Keeping our local treasures

Our March article in the Bury Free Press is about how we help keep local heritage treasures for our town museum

One of the unnoticed activities of the Bury St Edmunds Society is its work to obtain or keep local treasures of significance in the town at Moyse’s Hall Museum. We provide important grants towards those local historical artifacts which might otherwise go elsewhere. Funding in partnership with others means that the Society’s resources can be used for even greater effect.

The Bury Society have recently provided key funding for an important acquisition – A Tryal of Witches book. The team at Moyse’s Hall Museum have wanted a copy of this text for a while due to its importance to the town and local area. This one was spotted for sale from a trusted collector.

The Bury Society offered to pay 50% of the £3000 asking price, seeing the importance of the item. The Friends of Moyse’s Hall Museum kindly matched that. Moyse’s Hall Museum provided new display equipment and environmental monitoring.

For Moyse’s Hall, the purchase will help mark the beginning of a two-year project. The book will go on display for the Superstition exhibition in February 2025 and would forever be labelled with thanks to the society as a co-funder.

In 2020, this time with the Bury Society as one of five funders, Moyse’s Hall was able to purchase a Medieval Seal Matrix found by a metal detectorist. Made of silver, it was declared treasure. It is inscribed with the letters ‘IOHANNIS LAVSELE’ and lends itself to the logical conclusion that IOHANNIS, or John, came from Lawshall.

The Edmund Aestal (the gold end of a book pointer) went on display at Moyse’s Hall in 2020. It dates back to the ninth century, Edmund was martyred in 869AD, so we do not know whether this was made before or after his death. It provides a tangible link with King Edmund, from whom the town gets its name. This rare and beautiful object was purchased by Moyse’s Hall for £27,500 as a result of funding from the Bury Society and seven other organisations.

Lots of other local heritage projects have been supported by The Bury Society. These include Magna Carta 800 events in 2014, reconstruction of the historic M R James talk on the Abbey, distributing 1000 ‘goody bags’ in support of the Abbey 1000 event ‘Picnic in the Park’. In addition, there are numerous other initiatives that could be listed which the society has supported financially and improved accessibility to our heritage.

The Bury Society will continue to help fund the heritage that makes our town so special. On behalf of local residents, it works in partnership to fund the acquisition of local treasures and to support events which show our local heritage. If you want to have more of a say in what happens with heritage in our town, you should consider joining us.

For details of the society and membership, see our membership page