The Abbey Gardens

We went back to Bury St. Edmunds to see the Abbey Gardens on the 10th of September. We arrived around dinnertime, so we looked for a pub to eat at. We settled on one that had a beer garden (basically just an outdoor area of the pub), since it was a really nice day.

I’m still not sure that we picked the right table to sit at… The table next to us turned out to be a bit rowdy. There were two women in their 40s, and a guy & a girl who looked to be in their early 20s. The younger girl was the daughter of one of the older women. Anyways, they ended up starting a conversation with us, because they were making animal noises. Yes, animal noises. For those that know me, you know I couldn’t resist giving them on of my I-can’t-believe-we’re-sitting-next-to-this looks. So they asked us to join in. We politely declined.

The woman sitting nearest us was easily to drunkest, and she continued to chat with us as we ate our meal. She repeatedly told Andrew how much she loved his accent and how gorgeous he was. I had a hard time containing my laughter, since I could see that Andrew was a little embarrassed. The more this woman drank, the more clumsy she became, and the harder it was to understand her. Between the slurred words and the accent, we really didn’t know what she was talking about most of the time. For over 45 minutes, she had an unlit cigarette in her mouth, which she clearly thought she was smoking. It probably fell out of her mouth and onto the ground about four times (and she kept sticking it back in her mouth), and she tried (unsuccessfully) to light it at least three times. Andrew told me later that she was rubbing her foot on his leg too. Ew! She was wearing an inappropriately short skirt, which ended up exposing a butt cheek the one time she left the table. Good Lord…what a meal…

We laughed about the experience the whole walk to the Abbey Gardens. It was a fairly short walk, which is a good thing, because the gate only stays open until dusk.

In the summer of 1327, violent riots broke out, during which several monks were killed and the Abbey Gate was destroyed. The current gate was built during the 14th Century, alongside the old one, and still marks the entrance to the Cathedral and Abbey gardens today.

Here is the view from inside the gatehouse looking out on Angel Hill:

And here are the gorgeous gardens!

And here’s one of me! 🙂

After wandering through the main part of the gardens, we walked over to the Old English Rose Garden, which was funded by an American who was stationed here during WWII.

A monument that says: “For our soldiers and their families”

A bench that reads “Presented to the city of Bury St. Edmunds by the US Army AIr Forces” from 1945:

Then we wandered around the remains of the Abbey. There were quite a few signs posted for us to read what we were looking at, but unfortunately, there are just a few ruins left.

Here’s a view of the cathedral from where the ruins are:

Poor Andrew, he really hates posing for pictures…

We really enjoyed walking around the Abbey Gardens. It’s a really peaceful little place, and I’m sure we’ll go back to walk around again. I can’t wait to see what it looks like in spring! Here are a few more pictures of us: