Bury St Edmunds

Bury St Edmunds, commonly referred to locally as Bury, is a historic market and cathedral town and civil parish in Suffolk, England. The town is best known for Bury St Edmunds Abbey and St Edmundsbury Cathedral. Bury is the seat of the Diocese of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich of the Church of England, with the episcopal see at St Edmundsbury Cathedral. The town, originally called Beodericsworth, was built on a grid pattern by Abbot Baldwin around 1080. It is known for brewing and malting (Greene King brewery) and for a British Sugar processing factory, where Silver Spoon sugar is produced. The town is the cultural and retail centre for West Suffolk and tourism is a major part of the economy. Etymology The name Bury is etymologically connected with borough, which has cognates in other Germanic languages such as German 'fortress, castle' and '(defined) area' Old Norse 'wall, castle'; and Gothic 'city'. They all derive from Proto-Germanic 'fortress'. This in turn derives from the Proto-Indo-European root 'fortified elevation', with cognates including Welsh 'stack' and Sanskrit - 'high, elevated building'. The second section of the name refers to Edmund King of the East Angles, called Edmund the Martyr, who was killed by the Vikings in the year 869. He became venerated as a saint and a martyr, and his shrine made Bury St Edmunds an important place of pilgrimage.