St Edmundsbury was a

local government district The districts of England (also known as local authority districts or local government districts to distinguish from unofficial city districts) are a level of subnational division of England used for the purposes of local government. As the st ...

and

borough A borough is an administrative division in various English-speaking countries. In principle, the term ''borough'' designates a self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely. History In the Middle Ag ...

Suffolk Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include Lowes ...

, England. It was named after its main town,

Bury St Edmunds Bury St Edmunds (), commonly referred to locally as Bury, is a historic market town, market, cathedral town and civil parish in Suffolk, England.OS Explorer map 211: Bury St.Edmunds and Stowmarket Scale: 1:25 000. Publisher:Ordnance Survey – ...

. The second town in the district was Haverhill. The population of the district was 111,008 at the 2011 Census. The district was formed on 1 April 1974 under the

Local Government Act 1972 The Local Government Act 1972 (c. 70) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that reformed local government in England and Wales on 1 April 1974. It was one of the most significant Acts of Parliament to be passed by the Heath Gov ...

(along with the abolition of the county of

West Suffolk West Suffolk may refer to the following places in Suffolk, England: * West Suffolk (county), a county until 1974 * West Suffolk District, a local government district established in 2019 * West Suffolk (UK Parliament constituency), an electoral dist ...

) by the merger of the Borough of

Haverhill Urban District Haverhill is the name of different places around the world: United Kingdom *Haverhill, Suffolk, England United States * Haverhill, Florida, city in Florida, United States. * Haverhill, Iowa, city in Iowa, United States. * Haverhill, Kansas, city i ...

Clare Rural District Clare Rural District was a rural district in the county of West Suffolk, England. It was created in 1894, comprising those parishes in the Risbridge rural sanitary district which were in Suffolk. On 1 April 1935 it was enlarged by the additi ...

and Thingoe Rural District. Until March 2009, its main offices were in Bury St Edmunds (Angel Hill and Western Way). Thereafter, a purpose-built complex named

West Suffolk House West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some R ...

housed both St Edmundsbury and Suffolk County Council staff. In 2008, the Council submitted a proposal to the Boundary Commission which would see it as central to a new West Suffolk unitary council. However, the proposal was rejected and no unitary scheme for Suffolk was adopted. (For more details see also

.) In October 2011, St Edmundsbury Borough Council and Forest Heath District Council agreed to have one chief executive, a shared management team and a combined workforce. St Edmundsbury and Forest Heath were merged on 1 April 2019 to form the new

district.

List of communities

Freedom of the Borough

The following people and military units have received the

Freedom of the Borough The Freedom of the City (or Borough in some parts of the UK) is an honour bestowed by a municipality upon a valued member of the community, or upon a visiting celebrity or dignitary. Arising from the medieval practice of granting respected ...

of St Edmundsbury.

Individuals

Councillor A councillor is an elected representative for a local government council in some countries. Canada Due to the control that the provinces have over their municipal governments, terms that councillors serve vary from province to province. Unl ...

Ronald Hartley: 1999.

Military Units

* 3rd Air Force,

USAF The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Sign ...

: 2000. * The

Normandy Veterans' Association The Normandy Veterans' Association (NVA) was an association formed in 1981 of ex-servicemen and women who served in the 1944 Normandy invasion. The association was represented at the 70th anniversary of D-Day in Normandy in June 2014. Due to dwi ...

(Bury St Edmunds and District Branch No35): 2004. * 1st Battalion The

Royal Anglian Regiment The Royal Anglian Regiment (R ANGLIAN) is an infantry regiment of the British Army. It consists of two Regular battalions and one Reserve battalion. The modern regiment was formed in 1964, making it the oldest of the Line Regiments now operating i ...

: 2006. * 3 Regiment

Army Air Corps Army Air Corps may refer to the following army aviation corps: * Army Air Corps (United Kingdom), the army aviation element of the British Army * Philippine Army Air Corps (1935–1941) * United States Army Air Corps (1926–1942), or its p ...

(

Wattisham Wattisham is a village and civil parish near to the town of Stowmarket in Suffolk, England. From the 2011 Census the population of the parish was 110, according to the ONS, included in the civil parish of Hitcham, Suffolk, Hitcham. Wattisham Air ...

): 2010. https://www.westsuffolk.gov.uk/Council/Whos_who/upload/Freedom-of-the-Borough.pdf

Arms

References