Bures is a

village A village is a human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. Although villages are often located in rural areas, the term urban v ...

in eastern England that straddles the

Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...

Suffolk Suffolk ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and East Anglia. It is bordered by Norfolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Essex to the south, and Cambridgeshire to the west. Ipswich is the largest settlement and the county ...

border, made up of two

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

es: Bures Hamlet in Essex and Bures St. Mary in Suffolk.

Division

The place is bisected by the River Stour, the county boundary from the end of its estuary to near its source. The village is most often referred to collectively, as Bures. On the respective banks are two

es: Bures Hamlet in the Braintree district of Essex, and Bures St. Mary in the Babergh district of Suffolk. The village is a post town and its pre-1996 (obsolete)

postal county The postal counties of the United Kingdom, now known as former postal counties, were postal subdivisions in routine use by the Royal Mail until 1996. The purpose of the postal county – as opposed to any other kind of county – was to aid the ...

was Suffolk.

Landmarks and amenities

On the

left bank In geography, a bank is the land alongside a body of water. Different structures are referred to as ''banks'' in different fields of geography. In limnology (the study of inland waters), a stream bank or river bank is the terrain alongsid ...

is the medieval-core church of St Mary the Virgin housing eight bells with the largest weighing 21 cwt. They were augmented from six to eight bells in 1951 by Gillett and Johnston of Croydon. In terms of the ecclesiastical parish, and thus history before the invention of civil parishes in the 1870s there is no division, save as to county; all falls into Bures St Mary, which extends to a similar distance on each side of the river. The Bures Dragon

Approximately east of the village, on the edge of the Dedham Vale (

Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty An Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB; , AHNE) is one of 46 areas of countryside in England, Wales, or Northern Ireland that has been designated for conservation due to its significant landscape value. Since 2023, the areas in England an ...

), is a unique

geoglyph A geoglyph is a large design or motif – generally longer than – produced on the ground by durable elements of the landscape, such as stones, stone fragments, gravel, or earth. A positive geoglyph is formed by the arrangement and alignment ...

, a chalk outline of a

dragon A dragon is a Magic (supernatural), magical legendary creature that appears in the folklore of multiple cultures worldwide. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions, but European dragon, dragons in Western cultures since the Hi ...

, which was created as part of the

Diamond Jubilee A diamond jubilee celebrates the 60th anniversary of a significant event related to a person (e.g. accession to the throne or wedding, among others) or the 60th anniversary of an institution's founding. The term is also used for 75th annivers ...

celebrations in 2012. The shape of a dragon relates to a legend from the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

that tells the story of the knight Sir Richard Waldegrave, whose servants attempted to kill a dragon, but failed due to its tough hide. A viewpoint of the dragon can be accessed on a public footpath, close to St. Stephen's Chapel, the oldest building in the parish. The

Archbishop of Canterbury The archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and a principal leader of the Church of England, the Primus inter pares, ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the bishop of the diocese of Canterbury. The first archbishop ...

dedicated the site to St. Stephen on

Saint Stephen's Day Saint Stephen's Day, also called the Feast of Saint Stephen, is a Christian saint's day to commemorate Saint Stephen, the first Christian martyr or protomartyr, celebrated on 26 December in Western Christianity and 27 December in Eastern Ch ...

in 1218. The Chapel of St. Stephen, which was the private chapel of the Manor of Tany, or Tauney, contains the effigies of the 5th, 8th, and 11th Earls of Oxford from the

House of de Vere The House of de Vere was an old and powerful English nobility, English aristocratic family who derived their name from Ver, Manche, Ver (department Manche, canton Gavray), in Lower Normandy, France. History The family's Normans, Norman f ...

. This chapel had fallen into disuse after the

Reformation The Reformation, also known as the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation, was a time of major Theology, theological movement in Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the p ...

, and became, among other things, a

barn A barn is an agricultural building usually on farms and used for various purposes. In North America, a barn refers to structures that house livestock, including cattle and horses, as well as equipment and fodder, and often grain.Allen G ...

. Hence its local name of Chapel Barn. It was restored to its present condition in the 1930s by members of the Probert family, and re-consecrated. It has long been popularly held to stand on the traditional site of the coronation of

Edmund the Martyr Edmund the Martyr (also known as St Edmund or Edmund of East Anglia, died 20 November 869) was king of East Anglia from about 855 until his death. Few historical facts about Edmund are known, as the kingdom of East Anglia was devastated by t ...

, crowned King of the

East Saxons The Kingdom of the East Saxons (; ), referred to as the Kingdom of Essex , was one of the seven traditional kingdoms of the Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy. It was founded in the 6th century and covered the territory later occupied by the counties of Essex ...

on Christmas Day 855 or 856, as corroboration of which the chronicler Galfridus de Fontibus described the coronation as having taken place at "Bures, which is an ancient royal hill". The De Veres the Earls of Oxford, were the great family of this border region, their star and boar decorating such great churches as those of Dedham, East Bergholt, Castle Hedingham and Lavenham among others, including

Earls Colne Earls Colne is a village in Essex, England named after the River Colne, Essex, River Colne, on which it stands, and the Earls of Oxford who held the manor of Earls Colne from before 1086 to 1703. History Manor of Earls Colne In the time of ...

itself. They inherited

Colne Priory Colne Priory at Earls Colne, Essex was a Benedictine priory, initially a dependent cell of Abingdon Abbey, Berkshire (now in Oxfordshire). It was founded by Aubrey de Vere I and his wife Beatrice in or before 1111. One piece of research suggests ...

at the Dissolution, and used the chapel there as their principal burial place until the early 18th century. The village is served by Bures railway station. Bures United F.C. is a football team with several sides.

References

External links

Bures Parish ChurchBures-online Community Web SiteBures at WarBures United FC
{{Babergh Villages in Suffolk Villages in Essex Babergh District Braintree District