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Former chapel of St Botolph, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk

Location
(52°14′20″N, 0°43′21″E)
Bury St Edmunds
TL 860 636
pre-1974 traditional (England and Wales) Suffolk
now Suffolk
medieval St Botolph
  • Ron Baxter

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Description

This lost site is included on account of the carved and moulded stones behind the Abbey Hotel, close to its former location. Yates (1843) published an engraving of the chapel, reproduced here, and as it had been demolished c.1801, this must have been old when Yates published it. What it shows is a simple structure with little in the way of elaborate doorways or windows.

History

There is no record known to the authors of the building of the chapel. The earliest account dates from shortly after its demolition and is in Gillingwater (1804) where it was described as being in the yard of the White Hart public house, and as having been standing until about three years before, but now, in 1804, completely taken down and demolished. A later account by Richard Yates (1843) described it as 'an old religious house now called the Chapel ... supposed to be dedicated to St Botolph'. The position of the chapel is marked on the Warren Map of 1748, but this gives no clue to its appearance or the date of its foundation.

Comments/Opinions

The fact that the stone is a valuable limestone from a distant quarry in the Soke of Peterborough makes it unlikely that it was originally intended for this humble chapel. Little can be gleaned from the illustration that we have, beyond the fact that it was by no means a large or elaborate building, while the stones described in the Abbey Hotel report point to a number of large or intricate features. In fact it seems beyond doubt that these are stones from the dissolved abbey, perhaps transferred to St Botolph's Chapel for use in repairs after the Dissolution.

Bibliography

E. Gillingwater, An Historical and Descriptive Account of St. Edmund's Bury in the County of Suffolk, London 1804, 221

Suffolk County Council, Historic Environment Record BSE-21.

M. Taylor, Secret Bury St Edmunds, Stround 2014, ch. 2-24.

R. Yates, History and Antiquities of the Abbey of St. Edmund's, Bury. 2nd ed. London 1843, II, 48-49.