The area’s historic landscape is being improved and protected, with careful preservation work underway to stabilise the ruins. Nearby, biodiversity is improving along part of the Lark and Linnet chalk stream rivers.
New facilities, including a new visitor centre and west cloister, will help visitors better understand the 60-acre site – a popular pilgrimage destination for centuries – and provide flexible community space. Work on a 1.4km accessible circular route is physically and visually reconnecting the abbey ruins with the cathedral and historic town of Bury St Edmunds.
Forty-seven community-focused activities are building people’s understanding of the site’s national significance, creating 200 volunteering and 21 training opportunities across 19 roles, two apprenticeships and five funded staff posts.
We’re contributing over £7million to the project which is led by St Edmundsbury Cathedral, English Heritage and West Suffolk Council along with 29 local organisations and individuals who have come together as The Abbey of St Edmund Heritage Partnership.
When the project finishes the site will be taken on by a CIO (Charitable Incorporated Organisation). This resilient governance structure will help this investment in the free-to-enter destination have a long-lasting cultural, educational, environmental and social impact.
The Very Reverend Joe Hawes, Dean of St Edmundsbury said: “This will be a landmark project for Suffolk. Through the story of St Edmund, England’s first patron saint and a person so significant in our county and nation, we will help people understand not just what happened here centuries ago, but why it still matters today. Heritage should be for everyone; both the local community and visitors.”
