The Greene King brewery is in Bury. The other brewery is The Old Cannon Brewery and public house on Cannon Street near the railway station. The brewing vessels, made for an exhibition in Japan in 1997, can be seen in the front room. Just outside the town is Bartrums Brewery, on Rougham airfield but originally in Thurston.
Another beer-related landmark is Britain's smallest public house, The Nutshell, which is on The Traverse, just off the marketplace.
Bury's largest landmark is the British Sugar factory near the A14, which processes sugar beet into refined crystal sugar. It was built in 1925 and processes beet from 1,300 growers. 660 lorry loads of beet can be accepted each day when beet is being harvested. Not all the beet can be crystallised immediately, and some is kept in solution in holding tanks until late spring and early summer, when the plant has spare crystallising capacity. The sugar is sold under the Silver Spoon name (the other major British brand, Tate & Lyle, is made from imported sugar cane). By-products include molassed sugar beet feed for cattle and LimeX70, a soil improver.
Notable people from Bury St Edmunds include artist and printer Sybil Andrews, actor Bob Hoskins, theatre director Sir Peter Hall, artist and water deviner Neil Stalley, author Maria Lousie de la Ramé (also known as Ouida), World War II Canadian general Guy Simonds and the 18th century landscape architect Humphry Repton, as well as Thomas Clarkson fact-finder behind the abolition of the slave trade.
Notable bands from Bury St Edmunds include Jacob's Mouse, Miss Black America, The Dawn Parade and Kate Jackson (of The Long Blondes)
Although not from Bury St Edmunds, BBC Radio 1 DJ John Peel lived nearby in Great Finborough and on 12 November 2004 his funeral took place at the cathedral. It was attended by a thousand people including many artists he had championed. During a peak of local musical activity in Bury St Edmunds in 2002, he referred (tongue-in-cheek) to the town as 'The New Seattle'.
Actor Ian McShane was given freedom of the borough in 1996 after he played the title role in the television series Lovejoy, filmed in and around Bury.
Bury St Edmunds is birthplace of James Moore winner of the world's first cycle race and of the first long-distance road race, from Paris to Rouen
Muhammad bin Qasim al-Thaqafi
Muhammad bin Qasim Al-Thaqafi (, c. 31 December, 695 - 18 July, 715), born Imád-uddín Muhammad bin Qasim bin Yusuf Sakifi, was a Syrian general who attacked the Sindh and Punjab regions along the Indus river (now a part of Pakistan). The conquest of Sindh and Punjab began the Islamic era in South Asia and continues to lend the Sindh province of Pakistan the name "Bab-e-Islam" (The Gateway of Islam).
United States Army Air Force
The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) was the military aviation arm of the United States of America during and immediately after World War II. It was the direct precursor to the United States Air Force, established in 1947. At its peak strength in 1944, the USAAF had over 2.4 million men and women in service, nearly 80,000 aircraft and 783 permanent bases, and operated from more than 2,000 airfields worldwide.
The Air Corps became the Army Air Forces in June 1941 to provide the air arm a greater autonomy in which to expand more efficiently, and to provide a structure for the additional command echelons required by a vastly increased force. Although other nations already had separate air forces independent of the army or navy (such as the British Royal Air Force and the German Luftwaffe), the USAAF remained a part of the United States Army.
Salem Witch Trials
The Salem Witch Trials were a series of county court trials which accused people of being witches. The Salem Witch Trials involved two kinds of trials. First, court hearings were held before local magistrates; then trials were held in county court. The witch trials were held in Essex, Suffolk and Middlesex Counties of colonial Massachusetts, between February 1692 and May 1693.
A physician had said that witches have invaded Salem Village. Young girls, Betty Parris and Abigail Williams, blamed people they didn’t like and thought were suspicious devil worshippers. Betty and Abigail began to twist themselves into weird looking shapes and saying words that made no sense. The father of Betty called the doctor and the doctor gave a diagnosis and that they had been bewitched.
During the Trials, over 150 people were arrested and put in jail after being accused of practicing witchcraft. Even more people were accused, but were never formally charged by the authorities. Twenty-nine people were convicted (or found guilty) of witchcraft, which was a capital felony. Nineteen of these people - fourteen women and five men - were hangedon Gallows Hill Giles Corey, a man who refused to enter a plea, was crushed to death under heavy stones to try to force him to confess or plead. At least five more of the accused died in prison.
The trials were held in Salem, though people from all surrounding areas were brought to Salem to be tried for witchcraft. The best-known trials were held by the Court of Oyer and Terminer in 1692 in Salem Town. All twenty-six people who went to trial before this court were convicted. There were also four sessions of the Superior Court of Judicature in 1693, held in Salem , Massachusetts. Thirty-one accused witches were tried in these courts, but only three were convicted.
A much later Ipswich Witch Trial was held in 1878, and called the second Salem witch trial.
Baron
Baron is a title of honour in many European peerage systems. It is often a hereditary title that ranks as the one of the lower titles in a peerage. In the UK peerage system, the five peerage titles from highest to lowest are duke, marquess, earl, viscount and baron. Baronets and knights are not members of the peerage although a baron may also be a knight. In the feudalism of medieval England a baron was a tenant-in-chief who held his lands directly from the king. During the 13th century barons were summoned by royal writ to attend Parliament.
The word baron comes from Old French "baron", itself from Frankish "baro" meaning "freeman, warrior". It later merged with Old English "beorn" meaning "nobleman." The lands of a baron are called a barony. The female title for a baron is baroness. The form of address for a baron is "Lord" and for a baroness "Lady".
Telephone box
A telephone box or phone booth is a public kiosk enclosing a payphone. It is usually an item of street furniture, though some may be inside a building.
United Kingdom telephone boxes were designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott and were common in the UK, Malta and Gibraltar. The colour red was chosen to make them easy to spot. Because of the growth of mobile phones, telephone boxes are steadily being removed.
Running gag
A running gag is an humorous joke or reference that is used several times in a work or series of works. A famous example of a running gag is the Couch gag in the opening of The Simpsons.
Harran
Harran, also known as Carrhae, is a district of Şanlıurfa Province in the southeast of Turkey.
A very ancient city which was a major Mesopotamian commercial, cultural, and religious center, Harran is a valuable archaeological site. It is often identified as the place in which Abraham lived before he reached Canaan.
The city was the chief home of the Mesopotamian moon-god Sin, under the Babylonians and even into Roman times.
Carrhae is an ancient town on the site that doesn't exist anymore. It gave its name to the Battle of Carrhae (53 BC), fought between the Roman Republic and the Parthian Empire.
Harran's ruins are from Roman, Sabian, and Islamic times. T. E. Lawrence surveyed the site, and an Anglo-Turkish excavation was begun in 1951.
Phil O'Donnell