Month: May 2024

It is a beautiful 64 F degree day in Bury, and Bob and I used it to explore more of the area by heading off to check out two parks — Hardwick Heath and Nowton Park. Hardwick Heath is about 1.5 miles from where we are staying, and Nowton Park is 2.4 miles. Since it was a beautiful weekend day, they were both getting a lot of use.

Hardwick Heath is a park of about 55 acres that contains a children’s play area, football pitches (in use today), picnic areas, and walking trails.

The 200 acre Nowton Park has lots to offer, including football pitches, arboretums, walking paths, a maze (closed until June), ponds, wildflower meadow, and a cafe. We walked around, although we didn’t find the way finding markers particularly helpful, so we were always guessing a bit on our actual location based on the map below.

Another fun note from today. Both parks seemed to have some dog classes that had just ended when we got there — pugs at Hardwick Heath and Dachshunds at Nowton.

After a wet and chilly Friday, Bob and I were excited to get out in the sunshine today. We decided to explore a bit more of the God’s Square area of Bury — the area between St Mary’s church, the former Abbey west front, the cathedral church of St James, and Angel Hill. Specifically, we wanted to check out the rose garden area behind the cathedral and then go down the street a bit to visit St Mary’s church, the parish church (religious center) of Bury.

St Mary’s church was one of three churches that were originally part of the Benedictine Abbey of St Edmund, along with St James, which became the cathedral, and St Margaret’s, which was demolished. A church has stood on the current site for 900 years. It was enlarged in the 15th century to its current form and is one of the largest parish churches in England.

On the way to St Mary’s we entered the Abbey Gate to try to see more of the cathedral gardens. We were only partially successful.

The garden behind the building next to the cathedral which holds the gift shop and tourist information center.

We didn’t do a tour of the brewery, but we did pop in to check out the shop. The walls inside had a timeline of its history. Monks were brewing ale on the site of the Abbey as of 1086. The Greene King brewing company was formed in 1799 and is based in Bury.

Today we did our easy walk down to the city center to explore Bury’s market that occurs every Wednesday and Saturday. The website said there are about 60 stalls on Wednesdays and 80 on Saturdays. The market dates back to before the days of William the Conqueror (died 1087). We perused the stalls and found a couple items to purchase at a baker’s stall. We also stopped in an M&S to do a grocery run.

Tomorrow night we have reserved tickets for a free lecture at the nearby University and Professional Development Center on the Corpses of the Abbey. We’ll see how much we understand, but we’re looking forward to continuing to learn about the local area.