Bury St Edmunds Area Guide

Bury St Edmunds, supposed by some to have been the Villa Faustina of the Romans, was one of the royal towns of the Saxons. The town is associated with Magna Carta. In 1214 the barons of England are believed to have met in the Abbey Church and sworn to force King John to accept the Charter of Liberties, the document which influenced the creation of the Magna Carta.

Henry III in 1235 granted to the abbot two annual fairs, one in December (which still survives) and the other the great St Matthew’s fair, which was abolished by the Fairs Act of 1871. The town developed into a flourishing cloth-making town, with a large woollen trade, by the 14th century.