Re-modelling a market town's water undertaking; Bury St. Edmunds.

Abstract

BEFORE dealing with the details of the reconstruction scheme which is now in its concluding stages, I think it might be of interest to refer to the history of the town in general and to the water undertaking in particular. The former has been the subject of research by competent historians, so the following notes are very brief and touch only lightly upon the rich and vivid history of the town, its Abbey and its people. Bury St. Edmunds supplies abundant evidence to warrant its claim of being an ancient borough. The finding of flint implements and fossil animal remains of the lower palaeolithic (acheulian) age suggests that the site now occupied by the town had human habitation in pre-historic times. It is also known that the Romans were at least in close proximity to Bury St. Edmunds, as Romano-British pottery, Roman coins and bronze ornaments have been found two miles to the south at Sicklesmere. Three miles to the east, at Rougham, there have been earlier finds of a similar character. Excavations made in 1949 revealed a Roman villa at Ixworth, six miles to the northeast of Bury St. Edmunds.