h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Whilst some of the things you've mentioned about Bury St. Edmunds are fair enough, (the bit about Brazilia's, for instance, although I would extend it to include the whole of the Station Hill area after 11pm,) I think you've done the town something of a disservice by not including some of its more interesting features. There is The Nutshell, for example, which is listed in the Guinness Book Of Records as the smallest pub in Britain. There's the Greene King brewery as well, which is the largest independent brewer in the country. Then there's the Theatre Royal, Bury In Bloom, (where the council try and cover every empty space with flowers once a year, except hanging baskets, of course, which they famously banned last year,) the famous Angel Hotel, the Bury festival, the thriving local music scene and all manner of other malarkey going on.

There's also the amusing story of how the Abbeygate had to be moved from one location at the bottom of Abbeygate St. to another a few dozen yards to the left to stop the citizens of the town charging down Abbeygate St. with battering rams and knocking the doors down. Not that they've done that recently, of course.....

Hey Yalon, you do make good points here. Not to mention the fact that it would never take me 50mins to drive to Cambridge, the A14 doesn't run from Felixstowe to Cambridge, and the Black Boy is a pub.

Before the Abbey was pulled down it was the tallest building north of Switzerland.

The Falcon used to be good for after hours service as the plod used to drink there.

There are all manner of pubs in Bury, largely because of the Greene King brewery. Most of the good ones though seem to be being turned into rubbish wine bars. And there was no mention either of the magnificent old cinema, one of the few places in the country where you can enjoy a film on a smaller screen that you have at home and get stuck to the seat.

As far as interesting facts go... I think (but am willing to be disproven on this) the cathedral tower, just about finished, was the only one of the Millenium Projects our beloved government funded with lottery money that has anything remotely to do with Christianity. Oh, and Barrow, a delightful little village 5 miles West of Bury is allegedly the highest altitude land mass, travelling East, until somewhere near Moscow.

And you're right, the Black Boy's a bit rubbish.

A new cinema is now being built in Bury, (which is the accepted condensed version of Bury St. Edmunds, non-Buryites, although it obviously shouldn't be confused with Bury in Lancashire,) as part of the new cattle market redevelopment which will almost certainly be identical to every other multiscreen cinema in the country.

The pubs of Bury are indeed being converted into rubbish, samey bars at a rate of knots, (the most recent one being the Dog & Partridge, which used to be a maze of nooks and crannies but which is now much more conventional and you can't sit in the fireplace anymore,) although there are a few still around the centre that have a bit of character. These include the aforementioned Nutshell, The Black Boy, (despite its alleged faults,) The Masons Arms, The Rose And Crown, The Grapes and The Kings Arms. Not all are particularly original or exciting, but all are ideal for a good, honest pint on, say, a Saturday afternoon. I've been in The Black Boy quite a lot recently, as it is the closest pub to the new Bury Rehearsal Rooms in St. Andrew's Street (South).

The new cathedral tower. £7 million well spent there. For all the time it has been standing there, I don't ever remember anyone saying "what that cathedral really needs is a big tower on it." Still, it looks pretty now they've taken the plastic off of it.

Dunno what all this business is about Barrow, though.

*growls* I TOLD the italics this entry wasn't ready for being in the EG! *stalks off muttering and grumbling*

Hello there,

You make some good points, but i'm afraid to say that the article is now out of my hands. There are indeed a lot of things which could be added to the entry, which might be able to come up in a review of this particular article.

In my defence however, it can actually take 50 minutes to drive to cambridge at times, and if you look on a map the A14 does run from feloxstow to cambridge thankyou very much.

Your comments on pubs, I must say are complete conjecture. I rather like the Black Boy. I would admit I'm more of a falcon man myself, though the spread isnt bad if you dont sit in the bar area.

The magnificent old cinema, I predict, is soon to disappear, and few would call it magnificent. I dint know the fact about Barrow. Well, you learn something new every day I guess.

As far as the cattle market goes, I believe it still hasnt been confirmed whats happenning there (or at least it wasnt when I wrote this), so I didn't want to say anything which would suddenly become out of date.

If you believe it drastically needs any more addition suggestions, then perhaps you should ask the dear editors allow me to give it a revamp

What you need to do if you would like to add these things and change a few bits is copy and paste what you've done and make a new entry. Add all the bits and pieces you think need adding and that have been raised here.

If the entry is very different to this one and adds a lot of information, put it back through Peer Review, explaining that it is to replace this one, giving the link to this one as well.

If you've just added a few bits and pieces, changed stuff around etc then put the new entry in the Update Forum, where we will prod and poke it but it won't be taken by a sub-editor and will just be picked up by the italics when they can get round to it.

If you have any further questions or would like any help with this entry I'd be very happy to help you if you drop me a message at my PS

Kat