News and Events in Bungay

COUNTRYFILE Magazine Recommends a Visit to Bungay

The delights of Bungay as a tranquil tourist destination have been discovered by Countryfile Magazine, the ultimate guide to the countryside.  Click here to find out out where Countryfile recommends you stay, eat and visit, and what makes Bungay such a 'picture postcard dream'!

ARCHAEOLOGICAL DIG Finds Iron Age Remains

An exciting suspected Iron Age find has been made a few miles from Bungay at Geldeston.  The remains of a road, which could have been used by the Iceni tribe before the Roman invasion, have been found following flood defence work.  The find will be featured on BBC Two's 'Digging for Victory' programme in September.  Further information is available here.

BUNGAY THROUGH The Seasons

Our new Town Recorder, Andrew Atterwill, has put together a wonderful photo diary of Bungay through a year. Click here to see our beautiful Town through all the seasons, showing Bungay is a wonderful place to live and visit at any time of year.

BUNGAY CHERRY Tree Angling Club Wins Lottery Award

Bungay's Cherry Tree Angllng Club has gained a Big Lottery "Awards for All" grant for work on its three-acre Earsham Lay-By Pit.  Nearly £10,000 will be put towards the replacement of 25 year old wooden platforms with strong new wooden stands.  A leaflet detailing holidays for the disabled will also be produced as part of this funding.  This, combined with £5,000 spent on stocking fish, means that the Club will be an excellent place for locals and tourists alike to visit.  For further information, see the Club's website here. 

LOCAL BUNGAY Firm Wins Countryside Alliance Award

Nursey and Son's sheepskin company in Bungay has won a prestigious section of the Countryside Alliance Awards 2010.  In the Best Traditional Business Award category, sponsored by the Daily Telegraph, Nursey's beat strong opposition from Mitchells Dairy in Aberdeenshire and Wildwood Coppice in West Sussex.  The company was founded in 1790 and still maintains today the same high standards it has always had.  To read more about the company, read the Daily Telegraph's article here.

THE GUARDIAN Newspaper Features Bungay

Bungay is the focus of an article in The Guardian.  Find out how best to spend a weekend in 'the perfect country retreat', as recommended by journalist Oliver Bennett.  Click here for the article.

JUSTICE can be seen again in Bungay

The historic figure of Justice atop the town's historic Butter Cross was officially unveiled by the town reeve, John Groom, following a £3000 makeover as a crowd watched from the Market Place. Mr Groom scaled the scaffolding to perform the ceremony, accompanied by the town crier, Les Knowles, who rang his bell from on high to announce the historic moment for Bungay as one of the town's most photographed figures was put on view again.

Afterwards he said: “The Butter Cross and Justice are a great focal point for Bungay, featured on every holiday brochure and promotion of Bungay. I have never seen Justice as close up as this before, and to see her actual sandals and the facial features the makeover has revealed is fantastic. “Once the scaffolding is down she will be fully revealed in all her glory and that is going to be good for the town.”

The unique figure, one of few anywhere in which Justice is not blindfolded, was cast in lead in the London workshops of Henry and John Cheere, and placed in position in 1754, secured on an oak base. Over the ensuing two and a half centuries maintenance has been carried out at regular intervals.

The latest major refurbishment saw 28 layers of paint stripped off, and she was repaired, with her sandals revealed for the first time for many years, re-primed and repainted by Carl Cook and Julia Nuttall, of AHH Scaffolding. Working under the guidance of experts, they used special paint stripper to gradually remove a 4cm layer of paint which had built up over the years.

The last big operation for Justice was in 1976 when the rotten oak base was replaced by Bungay carpenter Alf Plummer, of Garden Close, the figure having to be craned from her position to allow that to happen. Alf, now 90, was among those watching yesterday's ceremony, along with the Mayor at the time, Cll John Warnes, feoffees of Bungay Town Trust, which owns the Butter Cross, and many interested onlookers