Welcome to Bury

The High Street and bridge as viewed from the Church in Bury, Huntingdonshire

Biri, Byrig (10th century), Byri (12th century), Byry (13th century) and Bury (Modern).

Hegmangrave (11th century), Hecmundegrave (12th century), Heitmundgrave, Hetumgrove, Heytmongrave (14th century) and Bury-cum-Hepmangrove (Modern).

Surrounded by later additions Bury has a few timbered houses perhaps 300 years old, a manor house of the kind Shakespeare knew, and a church on a little hill looking over the Fens.

The manor of Bury was given by Oswold, Archbishop of York, to the Abbey of Ramsey, passing to Sir Richard Cromwell in 1539. In 1664 it belonged to John Bambridge, who sold it in 1675 to Sir John Bernard, of Brampton, and on the death of Lady Olivia Bernard Sparrow in 1863, it passed with the rest of her estates to the Duke of Manchester, whose successor still held it in 1910.

The Manor House was also the property, in 1910, of the Duke of Manchester and the residence of Arthur Rowell. An old house formerly belonging to the Campion family was the residence of Miss Rowell at that time.

The Church of the Holy Cross is chiefly of Early English architecture, but has two Norman arches, the one in the tower being specially good. Eight centuries have passed over the church, to which the Normans gave a doorway of great boldness and strength. The 14th century chancel is seen through an arch with capitals of diamonds and scrolls by Norman sculptors. The font is Norman on a 13th Century stem, and the Norman doorway brings us to a 13th century tower remarkable for its magnificent lancets, a simple but beautiful parapet, and lovely niches in the buttresses. At the west side of the tower are fragments of walls from a now vanished chapel.

Bury is one of the parishes of the District of Huntingdonshire, whose administrative centre is Huntingdon, the other principle towns being St Ives home of the Chapel on the Bridge, St Neots the largest town in the County of Cambridgeshire, the Roman town of Godmanchester and Ramsey site of the former Abbey.