herald a severe two year drought.

In his foreword, the chairman of the editorial committee, Harry Marsh, wrote that, (the former councils) "have been united in a Borough covering 162,301 acres with 80,000 inhabitants who, in this progressive age have been left with only one railway station and that under threat of extinction."

Elisabeth Soulsby contributed "A Glance Back at Clare", and W Rayner wrote on the rural areas of Thingoe and rural Clare. Haverhill and District Local History Group gave a piece on that town's past, while William Blake gave the story of Haverhill from 1946 to date.

During 1976 Elizabeth Frink's statue of St Edmund was erected in the Great Churchyard on the green before the West Front ruins.

During 1976 and 1978 there were excavations in the Abbey Gardens at Bury St Edmunds to examine the Queen’s Chamber undercroft by English Heritage which provided evidence of Saxon settlement.

The West Stow Anglo-Saxon Village Trust was formally established to manage the reconstruction site and employ the necessary staff. The Trust inherited three completed huts and a start on the first hall. Up to this date the Council had managed the financing of the archaeology group through a holding account. The Trust now formally controlled its own finances and it was set up with £10,000 from St Edmundsbury Borough Council, £1,000 from Suffolk County Council and £25 from Breckland District Council.

On 30th April, 1976, Bury Town Football Club played its last match at the Kings Road Ground. The result was a two all draw against West Ham United XI. The crowd was put at 1,750. The new Parkway Road would be built across the pitch, and the Parkway car park would be constructed. Bury Town would move to Ram Meadow as tenants of the St Edmundsbury Borough Council.

In Bury the Kings Head public house , on the corner of Brentgovel Street and St Johns Street, closed its doors for the last time. It had been an inn since at least the 18th century. In the 1820's it had been one of the Carriers house of Bury, from which wagons left for London on a twice weekly schedule, stopping overnight along the way. In 1976 the yard still existed, but its main use now was as a home for market traders to store their stalls between market days. Its closure meant that some traders had to make other arrangements to bring stalls in to the market on lorries or vans. A younger clientele was served, however, when the pub was demolished to make way for a branch of Mothercare, providing families with babies and toddlers requirements.

By 1976 the sorry story of the collapse of houses in Jacqueline Close, Bury St Edmunds, had left behind a fenced off area of dereliction. In 1970, a resistivity survey suggested the presence of further mines in the north east of the site. In 1976 the Borough council had decided to buy and clear the site. It would be stripped down to the chalk then geotextile put in place and covered with soil. The site would then become a recreational area and would be periodically monitored for further ground movement.

In 1976 KC135 Tanker operations moved to Mildenhall from Torrejon in Spain. After the dry year of 1975, Summer 1976 had a heatwave and drought lasting for over 3 months with temperatures around 35°C. It was the hottest summer for 300 years, and one million people were put on standpipes. Fires in crops caused losses of £500 million.

Continued high inflation led the government to call for restraint in wage demands. In 1976 Stage one of the government's restrictions were imposed. Workers could only have a £6 a week increase.

In Haverhill, the Sainsbury's store was opened at Jubilee Walk together with the bus station and Brook Service Road car park. The Sainsbury's store is now occupied by Leo's.

A Council contract for 264 dwellings at Chimswell Estate was substantially completed having taken about 3 years, as was a contract for 306 dwellings at Chalkstone. Wratting Road acquired its footbridge overhead.

The old RAF base at Stradishall had attained some fame during 1972 as a transit camp for Ugandan Asians expelled by Idi Amin. In July 1977 Stradishall base became Highpoint Prison and it has been extended and improved as a prison ever since.

But town expansion plans had already begun to falter. Many newly built Council houses in Bury and Haverhill could not find tenants.

At Bury, Tim Brinton's opened at Moreton Hall, one of the first businesses to move into the new commercial area there. Roads and sewers were now being laid prior to the housing developers moving in.

In the older part of the town of Bury St Edmunds, the site of the redundant hospital in Hospital Road was sold to the Royal Masonic Benevolent Association. The old Bristol Annexe, which had been built in 1938, was to be converted to a 50 bed home for old people. St Mary's Hospital was closed down. It had originally been a workhouse, but by this time had become a Geriatric Hospital.

The year 1977 proved to be highly significant for the Bury St Edmunds printing firm of Denny Brothers. During the 1970s Denny Bros Printing was asked by crop science specialist Bayer if it could develop an information leaflet to place on the outside of a product bag, rather than placing it loose inside. The printing firm developed and patented the idea in 1977 and Fix-a-Form was born. By 2012 the UK’s leading brand of multi-page leaflet-labels, Fix-a-Form, would be responsible for employing close to 100 people at Denny Brothers £8 million flagship site in Kempson Way, Bury.

The Bury Town Football Club had been removed from the playfields off Kings Road to the Ram Meadow site in 1976 to allow the new Parkway road to be built to link Cullum Road to Risbygate Street. By 1978 the Parkway was completed, but it lacked a pedestrian walkway on the stretch from Cullum Road to Kings Road.

By contrast the brewer, Greene King was expanding on its limited sites in Westgate Street. In 1978 it built a Draught Beer Store on the water meadows behind the Theatre Royal. This building was south of the 1974 Wines and Spirit Store, just across the River Linnet.

Westbourne Court sheltered accommodation was completed on Wratting Road but only sporadic new council house building would take place after this date in Haverhill until a final contract was let in 1990. The Council sold 5 acres of land at Chalkstone Estate to the Jephson Housing Association to build 96 homes.

At the USAF base at Mildenhall, it was discovered that 10,000 gallons of aviation kerosene had leaked out of an underground pipeline. The fuel was found to be spreading through a layer of porous limestone towards the public water aquifer. About 40,000 people were served by the Beck Row pumping station, and they were warned that they might need to be cut off from the mains supply. Anglian Water Authority quickly laid a new emergency water main. Bore holes were drilled to locate the fuel, and it was eventually pumped out and carried by temporary pipeline three quarters of a mile away to Mildenhall Sewage Works.

In 1979 work began upon the refurbishment of the run down Priors Estate off West Road in Bury St Edmunds. By now it was more financially advantageous to improve existing dwellings rather than demolish and rebuild. Downstairs bathrooms were moved upstairs, replacing one bedroom in most cases. Lounges and kitchens could be enlarged. Originally built from 1928 to 1935 for the needs of large families, by 1979 family sizes were much reduced. Also reflecting this social trend was the decision to build 43 new small flats on the Priors Estate. By 1981 this would require a new street layout which was reflected in a change of names. Perry Road now became known as Ashwell Road, while Perry Close became Beaumont Close. Priors Road became Brocklesbury Walk, while Priors Avenue retained its old name.

Mains water finally arrived at Cattishall hamlet when the council requisitioned the water main from Anglian Water to serve 5 properties. The local well water had become unfit for further use. Cattishall had been well known in medieval times as the site of the King's court outside the Banleuca of the abbey at Bury.

The defunct rubbish tip at West Stow was landscaped and West Stow Country Park was opened to the public in June, 1979. The derelict and dangerous River House had been demolished and the shooting rights were extinguished. The licence to the Motor Cycling Club to run scrambling events had been ended in December 1978. The car park was given a hard surface and the toilet block erected with grant aid from the Countryside Commission.

Margaret Thatcher became Britain's first woman Prime Minister.

In July the USAF at Mildenhall continued their successful Open Days and airshow, begun in 1976. It was now a two day event, but this year it was struck by tragedy. An Italian display team were flying a formation of eight Fiat G-91 fighters, when one aircraft hit a tree and burst into flames. It was only 200 yards from a crowded residential caravan site. This was out of site of the crowds, and the team landed with no announcement of the disaster.

Also in July, the Buccaneers of 216 squadron were based at Honington, but would be disbanded in just under a year.

The old Territorial Army Depot in Kings Road was bought by the Council and by 1983 opened as the Council's vehicle maintenance depot.

The Bank of England's minimum lending rate rose from 14% to 17%, and mortgage rates rose from 12.5% to 15%. High inflation caused high pay demands to continue. Local Government workers won a 9.4% pay rise in July, together with a promise to refer their case to a Comparability Study, following several years of pay restraint in the public sector. The winter of 1979 was to become known as the Winter of Discontent as public sector workers protested against government wage restraint, and the slowness of the enquiry into their pay. Prime Minister Callaghan had tried to again restrict pay increases to 5% in the public Sector.

By the end of this year it was estimated that 29.5 million days had been lost to industrial action during the year.

In 1979, the world's first spreadsheet, called VISICALC, was launched on the Apple II. Suddenly the PC acquired a business raison d'être.

In January, 1980, the public service workers of the water industry, ambulance service, sewerage workers, and refuse collectors were on strike nationwide. The winter of discontent was becoming serious. Eventually a Comparability Study resulted in special increases of 14% backdated to 1st January, 1980. In July the pay wrangles continued and local government pay was taken to arbitration resulting in another award of 13% as from that date.

Thirty eight new flats were built at the Northgate Lodge sheltered accommodation.

During 1981, some important documents relating to the Bury St Edmunds Feoffee's Accounts were discovered by relations turning out a granparents attic in Hampshire. These papers were known to Samuel Tymms in his 1854 History of St Mary's Church, but were unknown to Lilian Redstone in the early 20th century. Somehow they had moved to Hampshire, where they lay unknown for 3 generations. In 2003 these accounts of the Feoffees for the years from 1569 to 1622 would be edited by Margaret Statham for publication by the Suffolk Records Society.

Lands Removals and Furnishings left their Churchgate Street premises in 1981, which they occupied since 1905.

Gravel extraction ceased within the West Stow Country Park area, but continued across the river in the water meadows of Lackford and Flempton. The resulting hole in the ground at West Stow was profiled and landscaped to provide a fishing lake within the country park.

On September 21st the Bury Sports Centre was reopened on the same site following the fire eighteen months before.

Forty one smaller council dwellings were built at Beaumont Close, on the Priors Estate to replace the old pre-fabs of Perry Road and Close. Priors Road was renamed Ashwell Road.

The Housing Act of 1980, coming into force in 1981, gave secure tenants with three years in situ, the right to buy their council house at a one third discount. This legislation was controversial at the time but would lead to a large number of public sector houses moving into the private sector over many years. Over the years the discounts would made more attractive, and it became government policy to encourage private ownership of housing.

Cornwallis Court was opened on the old hospital site in Hospital Road.

The Wheatsheaf, one of the old Bury beerhouses, closed down in 1981. It dated from the late 1850's and was built to serve the new homes being built at that time in the Chalk Lane area of Cemetery Road, or Kings Road as we know it now. It did not get a license to serve any alcohol except beer until 1961.

Plans were afoot to make improvements to these issues, but there was considerable disagreement over the best way forward, with many competing land owners and planning issues to address.

Nearly the whole of December saw thick snow over Suffolk. The road from Haverhill to Bury was sometimes impassable.

By the end of 1981 the minimum lending rate had climbed to 15.5%, been renamed as the Base Rate and reduced again to 14.5%. Mortgage rates were 15% but over the next few years they would slowly fall from these levels.

In late 1981 the BBC micro-computer was launched. It included a built in Basic interpreter, and was aimed at the educational market. Unfortunately the initial demand outstripped supply and there were long delays in delivery. However its various models were very successful in the UK.

By the time Simpson's Flora of Suffolk was published, Simpson knew Suffolk and its plants as few have ever done before or since. The work of half a century of patient recording, it drew on other surveys and recorders, but was mainly Simpson's own work, a fact recognised by the Suffolk Naturalists' Society who published the work and insisted it be called Simpson's Flora.

The Flora included 285 of the author's own colour photographs of flowers in their natural setting, included at Simpson's insistence, and for which he re-mortgaged his house to cover the extra costs.

His obituary by Martin Sanford, published in the Guardian in 2003, described him thus:

In January it snowed again in Suffolk but the two weeks it lasted was much less trouble than the previous December.

Rollerbury was opened on the Station Hill as the National Roller Skate home. At first wildly popular, it would last just under 20 years.

The Register Office in Bury was moved out of Abbeygate Street, from the premises of Gross and Co., to the Shire Hall.

In October of 1982 the Griffin inn finally closed. It stood on the Cornhill corner overlooking the Brentgovel Street junction with St Johns Street. In Bailey's Directory of 1784 it had been one of the four main Bury inns. Pigot's Directory of 1839 put it as one of six major Bury licensed establishments. Like the White Lion nearby it had not been a coaching inn, but was a major Carrier's House because it was next to the Great Market.

In November the council's building DLO had to let 30% of its work by Compulsory Competitive Tendering. This CCT regime as it was called would be continually tightened up and extended into all areas of council work for the next 20 years until it was replaced in 2001 by the Best Value regime.

The Orwell bridge was opened in December 1982 at Wherstead, demonstrating the importance of Suffolk ports as a gateway to Europe by this date. Ipswich could now be by - passed by commercial vehicles as well as private cars to reach Felixstowe and Harwich. The bridge was started in 1979 and was 1.3 kilometres long, with a clearance for shipping up the Orwell of 126 feet. The carriageway was two lanes in either direction.

Britain went to war over the Falkland Islands following their invasion by Argentina.

In May 1982, public limited companies changed their designation from the old "and Co Ltd" to the new "PLC".

Norah Lofts died in Bury in September 1983. Living in Northgate House in Northgate Street, she was a best-selling British author. She wrote over fifty books specialising in historical fiction, but she also wrote non-fiction and short stories. Many of her novels had a Suffolk background and follow the history of a specific house, and the residents that lived in it.
She was born Norah Robinson in Shipdham, in Norfolk, but the family moved to Bury when she was a girl, living in Northgate Street, near Cadney Lane. She became a teacher at the Feoffment Girls' School in Well Street until her marriage to Mr Lofts, a builder. They lived at 8 Southgate Street. She published her first book, called I met a Gipsy, in 1935, and produced one or two books a year until she died.
After Mr Lofts died she married Robert Jorisch, who had come to England in the late 1920's to be manager of the new sugar beet factory in Bury. They lived in Northgate House in Bury.
Norah Lofts also wrote under the pen name Peter Curtis and Juliet Ashley. Several of her novels were turned into films: Jassy was filmed as 'Jassy' in 1947 starring Margaret Lockwood and Dennis Price. You're Best Alone was filmed as 'Guilt is My Shadow' in 1950. The Devil's Own (also known as The Little Wax Doll and Catch As Catch Can) was filmed as 'The Witches' in 1966.

At Beetons Lodge sixty sheltered units were completed and opened by the Mayor, Mrs Barbara Jennings. Fifty five new council dwellings were completed at Ashwell Road.

By 1980 the otter had become a rarity in Suffolk to such an extent that its demise seemed imminent. This decline had been in marked contrast to the position before the Second World War. In 1932 C Ticehurst had noted that "there is hardly a suitable stream and certainly no broad in the County that lacks otter."

The Otter Trust was a registered charity and was founded by Philip and Jeanne Wayre in 1971. In 1975 they purchased River Farm at Earsham near Bungay and set up the Trust's headquarters. In 1983 the Otter Trust in co-operation with the Nature Conservancy Council (now called English Nature) began a reintroduction programme in order to save the otter from extinction in Eastern England and the Midlands. This programme was to prove highly successful and by 1999 the Trust had bred and released almost 120 otters. This programme would save the otter from extinction in lowland England.

Another disastrous fire happened in December, this time in Bury St Edmunds. The Howard Middle School was completely destroyed by a fire overnight, which investigators later found had been caused by a faulty spin drier and a build up of fluff from drying laundry. The school's pupils had to be dispersed to other schools, and eventually the school would be rebuilt and opened within two years. Howard Middle School was first opened in 1972, and after this 1984 fire would reopen in 1986.

Agricultural yields in Suffolk reached a new peak. In the 19th century one acre could grow 16 cwt of wheat. By 1948 this figure had risen to 20 cwt, then rose 50% by 1962 to 30 cwt. This increase took only 14 years, but in only 22 more years it doubled to 60 cwt an acre in 1984. Better strains of wheat, chemical sprays and chemical fertilizers were responsible, but the natural world of birds and insects paid a heavy price. Manpower had been reduced drastically as mechanisation occurred. Only 3% of the workforce was engaged in farming in 1981 compared to 24% in 1901.

This vast over production would lead to the "food mountains" of the European Community and the introduction of set aside land and reduced subsidies on production.

The IBM PC standard was firmly set with the launch of the 16 bit PC AT using an Intel 80286 processor running MS-DOS at 6MHz with 256K RAM, and 1.2Mb 5.25 inch floppy disc. By the year 2000 this architecture remained world standard although it had evolved through many generations. The terms "IBM-compatible" or "IBM clone" were used to describe copies produced by other manufacturers.

Suffolk County Council had put the Manor House on Honey Hill, Bury, up for auction. It had been used for offices by the council since 1947. St Edmundsbury Borough Council had considered buying it for museum purposes, but the current Lord Bristol wished to take the house back into the Hervey family hands. Bristol estates thus purchased the property, built by the First Earl of Bristol around 1737, but out of Hervey hands since the 1780's. There was an informal arrangement that the Earl would refurbish the building and then it might become available to the Borough Council for lease as a museum.

By March, interest rates were low by the standards of the past few years. Money could be borrowed by Local Authorities from the Public Works Loans Board at just under 9% for 25 years.

Local government in London was radically changed when the Greater London Council was abolished. Ken Livingstone had been its leader since 1981 and in 1987 he became MP for Brent East.

On 15th April 1986, 18 USAFE F111F fighter bombers flew from Lakenheath to join 15 A6 and A7 attack planes from the USS America and USS Coral Sea in the Mediterranean to bomb terrorist-related targets in Tripoli and Benghazi. One F111 and its crew of two did not return.

The Borough Council first introduced market regulations. The regulations governed stall location and market discipline and very importantly by this time, controlled the sale of the goodwill of sites. The growth of rival markets, usually disguised as car boot sales, was met by adopting Section 37 of the Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1982 requiring prior notice of such events.

The council's car parks in Bury St Edmunds moved over from barrier control to pay and display to alleviate the troublesome queuing of cars on the roads waiting to get in. The robbery of money from a car park attendant in November also proved the value of the use of machines to collect the cash.

The Bury Society decided to promote the idea of the town being entered for the national "In Bloom" competitions, to promote the use and display of flowers more widely in the town.

In Prospect Row the Duke of Wellington pub, built in the 1840's, closed down. Duke of Wellington and Lord Nelson were at one time the two most popular names for licensed premises. The Iron Duke not only won the Battle of Waterloo, but as Prime Minister in 1830, he abolished the duty on beer, and passed the Beerhouses Act, resulting in many new beerhouses being set up without controls. In Prospect Row the old Duke of Wellington became a Day Centre, and then the home of a mental health charity until it was demolished as part of the Arc shopping centre redevelopment in February, 2007.

Eleven more dwellings were built by the Council at Ashwell Road, in Bury.

In August five pictures were unscrewed from the walls of the Athenaeum and stolen. The thieves were soon caught and the pictures recovered. By chance, they were of little value, but resulted in their replacement by copies.

You can view the plans and information about the new Orttewell Road by clicking here:

Official opening of Orttewell Road, 1987

To link Moreton Hall estate to Bury town centre by foot, a steel footbridge was built over the main A45 road, and an existing old footpath from Shakers Lane was once again linked to town. The old path was upgraded to help cyclists and walkers to gain access through the Vinefields down the school boundary to cross the River Lark into the Abbey Gardens.

Also in April, number 6 Angel Hill, formerly a doctor's house and surgery, was reopened by the Borough Council as its Tourist Information Office. It replaced various temporary solutions such as a portacabin inside the Abbey Gate, and could now be open comfortably all the year round.

In 1987 and 1988 there was an excavation of the area beneath the proposed cathedral extension at Bury St Edmunds carried out by Suffolk County Council Archaeological Unit. This showed that a Saxon road probably ran right through the original abbey precinct linking Northgate Street to Sparhawk Street and thence to Southgate Street. This missing road had long been conjectured by authorities such as Margaret Statham.

In August, Bury won the "England in Bloom" competition for large towns, as joint winner with Crewe. The official launch of Bury in Bloom had only taken place a year ago, sponsored by the Bury St Edmunds Society. This early success would be followed by further triumphs in future years.

Gradually the Playfields site would be cleared of now redundant buildings, and given over to car parking. The largest building was the old electricity power station, built to supply Bury in 1900. Before its demolition in 1987 it had been used as the Council stores.

The Borough offices were now closed for refurbishment. While the Borough Offices was closed, the remaining staff moved into St Edmunds House in Lower Baxter Street. The Mayor's Parlour was located in 8 Angel Hill, also known as Angel Corner. The Mayor shared the premises with the Gershom Parkington clock collection.

During the summer the Council agreed a fifteen point plan for the development of services. This became known as Paper B13A, and was still being referred to fifteen years later as being a significant statement of intent for future council initiatives.

At Lackford, gravel extraction had ceased in some areas, leaving large areas of potentially derelict land behind. One major pit was to become the Sailing lake, leased to St Edmundsbury Borough Council, who in turn sub-let to the St Edmundsbury Sailing and Canoeing Club. An adjacent area which was much shallower, having been used to collect outfall from the gravel washing plant, was acquired by the Suffolk Wildlife Trust. This area became known as the Slough and it was now taken under management as a Reserve for Wildfowl. It would open to the public in 1988.

In May 1987 the railway line from London's Liverpool Street Station to Norwich was electrified. The line passed through Ipswich and Stowmarket and Stowmarket suddenly became within easy commuting distance of London. Stowmarket received an economic boost from this improved link, as did Diss which was also on this line.

In 1987 Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachov signed a treaty to eliminate intermediate range nuclear forces and from 1988 to 1991 all the Cruise Missile wings were inactivated.

The year 1987 was momentous in many ways. On 16th October 1987 a hurricane struck South-Eastern England and millions of trees were destroyed as well as power lines brought down and property seriously damaged.

On the 19th October the Stock Market fell 25% following a similar fall in the USA and the event became known as Black Monday. Wall Street fell 32% in just two months, but the October high would be regained within two years. Although not appreciated at the time, this would lead to falls in other asset prices over the next few years, notably in the price of houses and building land.

Arising from purchases for Town Development, the Council still owned 165 acres of development land and there were indications that it would be directed to dispose of it by the government. In order to avoid such a forced sale, in March 1988 the Council set up the Buryhill Land Company in partnership with a merchant bank called Morgan Grenfell. The company would purchase the land, let contracts to build the infrastructure, and sell it to the private sector in line with its business plan. By June 1988 Base Rates had fallen to 7.5 % and mortgages were at 9.75%. The company's business plan looked secure. It would pay the Council £25.5 million in five annual instalments, in return for 22 acres north of Mount Road and 78 acres south of Mount Road in Bury, 41 acres at Chalkstone Way, Haverhill and 24 acres at Parkway in Haverhill.

The first Visitor Centre was opened at West Stow Country Park and the Anglo-Saxon reconstructions. It immediately attracted a large increase in visitors to the Country Park and the Anglo-Saxon re-constructions. It was operated to serve both the Country Park and the village site.

Just across the river from the country park lay the gravel pits excavated by Amey Roadstone. Part of the now defunct excavations were now opened to the public as a nature reserve. It was managed by volunteers from the Suffolk Wildlife Trust, and was known as Lackford Wildfowl Reserve, as the flooded pits were suitable for ducks, geese and waders. The official opening was undertaken by Bill Oddie in November, 1988, and commemorated by a plaque on the small wooden hut that constituted the wardens' hut at the time.

The refurbished Borough Offices re-opened on June 17th 1988. All the staff in the rented offices at St Edmund's House in Lower Baxter Street now moved back in. Staff also transferred in from the old premises of the Thingoe Rural District Council, called Thingoe House, in Northgate Street. These offices were then sold off, and the lease given up on St Edmunds House.

Wollaston Close on the Howard Estate was extended by 23 new council flats, but elsewhere the demise of council housing was starting to be mapped out.

In Haverhill, the Cangle School closed, although its replacement had been planned since 1972.

In December it was announced that Bury had won the Britain in Bloom category for large towns.

In Bury, serious consideration was given to relocating the Livestock Market to allow for retail redevelopment, and a Cattle Market Redevelopment Working Party was set up. By September it was agreed to build a multi-storey carpark to serve the new development by the process of "Design and Build", and a design competition was launched.

Redwood Gardens were built with 22 sheltered units in Cotton Lane at Bury.

St Andrews Castle in Bury ceased its association with the Roman Catholic School on the site when it was converted into an Active Business Centre. The school moved to modern buildings nearby.

With the Berlin Wall opened in November 1989, the cold war rapidly drew to a close. Haverhill town centre became pedestrianised, and the West Suffolk Crematorium opened at Risby, both being part of the 1987 plan, outlined in Paper B13A.

In July 1988 mortgage interest rates were 9.75%, but by January 1989 they had risen to 13.5%, and in October they rose to 14.5%.
House prices began to fall as repossessed properties flooded on to the market. Other home owners who could still meet higher repayments found that the value of their homes was now less than their mortgage making them unable to move house. The term "negative equity" was coined to describe this financial situation.

The Stock Market fell on 16th October and on 26th October Nigel Lawson resigned as Chancellor of the Exchequer to be replaced by John Major.

The Intel 80486 processor was launched.

The Poll Tax was very unpopular in many circles because of the principal that a manual worker in a council house would pay the same tax as a Duke living in a mansion. The ability to pay was to be tempered by a rebate system, which would push thousands more people into a reliance upon benefits. The new system would prove expensive, bureaucratic and error prone. Resistance would increase over time and result in slogans like this one shown here, painted at great risk, on a local gas holder in Tayfen Road, Bury St Edmunds. (Please click on the thumbnail to see the slogan.)

The Local Government and Housing Act 1990 was also to have a major impact on the capital spending of local authorities and on their Housing Revenue accounts. In the first year, St Edmundsbury began transferring money from the Housing account into the General fund because of the rules of negative housing subsidy. At the same time the Council could spend only 25% of housing capital receipts and 50% of general fund receipts. Capital programmes were soon cut back across the country.

In 1990 the last of the new houses built by St Edmundsbury Borough Council were planned. A contract for 41 dwellings at Chalkstone Way, Haverhill, was arranged by way of a Deferred Purchase agreement with a Merchant Bank, Messrs Morgan Grenfell. Government restrictions on new building and the new housing subsidy arrangements had ended the era of new Council house building. All new social housing after this time would be provided by Housing Associations.

At the same time that Council house building was coming to a stop in April, mortgage interest rates rose from 14.5% to nearly 15.5% and house prices continued to fall through the year.

The Environmental Protection Act of 1990 introduced onerous new duties on local authorities. Highway cleaning was transferred from County Councils to District Councils and the public were given rights to complain about litter and to have a response within a set timescale.

In August 1990 Iraq invaded Kuwait threatening the West's access to vital oil supplies. In response in August 1990 18 of Lakenheath's F111s are deployed to Saudi Arabia as part of Desert Shield. 14 more go in September, 20 in November and 12 in December. Desert Storm began on 16th January 1991.

By 1967 the rake business was bankrupt, and Bradfield Woods were gradually being grubbed up for arable farming. The business and the remaining woodlands were purchased in 1970 by Dr and Mrs J W Litchfield, and the woods passed to the Society for the Promotion of Nature Reserves. The factory was run by the Litchfields for another 5 years, then passing to a Mr Ron Hack, and traded as Whelnetham Woodwork. It was subsequently acquired by a furniture maker, Neville Graydon of Stowmarket, but eventually the factory had to close.

Nowton Park was opened to the public by the Council.

The cathedral of St James opened its new facilities for meetings and conferences, as another step forward in making it fit for the headquarters of the diocese. Called the cathedral centre, it included the Refectory.

By 1990 there was the possibility of using non-invasive Geo-physical techniques to identify sub surface features without any disturbance. This seemed to offer an exciting opportunity for research into the protected areas of the abbey ruins at Bury St Edmunds. A resistivity survey was carried out by English Heritage in the areas of the Infirmary, Abbot’s Garden, Dovecote and the supposed site of a watermill. This plotted traces of walling and other underground features, but was largely disappointing. (English Heritage, Ancient Monuments Laboratory Report 100/1990, Author, Payne A W).

The English Heritage summary is as follows:

"This report describes a resistivity survey which was conducted in the grounds of Bury St. Edmunds Abbey in the areas of the Infirmary, Abbot's Garden, the Dovecot and the reputed site of a mill. The findings indicate that extensive buried foundations of walls and buildings are likely to be present in many of the areas investigated. Although the geophysical response was good, the definition of precise structural patterns was not particularly clear."

Through the summer, the rains kept away, and 1990 became another year of drought, something which would typify the most of the coming decade.

In October, Britain joined the European Exchange Rate mechanism at 2.95 deutsche marks to the pound. The rate of inflation was 10.9%, and the Chancellor of the Exchequer was Mr John Major. At the time, this was thought a bold and decisive move to help the economy converge with those of Europe. The exchange rate then had to remain within 6% of the average of all the EEC currencies, known as the Snake. The Base Rate was immediately brought down from 15% to 14%.

Mrs Thatcher resigned as Prime Minister in November 1990.

In December the rate of inflation was 9.7% as John Major became Prime Minister. This was also the year when the Japanese economic miracle began to fail. Over the next twelve years the Nikkei Index would fall 76%, and much of Japan's economic performance for many decades was shown to have structural weaknesses.

In 1991 the St Edmundsbury Museum service prepared an exhibition of the work of Sybil Andrews. She was born in Bury in 1898 above Andrews and Plumpton's hardware shop at the top of Abbeygate Street. In 1922 she went to London, and in 1947 had emigrated to Canada. Christopher Reeve, the council's Fine Art Curator, wrote the accompanying commentary to the exhibition, called "Something to Splash About." Some of her pictures and Lino-cuts were displayed at Angel Corner, the council's clock museum at the time. Sybil Andrews wrote the introduction, sending a letter from her home in Canada. She died there in December, 1992, aged 94.

Operation Desert Shield became Desert Storm, the start of the Gulf War, on 16th January 1991. F111F's of 48th Tactical Fighter Wing from Lakenheath destroyed dozens of hardened shelters and tanks before the ceasefire on 28th February 1991.

Following continued public disquiet over the Community Charge the budget included provision to cut £140 from each bill. This was paid for by an increase in VAT from 15% to 17.5%. It was also announced that the Community Charge would be abolished and replaced by the Council Tax. Mortgage interest relief was also restricted to the basic rate of tax and tax was increased on lease cars by 20%. Inflation fell to 8.9% in February and interest rates were also cut. Base Rate was 14% in January and fell to 10.5% by December.

Bury's population recorded in the census for this year was now 32,774, an increase of 12,718 or 63% since 1951.

In January, 1991, St Edmundsbury Borough Council accepted a proposal by local people for the conversion of the derelict allotment gardens at Spring Lane, Bury St Edmunds, into a local nature reserve. Volunteers would clear the site of brambles, rabbit netting, fencing and old metalwork. The Spring Lane Wildlife Trust was duly established in February to allow four Trustees to hold the lease of the land. British gas would later make a grant to enable some contract work to be undertaken.

In April 1991, the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) moved its national headquarters from Tring in Hertfordshire to The Nunnery at Thetford. The BTO had existed since 1932, aiming to carry out scientific research into the birdlife of Britain. The freehold of the old nunnery, together with 10 acres of lawns and woodland had been donated to them by Mr John Rudrum of Australia. The property had been a farm for many years, as the nunnery closed by 1539. It is located on the banks of the River Little Ouse at Three Nuns Bridges. Parts of the medieval Benedictine Nunnery of St George still survived on this site, although a massive £1.5 million programme of refurbishment was needed to convert the property into suitable offices, while retaining its historic features.

The Norman Tower and Abbey Gate were cleaned of centuries of grime and dirt to reveal details new to late 20th century eyes. Abbeygate Street was closed to traffic on market days (Wednesday and Saturday) from 6am to 6pm. These were all part of the 1987 fifteen point plan made by the Council. Alwyne House was opened as a Tea room in the Abbey Gardens at Bury. In May, the first Milk Race was held in Bury for international cyclists.

In Churchgate Street the refurbishment and conversion of the Unitarian Chapel was completed. It could now be let out for public functions as well as continuing as a place of worship.

In Kings Road the Butchers Arms closed in August. This pub had been built in 1839, when Kings Road was called Field Lane, and it was practically a country inn. It was a favourite place for Boby's workers to drink when that great engineering works was in full swing.

In October the "Twizzler" in Raingate Street also called time for the final occasion. Properly called the "Rutland Arms", this inn had been called the Globe up to 1878, when it enjoyed a spinning globe as its sign. Curiously the old name had hung on in local usage up to the present time.

Bury opened its multi-storey car park on Parkway in October 1991. The charge was 40p for a day's parking. It was located east of the Parkway Road in order to retain the cattle market site for possible retail development. The idea was that it would then serve the new shops. Because the development did not happen, the multi deck never achieved its full potential, only filling up on the most busy days of the year, such as half term holiday Wednesdays. Its charges would remain low to make it attractive, as the existing parking was to remain, and be increased over the next dozen years.

On 6th October, 1991, Bury St Edmunds Golf Club officially opened their new 9 hole course. This had been financed by the sale of Heath Farm buildings, and begun in 1988. The dry summer had delayed its opening until the Autumn. This course would become very successful for beginners, and those who wished to avoid the very busy main 18 hole course.

The Warsaw pact disbanded in July 1991 and the Soviet Union itself dissolved five months later. Civil War began in Yugoslavia.

In January the Bury Leisure Centre was re-opened with a new leisure pool, flumes, fitness suite and sauna rooms.

At Hardwick Heath a block of changing rooms were built for the use of local football teams playing on the Heath pitches.

In West Road, the Plymouth Brethren re-opened their modernised and enlarged church.

In February 1992 the 100th Air Refuelling Wing was set up at Mildenhall made up of the 513th TAW merged with SAC's 306th Strategic Wing which was deactivated. Still known as RAF Mildenhall, this base covers over 1,000 acres and the main runway is over 3,000 yards long.

The F111's were to leave the 48th Fighter Wing at Lakenheath during 1992 and the last one left in December 1992.

Lakenheath now flies the F15E fighter planes with the distinctive twin tails. The first F15E in Europe come to Lakenheath in February 1992. 48 in total were delivered up to May 1994 to the 48th Fighter Wing.

In April, 1992, the Conservatives won the General Election, against all earlier predictions. Mr Richard Spring was elected MP for Bury St Edmunds, replacing Sir Eldon Griffiths, who retired following 28 years as Bury's MP.

Base Rates had fallen to 10.5%, and were cut to 10% in May. By July the Retail Prices index was only 3.9%. The Local Government pay award was 4%, a level not exceeded for the next decade.

In June 1992 the Borough council repaid all its remaining borrowings of £11.3 millions to obtain debt free status. It had been reducing debt for the last decade by a steady annual process, which speeded up in more recent times. This final move was to avoid Government rules to set aside half the proceeds of all sales of property, rather than re-invest it all in new infrastructure as the Council desired. The repayment of relatively cheap loans allowed the council to receive a discount of nearly £600,000 on the deal.

In June the government announced a rolling review of the organisation of local authorities, with a presumption towards unitary, or all-purpose, councils being set up. There were to be 5 tranches, with Suffolk in Tranche 4. The review was to be finished by 1996, and the new councils all in place by 1998.

The Buryhill Land Company ceased trading. This company had been set up by St Edmundsbury Borough Council in 1988 to buy all the Council's undeveloped land. The continued depressed prices for housing land following a slump in house prices made the company's future untenable. Because the council had repaid all of its loan debt, to obtain debt free status, this allowed it to buy back the remaining land holdings of the company. In Haverhill, the Council re-acquired 28.6 acres at Chalkstone and 22.15 acres at Parkway. In Bury there were 38.7 acres south of Mount Road, and 0.64 acres north of that road.

If you are interested in the full story of Sybil Andrews you can view a comprehensive summary of her life and work here:-

Shortcut to Sybil Andrews Page

In Haverhill the East Town Park was opened and the Sports Centre got two giant water slides.

In Bury St Edmunds, there was controversy over plans by Bloor Homes to build on 67 acres of land at Tayfen, off Spring Lane on land partly occupied by the former Greyhound Racing Stadium. Local residents objected to the scale of the proposals, and wanted the council's allotment land to be converted into a local nature reserve. The development plans were blocked by the Environment Secretary, but an informal start was made on managing the old allotments as a nature reserve. This became the Spring Lane Wildlife Area which was managed by the Spring Lane Wildlife Trust on the basis of a “Tenancy at Will”. Bloor Homes would make a new application for housing within a few years time.

The economy broke out of recession but things remained difficult for many individuals and families. Negative equity following a fall in house prices continued to hold things back. Many individuals had their homes repossessed, when the value of them had fallen to less than the mortgage owed on them.

In 1990 Chancellor of the Exchequer, John Major, had joined the European Exchange Rate Mechanism at what came to be regarded as too high a rate for the pound. Disaster struck on 16th September, 1992, when international traders started to sell pounds. The lower level against the DM within the Snake was DM2.778. Market forces were pushing it towards 2.40. Interest rates were raised twice in one day from 10% to 15% until UK membership of the ERM was suspended at 7.30 pm that night, and the base rate cut back again to 10%. This became known as Black Wednesday. The currency speculator George Soros is said to have profited by $1 billion by betting against the pound.

Despite this crisis, the rate of inflation had fallen from 10.9% in October 1990 to 3.6% in September 1992. In the next three months interest rates were cut three times to end the year at 7%. This experience would sour the British view of possible European Monetary Union for a decade.

In October the Parkway Car park was closed when a clock box was seen in a paper bag under a car near where RAF personnel were parked. The Colchester bomb squad damaged the car when a controlled explosion was set off to make safe the suspect package.

Also in October, the St Edmundsbury Borough Treasurer was suspended from office, and later dismissed.

The 27th February, 1992 was the date that Barry Clutterham, aged 47, was shot by the police in Pigeon Lane at Fornham All Saints. A policeman had been shot, and there had been a car chase ending in the lane. Locally known as Crusher Clutterham, a correspondent wrote, "having become known as a loveable rogue with "form" over the whole of his life from a dreadful and disturbed childhood, he was shot and killed by the Police after firing at Police Officers with a sawn off shotgun."

A fuller report is as follows:

On 1st April the Community Charge was abolished following various campaigns including public disorder. The Poll Tax, as it was universally called, had only lasted for three years from 1st April, 1990 to 31st March, 1993. It was replaced by the Council Tax based upon bands of property values, paid by the householder. Unlike the Community Charge, people on low incomes could qualify for 100% relief, owing nothing at all. Property Bands went from A to H, the top band being for properties over £320,000 in value. This band was not included in the original plan, but was added following protests that band G for properties over £160,000, was not a fair upper limit. However, the system of a nationally set Business Rate was to continue, and local councils were permanently deprived of a direct financial link to the success of local business.

During May, the Bury Free Press began to use colour pictures regularly as a feature of its front page. Provincial newspapers were ahead of the national papers in their innovative use of colour photography.

In March the post of Borough Treasurer at St Edmundsbury was redesignated Director of Finance and put out to national advertisment. The author of this chronicle was appointed to this post on 1st June, having been Acting Borough Treasurer since January.

Big changes were happening in the world of further education. The West Suffolk Technical Institute was removed from the control of the Local Education Authority, the Suffolk County Council, and became a self governing Trust. It changed its name to the West Suffolk College.

Angel Corner, or to use its postal address, number 8 Angel Hill, now became the offices supporting the Mayor, including the Mayor's Parlour. Other space was also used as offices by the Borough Council, but this use on upper floors became much restricted by Fire Regulations.

After years of campaigning, Haverhill's new southern bypass was started in August. The work revealed 1st century Roman brooches and some iron age finds. There was flooding in October and, more significantly, a complete renovation programme was started on the Town Hall. Haverhill Sports Centre was refurbished with health and fitness areas and a soft play zone.

In September, the St Edmundsbury council's Transport and Works Committee agreed to build a new bus station to serve the town. Following the deregulation of buses, the old bus station by Moyse's Hall had been sold for redevelopment. Bus companies were now under no obligation to provide facilities for passengers to be picked up, and so the council decided to step in.

In November St Edmundsbury decided that it would ask the Local Government Commission to support a West Suffolk Unitary Authority in our area. Suffolk County Council supported the status quo of a two tier county.

By December the retail prices index had fallen to only 1.9%, an incredibly low level compared to three years earlier.

In 1993 the twin bases at RAF Woodbridge and Bentwaters were returned to the British.

In June, St Edmundsbury Borough Council Council decided not to proceed with the redevelopment of the Cattle Market site. The size of the project was raising public concerns, the relocation of the livestock market to a new site could not achieve agreement, and there were demands for another multi storey carpark to be built on the GPO Sorting Office site.

The Sunday Trading Act 1994 came into force in July. This allowed small shops unlimited opening hours on Sundays. Large shops were restricted to 10am to 4pm on Sundays.

The red meat inspection service was transferred from local government to a new central authority.

At Moreton Hall there had been great development of private housing, industry and commerce. Some major shopping outlets were now located here, and a new Anglican parish was established. Christ Church was set up by the Church of England, but run on ecumenical lines.

The Buryhill Land Company was officially put into liquidation by its owners although it had ceased trading in 1992. It achieved a solvent liquidation with a net profit after tax of £16,788, but most importantly the Council was able to contribute £922,000 to the Haverhill by-pass construction by Suffolk County Council on 1st June 1994. The income from the company had also contributed to pedestrian priority measures, the new East Town Park and the refurbishment of the old Town Hall in Haverhill. Phase I of the bypass was finished in June. The Town Hall reopened in time for a pantomime in December. It was named the Town Hall Arts Centre following a public competition to choose a name. A partnership began with the NRA to develop the West Town Park at Haverhill.

In 1994 the RAF Regiment took up residence at RAF Honington. Their battle role is to secure forward bases which can then be used by aircraft and to provide the necessary defence and security once acquired. After a time a specialist Chemical, Biological and Nuclear defence unit was established here.

Lakenheath's F15 fighters were sent to Italy to help enforce the no-fly zone in Bosnia.

In December, the Base Rate moved up when it rose from 5.75% to 6.25%, and the RPI rose from 2.6% to 2.9%.

During 1994 the National Lottery began with the aim of generating new funds for good causes.

The Channel Tunnel was also opened that year.

Wickhambrook is unusual in its layout, having hamlets around eleven separate greens, spread over twenty square miles. It includes five old manorial centres around the Halls of Giffords, Clopton, Badmondisfield, Butlers and Gaines. Being so isolated, many side roads in the area were unsurfaced until the late 1940s, electricity did not arrive until 1953 and mains drainage came to a fortunate few in 1970.

Valuable photographs were also sent in, such as that for the front cover, showing 'Squibbie' Murkin and 'Waters' Alcock, outside the 'Sizzle', (Walnut Tree Pub) in 1946. Older residents usually had such nick-names, often originating from childhood. Many of these men were grateful that Justin Brooke had come to Clopton Hall farm in 1928 and employed a large number of locals. Brooke had twenty applications from out of work farmhands in his first weeks. His soft fruit, apples and dairy business made Wickhambrook an oasis of relative prosperity for a generation of local farm labourers. Justin Brooke was, by this time, a fond memory as he had died in 1963. His wife Edith carried on the farm until her retirement in 1977. It remains in the family.

Barings Bank collapsed in February 1995, following losses of £860 million caused by unauthorised trading in the Far East. A new term of Rogue Trader was invented to describe these type of activities by individuals within investment firms.

St Edmundsbury's Environmental Health Department was merged with the Housing Department in April. The Works department was split up so that Housing Maintenance also joined the new Environmental Health and Housing Department.

Compulsory Competitive Tendering of Council Services moved up a gear following the demise of local government reorganisation. A wider range of services came under the rules including Personnel, IT and Finance.

In 1995 Alconbury closed after 53 years of US flying presence. Later that year Chicksands was returned to the British after 45 years in US hands.

In April the new Police Authorities were set up, taking them away from being a committee of the County Councils, and thus the Suffolk Police Authority was created.

In May, the four-yearly elections for St Edmundsbury Borough Council produced its first ever Labour party majority. The new Leader of the Council was a Haverhill Councillor, a significant event for that town.

In May 1995 it was the 50th anniversary of VE Day and St Edmundsbury Borough Council organised a weekend of free events to mark the occasion. The War Memorial on the Angel Hill in Bury was refurbished and put into a new setting, with flower beds and a paved surround. Gradually the whole of the Angel Hill was improved each year.

Celebrity cricket started at the Victory Ground in Bury.

In November 1995, St Edmundsbury Borough Council entered into a local management agreement with English Heritage, whereby the council took over managing the guardianship area of the Abbey Gardens at Bury St Edmunds, for a period of five years. The agreement was extended a further ten years thereafter and was again due for renewal in 2011. English Heritage make an annual financial contribution towards the Council's cost of upkeep of the area under this agreement.

By December 1995, the Prospect Row carpark was turned from a rough cleared site to a high quality carpark when it was completely tarmaced and properly laid out. It had previously been the council's depot before the move to Western Way in 1987, but the site had only been cleared to ground level, leaving a rough hoggin surface, with plenty of rough edges.

Bury's rather run down Railway Station facade was cleaned and repointed. However, the interior, which was still operationally part of British Rail, stayed in its shabby state.

In 1995 the St Edmundsbury Council introduced a scheme to collect garden and kitchen waste free of charge to householders. This was undertaken by using a 240 litre brown coloured wheeled bin to distinguish it from the black bins already in use for household refuse. This was to meet recycling targets and to reduce waste entering scarce landfill sites. Also there was DEFRA funding available to help finance these changes.

Less welcome was the closure of the Suffolk Hotel, a well known meeting place by day and night, and its replacement by two shops. The Suffolk had got its name when the inn was rebuilt in 1833. Before this time it had been called the Greyhound and there is a document of 1539 recording that Thomas Browne rented "le greyhounde" in that year. In its heyday it had been one of the town's leading coaching inns, and post houses, perhaps even greater than the Angel and the Bell.

The eight page glossy History contained 35 colour pictures of the buildings and monuments around the Churchyard. It was a valuable guide for visitors, and pointed out many of the often overlooked features of interest within the precinct. Parking restrictions within the area had contributed to transforming it into the tranquil oasis of calm which had been desired.
You can view this leaflet by clicking on the thumbnail.

Ridley's Grocers shop in Abbeygate Street closed in October 1996, citing the high levels of Business Rates in town centres as its reason. Although there had been a grocer's shop on this site, on the corner of Angel Lane, since around 1700, food items were now mainly bought from massive stores like Sainsbury's and Tesco in out of town locations. Land costs were lower, free parking could be offered on site, and rating valuations per square foot were lower in such places. The large numbers who used them allowed massive economies of scale in management and purchasing power, thus reducing consumer prices to levels at which smaller shops could no longer compete. Waitrose supermarket had even arrived on the edge of town centre, on the old Boby's site, off St Andrews Street, competing directly with the specialist quality foods sold at Ridleys, and also competing for the custom of the non-car users within the town centre itself.

Also in October, St Edmundsbury Borough Council began using Document Image Processing for the management of the paperwork involved in the collection of Council Tax and Business Rates. It was thought that this technology would be widely adopted throughout the council, but this did not happen except for Benefits processing, also within the Finance Department.

By the end of 1996 the USAFE had only 246 planes in Europe, its lowest ever level.

In February the Council's Planning Committee selected the Parkway Carpark as the site best suited to the quick achievement of a multiplex cinema. In April a developer was selected by competition. This development was universally welcomed by the people of Bury except for bitter opposition from residents in Chalk Road and other streets quite close nearby.

Nationally, the Labour Party won the General Election by a landslide in May and within four days the Chancellor of the Exchequer handed over his power to set the Base Rate to the Bank of England's new Monetary Policy Committee.

British Railways was privatised by the government, following a long process over several years. Various regional companies were set up, but the track itself was sold to a seperate body called RailTrack, who would sell its usage to the railway operators. Anglia Railways now runs the passenger services at Bury.

St Saviours Hospital ruins were opened to the public in June, a joint initiative of Tescos development, Suffolk Archaelogical Service and St Edmundsbury Council.

St Edmundsbury had also already begun to provide its leading councillors with e-mail facilities using the text based ICL Officepower office automation product used throughout the council. At this point the council was ahead of many others in its use of IT, but the market was to become dominated by Microsoft's products, which would eventually leave the council's e-mail system isolated and more and more incompatible with other users.

In August the New Inn in Northgate Street closed. The New Inn was new in 1863, and it was opposed by the four other pubs in the vicinity. However, it was welcomed by the magistrates as it was built on a derelict site, considered to be an eyesore at the time.

The Intel Pentium MMX processor was launched in January. 56K modems became the norm. By June the Pentium II processor was launched and Windows 98 was released.

In December the refurbished Haverhill Bus Station was opened with new shelters and layout.

In January the Haverhill Friday Market was returned to the Market Square but traders staged a boycott on its first day. After that, things returned to normal.

Early in the year the Lord Chancellor's Department rejected appeals against the proposed closure of Magistrates' Courts in Haverhill, Newmarket and Stowmarket.

In January Lacy Scott started a Monday livestock market to replace the market they were forced to close at Wickham Market, in East Suffolk.

In June 1998, the Banbury Cattle Market closed after 800 years. In August, following a drop in cattle sales caused by the BSE crisis, and a disastrous fall in pig prices, Lacy Scott gave up the lease on Simpson's market area in Bury and the Council demolished it to provide 80 car park spaces in time for Christmas. A new Cattle Market Redevelopment Working Party was set up in April to discuss the whole future of this site again. In December, Lacy Scott and Knight announced the complete closure of the livestock market in Bury St Edmunds, and they gave up their lease of the Council's pig pens and lorry wash. Not only were economic factors in play, but throughout the year animal rights protestors had harried the operators and the council about the market. The so-called "Deadstock" market still remained open, but 370 car parking spaces now became available to the general public every Wednesday.

In June, a set of pay data was published which led base rates to be raised to 7.5%. This data became discredited and in October interest rates were reduced by one quarter per cent, a half per cent in November and another quarter in December to 6.25%.

Fifteen F15 fighters left Lakenheath for Italy to support airstrikes against Serbia in an attempt to halt ethnic cleansing in Kosovo.

By 1998 the fear of a "Millenium Bug" in computer systems across the world was being taken more and more seriously. The fear was that computers had been programmed to use only two digits to define the year in any date, and that 00 would cause errors to occur. It was also feared that the machines would fail to calculate that the year 2000 was a leap year, as in most centuries it was not.

In Haverhill bollards had to be erected at Queens Street to enforce the pedestrianisation, which motorists had been ignoring.

An important part of the information superhighway was completed when contractors laid a trunk cable from London to Haverhill, Bury, Diss, Lowestoft and across the Channel to the continent to create a giant loop. They passed through St Edmundsbury from September to December. The BBC also started transmission of digital television, taking space in the On Digital Terrestrial service, and on Sky.

During 1998 the Cathedral Appeal was launched to raise £10 million to complete the Cathedral extensions, and the Tower in particular. The Patron of the appeal was Prince Charles.

With nostalgia and interest in the past increasing, Mary Basham published this book of old pictures and postcards from Bury St Edmunds. Mary Basham had long written a column in the Bury Free Press and its sister publications, and her descriptions of each picture flow with journalistic ease. Many of the details mentioned were gleaned from her contributors to her newspaper columns, and to her radio series on the former Saxon Radio.

Most of the European Community had entered into European Monetary Union on 1st January. Britain decided not to join until economic conditions were right, and following a referendum.

On May 6th, the Borough elections, held every four years, returned a Conservative majority. Haverhill continued to be strongly Labour.

In Haverhill the old Cangle School was re-opened under a new name in September 1999. The Cangle Project was now called the Cangle Junction and offered supported housing, employment and training opportunities to young people aged 16 to 25 in housing need. The Junction included a cyber cafe with four internet computers offering free internet use to all. The project was run by English Churches Housing Group.

In September, St Edmundsbury Council acquired the old Cleales site behind the south side of Haverhill High Street to improve the infrastructure of the town. A bandstand was opened at Haverhill Town Park, also called the Recreation Ground.

Bus services were criticised in Haverhill, but there were hopes for a new railway study of a Cambridge-Haverhill-Sudbury link.

Interest rates were progressively reduced so that by June, they were at 5%. House prices responded by rising significantly in favoured areas, particularly London, while in some places in the North some streets were being left empty or houses sold at ridiculously low prices.

Two judicial review hearings overturned the Borough Council decisions on granting planning permission for a brewery access road across the Butts, and the granting of planning permission for a multiplex cinema. Both planning applications were re-submitted. However in December a second judicial review was launched against the cinema application.

Greene King shut down its in-house malting operation in Westgate Street. By 2004 the site would be redeveloped as luxury dwellings.

The Intel Pentium III processor was launched.

In December the news came that the Borough had been declared a Beacon Council for Sustainable Development - Dealing with Waste, for its work on recycling domestic waste.

The Anglo Saxon Chronicle had recorded the death of a Bishop Alfhun at Sudbury in 798, and his subsequent burial at Dunwich. This mention of Sudbury places it as one of the oldest recorded towns in the country. To celebrate their 1,200 years of history, the town erected a statue of Alfhun on the Croft, by St Gregory's Church, in 1999. It was sculpted in 1998 by Alan Micklethwaite, a stone carver at Lincoln Cathedral.

During December the Old Cannon Brewery was opened in Cannon Street. This was in the premises of the St Edmunds Head pub, which had closed in 1994. It was now a pub and restaurant, with the added feature of a Micro-Brewery, located in view of customers, where their own beer could be brewed.

The Otter Trust was a registered charity and was founded by Philip and Jeanne Wayre in 1971. In 1975 they purchased River Farm at Earsham near Bungay and set up the Trust's headquarters. In 1983 the Otter Trust in co-operation with the Nature Conservancy Council (now called English Nature) began an otter reintroduction programme in order to save the otter from extinction in Eastern England and the Midlands. This programme was to prove highly successful and by 1999 the Trust had bred and released 117 otters. This programme saved the otter from extinction in lowland England, and by 1999 it was deemed such a success that the Otter Trust stopped its captive breeding programme and stopped the further release of otters into the wild.

A basic personal computer at the start of the year 2000 consisted of a Pentium III processor running at 600MHz with 128 Megabytes of RAM, a fixed hard disc of 12 to 20 Gigabytes, DVD and CD-ROM drives and a built in modem, and a sound system with speakers, running Windows 98 second edition operating system. The price is typically £1,200 and the pace of change in personal computing and the spread of e-commerce on the internet and the uptake of the world-wide-web became extremely rapid and widespread in 1999 and 2000.

The internet was still being held back by the one aspect which did not advance for several years. This was the restricted speed of the telephone lines when using acoustic modems limited to 56kbs. No matter how much the desktop PC improved, the speed of access to websites remained the same.

Every month seemed to bring new announcements of faster machines. In February, Windows 2000 was launched and in March AMD announced that it now had 1000 MHz, or 1 Gigahertz, Athlon processors available. However, the US Justice Department declared, following a long trial, that Microsoft had abused its dominant market position to harm other software suppliers like Netscape. Such was the importance of the internet now judged to be by the government, that it announced that 100% of government transactions would be electronically available by 2005.

Along with this development was a demand to own shares in "High - Tech" companies who, it was thought, would make fortunes out of the demand for more and more computing power. Share prices rose, driven by what we now call the "technology bubble". The Dow Jones index had reached a peak of 11,723 by January 14th, 2000.

In Bury, a skateboard park was opened at Olding Road. The project had been initiated and largely designed by a committee of young people, and funded in partnership with the Council.

A new Community Centre was opened at Moreton Hall financed by lottery funding together with Council money.

In March, 2000, the old established hardware store of Andrews and Plumptons closed its doors for the last time. It had been in Guildhall Street from 1862 until 1988, when it was decided to downsize to the shop in St Andrews Street, (South). This shop was now forced to close by continued competition from the DIY superstores on edge of town locations.

In Bury, work began on building a new tower for the Cathedral.

At Bury, the firm of Marlow and Co was contributing to this growth by investing over £1 million in a state of the art production facility for timber framed houses, with a capacity of 1,000 houses a year. Plans were laid to expand to 4,000 a year.

The old pig sheds on the ex-Livestock market site in Bury were demolished and replaced by 103 new car parking spaces. As if to seal the fate of the livestock market, the old Market Tavern, at the top of Risbygate Street, was turned into a wine bar called Number Three. The Market Tavern is traceable back to a document of 1674, and seems to have been called the Wagon until the 1920's.

Planning permission was granted to Greene King for the second time to build a short access road across the Butts to Cullum Road. The first permission was quashed by the High Court following a judicial review hearing. This development led to some excavation work prior to building the road.

Bury St Edmunds had produced no evidence of any occupation in the Roman period, until these excavations in 2000 found some remains off Cullum Road. A ditch was discovered after topsoil was removed which proved to be 1.2 metres deep and 2.5 metres wide which ran parallel to the River Linnet and 100 metres from it. It contained sherds of Roman era pottery from the late 3rd to the 4th century, including black burnished ware and Nene valley ware. Together with animal bones, it represented the first clear evidence of Roman settlement within the area of the town of Bury St Edmunds. (Excavation reference BSE 187.)

Meanwhile, Greene King continued to expand. In 2000 the firm acquired Morlands Brewery in Abingdon, also acquiring the rights to make Morlands well respected beer called "Old Speckled Hen". This brew would become a major feature in Greene King's portfolio of beers, selling well as a bottled beer, as well as from the barrel.

After this the only remnant of Boby's works would be their main office on St Andrews Street which was the Careers Office and in 2015 remains as a public service building.

In May hot weather followed by heavy rain and thunderstorms caused flash floods in Sudbury and Haverhill as well as other parts of Suffolk. July was characterised by heavy rains and local flooding in Bury.

John Saunders produced this history of the school entitled "Ahead of its Time" in 2018.

The Local Government Act of 2000 would change the way in which all councils took decisions in future. The committee system had been in operation since the 19th century, but would be replaced by either a system of elected mayors or a system of Leader and Cabinet. Councils had to carry out this change by May 2002.

News was also received that objectors to the planning permission for the multiplex cinema at Parkway were refused leave to appeal. However, they soon scheduled another High Court hearing for November.

Also in August the pig industry in Suffolk was struck by an outbreak of classical swine fever. Exports of pig meat were banned.

September produced another national crisis when on the 7th a blockade of fuel depots was started by a coalition of hauliers and farmers groups, protesting against the escalating cost of road fuel. Fuel protests spread with popular support and shortages soon arose, resulting in considerable disruption to ordinary life within a surprisingly short time. Local authorities were asked to supply volunteers to man the few petrol stations where petrol would be made available to essential workers. When the government agreed to consider a reduction in fuel duty, the protests ended, but the vulnerability of the economy to such shocks had been quickly exposed by this action.

Heavy rains in October and November led to widespread flooding on a national scale. West Suffolk fortunately escaped the wide-scale disaster with only fairly local inconvenience.

Bloor homes submitted plans for a revised development of 163 houses at Tayfen Meadows, off Spring Lane. It also provided for 10 acres of open space. This development was accepted and work could now commence on land once occupied by the Greyhound Stadium, which closed in 1996.

The Human Rights Act came into force in October.

From 1982 to 2000 the rising, or Bull, stock market had been the longest such run in history. A slight fall back in December would lead to a long decline over the next two years.

Photography of Museum exhibits and pictures by Graham Portlock

Books consulted
"The Book of Bury St Edmunds" by Margaret Statham.
"Yesterdays Town" by Margaret Statham
"The Sacred and Profane History of Bury St Edmunds" by Peter Bishop
" A History of Suffolk" by David Dymond and Peter Northeast
Borough of St Edmundsbury Official Guide 1976 edition.
"Bury St Edmunds - a photographic history" by Clive Paine
The River Lark Navigation, unpublished manuscript by D E Weston in West Suffolk Record Office c1980
The Lark Navigation by D E Weston, 1980
Lord Bristol's Amazing Steam Venture by D E Weston, 1981
Bury St Edmunds and the Urban Crisis, 1290 - 1539 by Robert S Gottfried, 1982
"Chevington" by Frank Cooper 1984
"Greene King, a Business and Family History", by Richard G Wilson, 1983
"Bury St Edmunds Past and Present" by Robert Halliday.
"Sutton Hoo through the rear view Mirror" by Robert Markham
'A Century of Service' by Suffolk County Council, 1989
"Women on the Land" by Carol Twinch, 1990
"Lost Railways of East Anglia" by Leslie Oppitz, 1999
"The Story of Bury St Edmunds Golf Club" by Michael Sibley and Roy Christie, 1999
"Old Inns and Beerhouses of Bury St Edmunds" by Gerry Nixon 1996 and 2002
"Wings over Westley" by Frank Whitnall, 2004
"Around Bury St Edmunds" by Robert Halliday 2004
"A Blight at the End of the Tunnel" by Derek Pole, (Brian Cross), 2007
www.subrit.org.uk/sb-sites
"The Mammals of Suffolk" by Simone Bullion, for the Suffolk Wildlife Trust and Suffolk Naturalist's Society, 2009
"www.burystedmundsadventistchurch.co.uk/missionhall.html" by Gloria J Abbot
"Lost Country Houses of Suffolk" by W M Roberts, 2010
"Ahead Of Its Time" by John E Saunders, 2018 - The History of St Alban’s Voluntary Aided Primary School, Bury St Edmunds
"The Railway Goods Shed and Warehouse in England " by John Minnis with Simon Hickman for Historic England 2016
http://www.airfieldinformationexchange.org/community/showthread.php?1564-Shepherds-Grove/page12
"Website documenting Polish Displaced Persons" by Zosia Biegus Hartman : http://www.polishresettlementcampsintheuk.co.uk/northwick01.htm