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In November the Borough Council received a grant of arms, but no motto. The town was free to choose its own motto as it wished. The current motto was not apparently in use prior to 1850.
Any Grant of Arms comes not from the King, but from the College of Heralds. The full text of the Grant of Arms 1606 is available to view by clicking here.
The Corporation could elect four Justices of the Peace and appoint a Town Clerk and a Recorder. The towns' first Alderman was Richard Walker, and he was entitled to be preceded in processions by two Sergeants-at-Mace carrying Maces of gold or silver adorned with the royal coat of arms.
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1608
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The King granted the Town a second Charter which dealt with Market rights and tolls. This Charter cost over £300 and the Feoffees agreed to finance this cost.
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1614
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The Town received a final Charter from James I which gave it the right to send 2 MPs to Parliament, to hold a court of quarter sessions, and to have a Coroner. The MP's were elected solely by the 37 members of the corporation, but for many years those chosen were nominees of the Duke of Grafton and the Marquess of Bristol.
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1663
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The town maces, still in use today on ceremonial occasions, were commissioned at a cost of £54. Five years later the bill was finally paid in March 1668 to a Mr John Clarke.
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1668
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Following a lengthy lawsuit in Chancery, the Corporation was granted another Charter which confirmed its title to the corporate estate.
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1684
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The Corporation became governed by a new Charter of Charles II which gave the crown the right to nominate members. The numbers of members remained the same, but became now called the Mayor, Alderman and Burgesses of Bury St Edmunds. This Charter gave the town the right to have a sword of state carried before the Mayor on formal occasions. Sir John Hervey presented the Borough with a sword of state and a red velvet covered scabbard which is still in use today.
Thus the post of Alderman was replaced by the post of Mayor, but this would last for only a few short years.
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1688
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The Crown's nomination rights lapsed when James II fled the country. The old charters governing the Boroughs were deemed to be reinstated, and the post of Mayor lapsed, and the old term of Alderman was used again until 1835.
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1729
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Possibly one of the ceremonial maces was damaged around this time as one of them has a shaft which was cast new in 1729. The corporation paid £25 17s 6d for the repairs.
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1747
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Two Bury parishes were incorporated for poor law purposes under a Court of Guardians of the Poor.
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1805
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James Oakes presented the corporation with a robe and chain for the Alderman. The chain incorporated a profile of King William IV, and the arms of the town.
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1811
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An Act of Parliament was obtained to establish Paving and Improvement Commissioners for the Town. They could levy a rate to improve the paving, lighting and drainage of the town and provide piped water supplies. They operated alongside the Corporation and made substantial progress in sewering the town.
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1834
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Before 1834 there was no general pattern of local government. Outside Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk was split into East and West with Quarter Sessions of Magistrates who dealt not just with the administration of justice, but also the police force, the coroner, bridges, the Lieutenancy and the Militia. The Quarter Sessions levied a rate on their constituent parishes. Each Parish had a vestry which dealt with the Poor Law, repair of roads, vermin control and upkeep of the Church.
After the Napoleonic Wars, the massive unemployment caused by demobilisation led to Parishes being grouped into unions in order to cope with their Poor Law duties. The Thingoe Union Workhouse was a local result of this reform.
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1835
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The Municipal Corporations Act introduced the first elements of democracy into local government. In Bury the town was divided into 3 wards and elections were held. The Council was made up of a Mayor Recorder, 6 Aldermen and 18 Councillors. The Councillors were to be elected by the ratepayers in their wards, and the Council could elect the Aldermen and Mayor. The Magistrates were now separated from the Corporation, which was still responsible for the Police Force.
The old corporation was substantially in debt and the last Alderman actually refused to hand over the insignia and plate to the new Council. Eventually a judgement was obtained to enforce this transfer. The first Mayor after the 1835 Act was Francis King Eagle who had been the local radical candidate following the Great Reform Act of 1832.
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1848
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Local Boards of Health were set up by the Public Health Act of 1848. The Act was adoptive, not prescriptive and some of its sewerage provisions were adopted by the Commissioners in 1859.
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1850
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The current Borough motto seems to have been used from about this date - Sacrarium Regis, Cunabula Legis, or Shrine of a King, Cradle of the Law. The shield of crowns and arrows and the crest of a wolf holding a human head had been granted shortly after the 1606 charter.
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1873
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The Paving and Improvement Commissioners were abolished, and the Town Council was created as the Urban Sanitary Authority and assumed the duties of the Commissioners.
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1888
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Another Local Government Act set up the County Councils and West Suffolk County Council came into being.
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1894
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Urban and Rural District Councils were set up by the Local Government Act of 1894. This resulted in the Clare RDC and Haverhill UDC and Parish Councils were instituted to replace the Vestries. The Urban sanitary authorities were abolished, so in Bury, its functions were transferred to the Corporation which now took on the powers of an Urban District Council, but retained the status of a Borough.
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1934
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The West Suffolk Review Order of 1934 moved part of Fornham All Saints and Westley into Bury St Edmunds. The Mildenhall Road Estate, Howard Estate and Westley Estates, as well as the Western Way industrial estate, were eventually to be built in this additional area.
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1974
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The Borough of Bury St Edmunds was abolished. It was replaced by St Edmundsbury District Council which was made up of the areas of the Borough of Bury St Edmunds, the Urban District of Haverhill, and the two Rural Districts of Clare and Thingoe. There were to be 44 elected Councillors but the post of Alderman was abolished. The town of Bury St Edmunds was divided into 9 wards with 17 Councillors. Haverhill was divided into 5 wards with 8 Councillors, and 19 rural wards were set up with 1 Councillor to each ward. On 15th May the Queen granted a Charter bestowing Borough status on the new district. This allowed the office of Mayor to continue. This status perpetuated the right to have a sword and maces and to appoint "local officers of dignity" - sword and mace bearers, and the mayoral traditions continue to this day throughout the enlarged Borough of St Edmundsbury.
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1975
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A new coat of arms was approved following the grant of the right to Borough status.
A full analysis of theCouncils' Coat of Armsand its derivation is available elsewhere on this website.
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2001
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There was a poll of Bury town electors conducted by the Borough Council which showed that a large majority of those voting wanted a new Town Council for Bury to operate alongside the existing Borough and County Councils. This proposal would operate from May 2003. A steering group of interested people had drawn up an agreed leaflet to be circulated to each town voter. It outlined the advantages of a town council, but omitted any estimate of the costs involved to Council Tax payers.
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2003
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In April the Bury St Edmunds Town Council came into being by order of the Secretary of State, following a Town Poll. The town was now covered by its own Town Council, with the powers of a rural Parish Council. It chose to use the term Town Council, and it chose to call its Chairman the Town mayor.
St Edmundsbury Borough Council continued to run its services in the town as before, as did Suffolk County Council and the Suffolk police Service. Tentative discussions began to consider what powers the St Edmundsbury Borough Council might devolve or delegate to the Town Council.
In Suffolk the Council Tax was increased as from April 1st by around 18% on average leading to considerable public unrest. In Bury St Edmunds the new Bury St Edmunds Town Council was inaugurated with its own brand new Council Tax of £13.95 a year for a Band D Household. This had the effect of making Bury's local council tax bills increase by 20% overall. St Edmundsbury itself had "only" levied an increase of 9.9%, but it was outweighed by the Suffolk County Council's 18.8% and the Police Authority's 32%.
Although the Bury Town Council legally came into being on 1st April, the first elections were in May of 2003. Hitherto its functions were discharged by St Edmundsbury Borough Council, but in setting the town council's first budget St Edmundsbury took advice from The Suffolk Association of Local Councils.
Originally prepared for the St Edmundsbury website
by David Addy, August 1998
Books consulted:
Yesterdays Town - Bury St Edmunds by Margaret Statham
"The Book of Bury St Edmunds"
by Margaret Statham.
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