Bungay 

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Historical notes about the Town of Bungay

It gathers itself about its ancient castle, and round about it the River Waveney winds delightfully among the marshes and meadows.  The houses group about the market-place, and looking down on the market from an electric standard is a black dog on a fork of lightening.  It shows which way the wind is blowing, but every boy of Bungay will tell you it stands for the devil, who came to Bungay long ago and quickly went away.  This is no place for him.

It was during a terrible thunderstorm in 1577, when Drake was fitting out the Golden Hind to sail through storm and tempest round the world.  There were people who swore that they saw the devil in the form of a black dog sweep through St Mary’s Church in this great storm:

All down the church in midst of fire

The hellish monster flew;

And passing onward to the choir

He many people slew.

The people were in church for the morning service when down poured the rain and thunder shook the building, and suddenly a flash of lightning rent the stones, twisted the wires and wheels of the clock in the tower, and printed on the minds of the awestruck people an impression of a black dog streaking down the aisle and leaving two dead men in its wake.  We may think it some little black mongrel hiding under a seat, scared out of its life to helter-skelter out of the church when the storm broke, but Bungay knows better.  There is a tract about it in the British Museum, written at the time, and to witness if they lie the people of Bungay have put up this black dog high above the marketplace, designed by a Bungay artist, made by a Bungay ironfounder, and paid for by the Bungay Town Reeve, as they call the mayor in this old part of the world.

How old the office of Town Reeve is nobody knows, but it is older than the office of mayor, which the Normans introduced.  It goes back to the Saxon days when each town was governed by a Town Reeve, who was responsible to the County Shire Reeve (sheriff), who in his turn was responsible to the King.  There are Port Reeves and Fen Reeves still existing with some authority over their ports or fens, but we do not know of any other Town Reeve, and it was interesting to find here when we called (in 1938) that for the first time on record the Town Reeve of Bungay was a lady.

The castle stands on a high mound in the heart of the town, the great ruined fortress of Hugh Bigod, one of the plundering barons King Stephen tried to bring to order 800 years ago.  It was the castle of the ballad which tells us how King Henry the First

Marshalled his merry men all

And marched to Lord Bigod’s castle wall.

Here is still much of this famous castle wall, of which fragments have been brought to light in our time by excavators under the watchful eye of Mr Hugh Braun.  Mr Braun found during these excavations the cauldrons in which the men cooked their food when building the castle, and heaps of mortar lying in broken pots about them.  The central feature of the castle was the great keep, of which the lower storey remains; much of the material in its massive walls has been used for making roads.  The entrance tower of the keep was the biggest in England except that at Porchester, and at the base of the tower was the prison, now approached by a remarkable tunnel, made by Henry the Second’s engineer in an attempt to destroy the keep after Hugh Bigod’s surrender in 1174.

Round the ruins of the keep rise the remains of a lofty wall; through them we enter the castle by the fine twin-towered gatehouse.  The deep pit is now crossed by a timbered bridge, the successor of the old drawbridge, and we may see the slots for the counterpoise by which the old bridge was raised.  On important occasions the banner of the Bigods is still flown over this gatehouse.

The black dog tells us of the thunderstorm of 1577, and a beam in one of Bungay’s churches tells us of the fire in 1688.  The old churches have lost three of their companions, but have to keep them company a remarkable 17^th century Butter Cross, one of the finest in East Anglia, set up on the site of an earlier one the year after the Great Fire.  It is an octagonal structure, with pillared arches supporting a dome over which Justice stands holding a sword and scales.  Until early last century there was a prisoner’s cage and a dungeon inside, and there is still a reminder of our barbarous days in the stocks and wrist-irons of a whipping-post fastened to one of the pillars.  The beautiful 16^th century house which escaped the fire has a lovely carved and traceried front.  It was probably the home of a prosperous merchant, for there are merchant’s marks on the walls.  The lower storey has been removed to make way for shop windows, but the old black oak above is rich with carving, and on the corbels of the three long windows and the side panels are heads of angels and carvings of David and Goliath.

The two churches are St Mary’s and Holy Trinity.  St Mary’s is 15^th century, but with an earlier north porch and a later interior, for the church was completely gutted inside by the fire; the date of the restoration is on a carved boss in the aisle.  The medieval tower remains and is most impressive, with its 15^th century pinnacles rising from the turrets, and a border of shields below.  A beam with the record of the fire is in the belfry, being cut with the words, “The fire was mighty.”  The nave is wide and lofty, with a 15^th century clerestory saved from the fire.  The chapel has an ancient oak reredos carved with the Resurrection, Elizabethan and Jacobean chairs, and a 17^th century altar table.  There is a charmingly carved piscina with a canopy at each side and smaller ones above.  The font is 17^th century.  The very effective west window with graceful tracery is filled with ruby glass, and in other windows are scenes from the life of Christ by John Winter, a Bungay artist of the last century.

Holy Trinity stood in olden days with two other churches in one churchyard.  It has probably the oldest stones remaining in their original position in the town, for it has a Saxon window with a triangular head in the round tower which is said to have been built in the time of the Confessor.  The tower is of remarkable interest as belonging to the 11^th, 14^th, and 18^th centuries, for the battlements were set at the top in the year 1400, and the whole upper part of the tower appears to have been refashioned when George the Third was coming to the throne.  It was then that the border of shields was removed and set in the stonework above the windows.  The north wall of the church, like the tower itself, has still marks of its Saxon origin. 

The 15^th century porch has a turret and an upper room, and scratched on the south wall is a dial from the days before the clocks.  On a medieval pillar of the nave arcade are two brackets of carved foliage, and along the organ loft is carving done by a rector in our time.  The chancel is panelled in old oak, and there is a black oak pulpit which was made for five shillings in 1558.  It is one of the most interesting pieces of woodwork in Bungay, and the churchwardens have a record of the payment.

The founder of Bungay’s grammar school, Lionel Throgmorton, lies in Holy Trinity, and we read on a stone that he “happily finished his life in 1599.”  There is a tribute to General Robert Kelso, who served the Army in every quarter of the globe for 43 years, and a window with figures of Paul, Timothy, and Eunice, set in clear glass, is in memory of the Fallen in the Great War.  Under the aisle lie the remains of Margaret Dallinger, who was Prioress of the Convent for the last generation of the 15^th century; her small memorial brass has been fixed on one of the pews above her grave.

The Roman Catholics of Bungay have a 19^th century church enriched with much fine work.  It is completely lined with panelling, carved with the Stations of the Cross.  On the magnificent and lofty reredos is the central figure of the Madonna surrounded by adoring angels and richly canopied saints.  In the east window are figures of Our Lord and St Elizabeth, with the historic figures of Sir Thomas More and John Fisher, two of the noblest victims of Henry the Eighth.  Over the west door is a statue of Kind Edmund the Martyr.

It was at Bungay’s grammar school, founded in Elizabethan days, that the poet Crabbe received some of his schooling, and to this quiet town there came also a distinguished refugee from the French Revolution, Francois Rene, Vicomte de Chateaubriand.  He had been left for dead on a battlefield, and fled to England, where he supported himself by giving French lessons at Bungay.  He was a great traveller and writer, and had the courage to scorn Napoleon’s offer of office; but he was disappointed in not becoming Prime Minister, though he served two years as ambassador in London.

Bungay has long been the home of printers, good king’s printers, for they print the King’s England.  Long before Mr Gladstone abolished the paper duty and made cheap paper possible, John Childs of Bungay was fighting for cheap books, and printing them.  He lived in the town for about 50 years, and was probably the first man not belonging to the Quakers who went to prison rather than be taxed for the teaching of a Church in which he did not believe.  There was much agitation about his case, and even that great gentleman Sir Robert Peel forgot his fine manners in making a scornful reference to the Bungay martyr; the spoiled child, they called him.  But he is remembered today for his championship of cheap and good literature.  Twice his firm gave evidence before a Select Committee of the House of Commons, and his good work has been carried on by the famous printing firm Richard Clay and Company Ltd.

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Historic images from around the Town of Bungay

This small selection of historic images of Bungay are from our British National Image Library. You may click on the thumbnail pictures to view larger versions and read what information we have regarding the image.

Bungay Castle

Bungay Parish Church

River Waveney at Bungay

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Hotels, Apartments and B&B's in Bungay

The visitor accommodation options for Bungay listed below are supplied by LATE ROOMS and BOOKING.COM from a selection of over 16,000 hotels located throughout the UK.

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 The Old Grain Store B&B 

 

 Short Stay Bungay 

 

 Sunnyside 

 

 Swallows Nest 

 

 Three Ash Cottage 

 

 Willow Barn