Bury St Edmunds grew up around the powerful medieval Abbey of St Edmund. Although the abbey was dissolved by Henry VIII and fell into ruin in the 16th century, the town has continued to prosper. Today, the streets still follow the grid pattern devised by the abbots, and many other reminders of the abbey remain. Some of the abbey ruins have been sympathetically converted into houses and the Great Court is a prize-winning public garden.
The history is part of everyday life and it is what endows Bury St Edmunds with its special character. Authors and visitors from Daniel Defoe to Charles Dickens have admired the town – one 19th-century writer dubbed it ‘the nicest little town in the world’ (William Cobbett).
A past winner of Britain in Bloom, the town became a world-beater in 1999 when it was officially judged ‘best little town in the world’ at the Nations in Bloom finals in Japan. The title was successfully defended in Washington DC in 2000, where the judges named the town one of the most pleasant and environmentally friendly places to live and work. Set within some of Suffolk’s finest countryside, with many attractive villages, country parks and forests surrounding it, Bury St Edmunds will no doubt continue to be a popular destination for tourists.