The Abbey Gardens occupy a large site bounded by Angel Hill to the W, Mustow Street to the N, the River Lark to the E and the cathedral and abbey ruins to the south. Officially the abbey ruins are part of the Abbey Gardens, but we have found it to convenient to treat them as separate sites. Access is normally through the Great Gate of the abbey on Angel Hill. The area of the Abbey Gardens is approximately 11 acres (4.5 hectares). It is divided into named areas, and carved stones have been found in the Remembrance Garden at the SW of the site, in the Pilgrim's Herb Garden next to it, and alongside the Marquis of Bristol's sundial and fountain in the formal garden just inside the Great Gate.

The gardens were laid out in 1831 by Nathaniel Hodson on the abbey site, following the model of the Royal Botanic Gardens in Brussels. The 3rd Marquis of Bristol presented a monumental sundial and drinking fountain to the people of Bury in 1871 and it was installed here. The layout was redesigned in 1936 to celebrate the Coronation of King George VI.

The head of a king in the Pilgrim's Herb Garden is clearly related to the male head (Acc. no. 1994-1) in Moyses Hall Museum. The dimensions are similar and both have similar tight curls, bulbous eyes and slightly high ears. Other distinctive features are the extension of the brow ridges outwards and the moustaches descending from the corners of the mouth, There is no doubt that they are by the same hand, and belonged in the same sculptural context. The Moyses Hall stone was dated by Zarnecki (1999) to the 1130s, with the suggestion that it was from Abbot Anselm's W front, but this is doubly problematic. Zarnecki dated the head by comparison with corbel heads on the Prior's Doorway at Ely, reasonably dated to the 1130s by the building history and by other features of the doorway, but while the heads are superficially similar, those at Bury are much more delicately articulated and naturalistic, and include classicizing features, notably the tight curls of hair and beard, not seen in the Ely heads. The second problem relates to the building history of Bury. Abbot Anselm began the West Front but died in 1148, and the facade was completed in Samson's abbacy (1182-1211). If these two heads were from the facade (which seems likely), then a more reasonable dating later in the century (c.1170-90) becomes possible and that is suggested here. In its present position the head is subject to erosion, and it is in urgent need of conservation and the removal of the moss and other vegetation that is damaging and disfiguring it. Ideally it would be displayed alongside its companion in Moyses Hall.

The arch voussoirs in the Remembrance Garden are from an elaborate doorway. A comparable voussoir from the Abbey is in the English Heritage store at Wrest Park, numbered U35SB, but it is carved on 2 faces, corresponding to the face and soffit of an arch. The face of that stone is longer than those in the Abbey Gardens, and it cannot be from the same arch. A similar arrangement of foliage motifs between two rolls may be seen on the face and soffit of the inner order of the S doorway at St Mary's, Iffley, although there the motifs are rosettes rather than square octofoils. Iffley is normally dated to the 1170s or '80s.

The base profile matches those still in-situ on the abbey site. The chevron voussoir is of a common type and is too worn to allow a useful comparison, and similar considerations apply to the capital.