Bury St Edmunds

With 1,000 years of history, Bury St Edmunds is one of the jewels in the crown of Suffolk.

Named as one of the best places to live in the UK in The Sunday Times’ Best Places to Live 2019‘ list, this town has been highlighted as ‘A friendly, lively place that’s easy on the eye and wears its colourful history on its billowing sleeve‘.

A major location for the wool trade dating back to the 1300s, the 21st century Bury St Edmunds is primed to play a leading role in the industries which will define the UK in the future.

Bury St Edmunds is home to:

  • Major employers in the food and beverage industry, including brewery Greene King and flavouring specialist Treatt
  • Strengths in many other sectors, with large companies such as Atalian Servest, Vitec and Amot operating in the town
  • Fifteen schools rated Ofsted ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’
  • An historic town centre, featuring St Edmundsbury Cathedral and Bury St Edmunds Abbey
  • Suffolk Business Park which provides approximately 68ha of strategic employment land and high-quality
    business space as well as an Enterprise Zone. The Park has been allocated B1 and B8 uses for offices, research and development, warehousing, production and business uses.
  • West Suffolk College: a partner College of the University of Suffolk, offering more than 40 foundation and honours degrees across a wide range of subjects. The college prised itself on having strong links with business and industries in the region to make sure students develop skills that will increase their employability.

Well connected:

35 minutes from Cambridge and just under 2 hours from London, it’s well-connected by road and the town has its own railway station – just a ten-minute walk from the town centre.

By air, London airports are all under two hours drive from Bury St Edmunds with the nearest airports being London Stansted and Norwich which are 1 hour away.

If you are considering a move to the area, either for business or pleasure, here are some useful places to find support and inspiration

Business:

  • New Anglia Growth Hub: Offers a range of business support services from hundreds of sources. The hub’s service is free and impartial and can help you access grants, finance, start-up support, international trade support and other specialist advice from single point of contact.
  • Anglia Capital Group:a group of Angel Investors who invest in start-ups and early growth-stage businesses with innovative and potentially disruptive technology at their core
  • Invest East: a high-growth small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) business support programme for Norfolk and Suffolk, part-funded by the European Regional Development Fund. In first instance contact New Anglia Growth Hub and they can direct you to the right person for your needs.
  • Tech East: a not-for-profit membership organisation for East of England tech businesses
  • Suffolk Chamber of Commerce: delivers services and support to local business community including through networking events and discount members benefits
  • Bury Breakfast Club: an independent, self-governed networking group, made up of businesspeople based in and around Bury St Edmunds
  • MENTA:  offer affordable and trustworthy training, advice and key services to aspiring and established business owners across Norfolk and Suffolk.
  • @inc: co-working workspace in the heart of Bury St Edmunds.  Founded by MENTA, this new inclusive space benefits from breakout meeting spaces, private Zoom rooms, collaborative working space where ideas and contacts can be shared as well as after-work networking drink events.

Pleasure:

 

And finally, did you know:

With a bar that measures just 15ft by 7ft, The Nutshell, in Bury St Edmunds, proudly holds the title of smallest pub in Britain as confirmed in the Guinness Book of Records.  The Nutshell has been proud to serve customers jostling for a place at the bar since it first started serving beer in 1867.