Bury St Edmunds Cathedral

 Last time I did a post about Bury St Edmunds  Cathedral was way back in 2018 HERE  and this is how we have a Cathedral but no cities in Suffolk.

 

         In the early years of the 20th Century, the Church of England was at the apogee of its influence and self-confidence. The time was right to carve up the dioceses of England into smaller patches which could be more easily in touch with their parishes. Parts of the Diocese of Norwich and the Diocese of Ely were brought together to form a new diocese which would eventually take the name of the Diocese of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich.

And yet it might not have been called that at all. The first task for any of the new Dioceses was to choose a church to become its cathedral. For some this was easy and obvious - Essex's new Diocese would inevitably be seated at St Mary, Chelmsford, and that of south Hampshire at St Thomas, Portsmouth. But the new Suffolk diocese, which would cover all of the county except for the Lowestoft area, had a problem. There was no obvious church that stood out as a potential for a new Cathedral. The chosen building had to be big, but it also had to be suitable for expansion; historically important buildings would not lend themselves to being knocked about. Ipswich had nothing to offer except St Margaret, which was not big enough and too architecturally important for ruthless expansion, and St Mary le Tower which was big enough for a starter, and not historically important; but on too confined a site for expansion, and in any case without the gravitas a cathedral requires. Southwold, which is near to what was at the time believed to be the original Suffolk see at Dunwich, was big enough; but it was too valuable to be extended, and in any case too remote. The other great Suffolk churches, Lavenham, Blythburgh, Long Melford, Stoke by Nayland, and so on, were obviously too remote, as well as being too important to touch. The choice came down to the two Bury St Edmunds churches, and the final choice seems to have been made because St Mary had too many medieval survivals to make extension acceptable. No, only St James would do.

 

 

 

 

 I ought to have looked back at that post before my return there last week as I'd forgotten how few photos I'd taken because the place was half full of schoolchildren practicing for Christmas.

 

 

So just a few more to add to those from 2018 

Unlike some Cathedrals that sit in a large open Cathedral Green, the entrance to Bury is from one of the main roads.

 The tower was finally finished in 2006. This view is from the area outside the cafe. There is a really good video of the tour of the tower HERE  not a tour I'll be doing .....202 steps!

The altar and it's surroundings are suitably magnificent for a Cathedral

 

What about this for a fancy church organ!

 

Love the lights

Every window has stained glass

Each kneeler in the Cathedral is stitched with the name of the parishes in the Diocese

 

Not as big as some Cathedrals in the UK but beautiful

  The ceiling is incredible

 

 

 

Bury St Edmunds is one of 4 Cathedrals in the country doing the Lego Cathedral project, it's grown a lot since my visit  in 2018.  There will be 200,000 bricks used in total. Now it's lit, the miniature stained glass windows look amazing.

This is the Cathedral's website
I need to go yet again and capture more details

 

Back Tomorrow

Sue