We had hoped to start our Guided Tours today. We can’t do that but instead we will bring occasional 60-second snippets about the Cathedral.

We are starting with American Connections because, almost exactly 414 years ago, on April 10 1606, King James I granted an exclusive Royal Charter for Bartholomew Gosnold to settle Virginia. (The original charter did not mention a ‘Virginia Company’; this name were applied later to the overall enterprise.).

Who was Bartholomew Gosnold? Why is there a Gosnold Street in Bury St Edmunds?

Keep reading to find out more.

American Connections

New World explorers, the Magna Carta, USAF connections….. click on the audio link to discover more with photos to accompany the words. (Click on photos to enlarge).

Further information about the Cathedral’s US Connections can be found here

And additional dates and information about Bartholomew Gosnold here.

Images

‘Godspeed’ – by Jonathan Clarke, in the garden of Pilgrims’ Kitchen

Magna Carta commemorative plaque, Abbey Gardens

Shields of the barons of the Magna Carta, over the Quire arches

A kneeler/hassock, one of several in the Cathedral which make reference to US connections

Commemorative plaque to Bartholomew Gosnold and his family, Chapel of the Charnel, the Great Churchyard