Medieval "knights" curse Bury St Edmunds development
Just after eight o clock on a cold Sunday night the first-ever public "cursing" of a redevelopment scheme was carried out in the heart of the Suffolk town of Bury St Edmunds.
A hooded priest performed the ceremony at the Cattle Market car park, currently earmarked for a £80m redevelopment scheme which will be anchored by a Debenhams store.
The department store chain was formally named as were the developers, Centros Miller and the Miller Group.
After cries of "anathema" the "priest" declared the three organisations "to be accursed by their own actions, error and love of sin".
The priest declared: "We declare that nothing they build on this land will ever prosper or bear fruit, and that this holy sanction shall lie upon this land until this temple of Mammon is torn down and a new shrine to St Edmund is raised in his town."
The "priest" added: "We declare those who despoil St Edmund's town will themselves be despoiled."
The ceremony of "commination" began at St Edmund's statue before the great west door of the Abbey of St Edmund and next to the cathedral of St James. It took place on November 20, the feast day of St Edmund, after whom the town is named.
A small number of local people, a gaggle of reporters and a couple of film crews gathered at the statute at 19:15 under the watchful eye of two policemen.
Fifteen minutes later a small procession arrived. There were armoured knights, cowled monks and a hooded priest. They were carrying a replica of St Edmund's crown.
The proceedings, organised as "a solemn religious ceremony", began at the statue. Then the group, resembling a tableau from a medieval painting, processed through the town to the redevelopment site where the formal "cursing" took place. By this time some of the party were carrying flaming torches.
As the procession moved through the town people in pubs and restaurants looked on, some amazed, some laughing. Mobile phones, doubling as cameras, were flourished. Later a stray dog joined the group.
As the procession returned to the statue of St Edmund's the group passed the offices of the borough council where 30 pieces of silver were delivered, a reminder that many in the town believe the council had "sold out" to the developers.
Afterwards, Alan Murdie, a spokesman for the self-styled Knights of Saint Edmund, said there would be further protests at stores owned by Debenhams in other parts the UK.
He also revealed that opponents of the Cattle Market redevelopment were taking legal advice on whether the government had failed to implement a European Union directive on the protection of historic sites which could yet hinder the scheme.
View further information about 'The Cattle Market Site' here.
Visit 'The Knights of Saint Edmund' website here.
Roger Milne
21 November 2005
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