Suffolk Local History Council - bury Cupola report

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Bringing Reports to Life - Bury Cupola

2006 - Report and photo by Jonathan Abson

The Cupola, the apothecary’s house in the Great Market, Bury

The first of the new ‘Bringing Records to Life’ meetings went off to an enthusiastic start with Dr Pat Murrell in charge. Suffolk Record Office provided a room in the morning and more importantly the records of all shapes and sizes that Pat used to demonstrate what researching an old building may involve.

Participants seemed particularly interested by Pat’s methodical approach working backwards from the present day when many, if not all, of the maps, plans, designs and records are available and gradually getting further back into the past where not everything is still available, and certainly not always available locally.

In the afternoon we explored the Cupola house in Bury, magnificently restored by the Romaine family. The house is fascinating, the public rooms are grand but in no way overstated beyond their domestic background. The really interesting bits of course are the bits the public don’t get to see, but SLHC members were not ‘the public’, so we did get to see the normally closed rooms.

The cupola itself is still high enough over Bury to provide views to the distant horizon in all but a few directions. We finished up with a question and answer session whilst eating seed cake or (and, in at least one case) fruit cake to 18th century receipts, courtesy of our lecturer.