The Corpus of ROMANESQUE SCULPTURE in Britain & Ireland
Museum, formerly merchant's house
Museum, formerly merchant's house
Moyses Hall is a late-12thc secular building in the centre of Bury St Edmunds, facing the former Corn Market (now Cornhill) to the S and the Beast Market, or Hog Hill to the E. The main S front has 2 gables; the E with the flat buttresses typical of 12thc work. Construction is of flint rubble with Barnack ashlar dressings; the same expensive materials as were used in the contemporary abbey works, and it has thus been suggested (see Sandon 1977) that it was originally an abbey building. In 1804 the E wall collapsed and was rebuilt. It is now plain but formerly had flat buttresses and round-headed windows (shown in a print of 1748). In 1858 it was restored by G. G. Scott, who added the clock and bell turret to the E gable.
The original plan was a 2 compartment structure on 2 storeys, with a hall (E side) and solar (W side) above unusually tall vaulted undercrofts at ground level. The E undercroft, 2 bays wide and 3 deep, is groin vaulted with cylindrical piers as described below, while the W undercroft has a single row of 3 bays.
In addition to the fabric of Moyses Hall itself, this report includes the Romanesque stone sculpture held by the museum. Most of the objects described here are demonstrably from Bury St Edmunds Abbey, which has its own report. The abbey was in the possession of the Marquises of Bristol from 1806-1953, and the name of the 3rd Marquis, Frederick William John Hervey (1834-1907), is recorded as the donor of several pieces in the collection.