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Picture source: Darkstar

The Oddfellows Arms was situated at 44 College Street. This pub was previously known as The Old Angel and is now in residential use.

The Old Angel was situated at 44 College Street. I was born next door to this pub in 1948. We lived at Nos 45 & 46 (part of 46 was once my dad’s grocer’s shop but that closed in about 1951). Like everywhere else in Bury at the time, this was a Greene King pub and we were literally round the corner from the brewery. Our house was rented from Greene King. The Old Angel landlords were Mr & Mrs Russell. We moved out of Bury St Edmunds in November 1957 and I’m not sure when the pub closed down. The pub cellars went under No 45. When our floor collapsed and had to be mended, I remember staring down into the cellar and the barrels.

Bridget Danby, nee Hogg (July 2016)

Listed building details:

House; originally 2 separate houses, later public house. Both C16 with later alterations. Timber-framed and rendered; jettied along the street frontage, the jetty to the southern part underbuilt in painted brick. Black glazed pantiles to the southern part, C20 plaintiles to the north; rear with old plaintiles. EXTERIOR: 2 storeys and cellars; attic to part; complex plan, with 3 gabled extensions and a single-storey stable range at the rear. The 2 parts of the house are linked by a wide carriage entrance cut through both end frames. The southern part has an end chimney-stack and another chimney inserted into the front slope of the roof, both with plain red brick shafts. 2 window range, all sashes with a single vertical bar in flush cased frames. The shallow remains of the jetty are covered with a plain wooden fascia board. A central door with 4 sunk panels; doorcase with fluted pilasters and cornice. Double doors with diagonal boarding to the carriage entrance. The northern part (formerly No.45) has old render with comb pargeting. A 2-light small-paned casement window to the upper storey. A larger 2-light small-paned casement window to the ground storey with moulded architraves has a 4-panelled half-glazed door beside it in a plain wooden surround. A gabled dormer in the front roof-slope has plain bargeboards and a 2-light casement window with a single bar to lights. The jetty is supported by 2 solid brackets. INTERIOR: a fine range of cellars below both parts of the building include a barrel chute still in situ at the rear. Below the former No.45 the walls are lined with re-used stone blocks, including some circular pieces from former columns. The southern part of the interior is in 2 long bays which form a single large room on the ground storey; double roll-mouldings to the main cross-beams; joists covered. On the upper storey, lambs' tongue stops to the ceiling beams and main posts with long tapered jowls. The remaining framing concealed. In one rear wing a filled-in original fireplace retains a timber lintel with double ogee-moulding. The northern half (formerly No.45) is in 2 bays, part of one bay being taken up by the carriage entrance, with its original ceiling cut away and raised, so that the upper room has a floor on 2 levels. Chamfered main cross-beams with lambs' tongue stops to the ground storey. On the upper storey, exposed studding and 2 trusses with long arched braces to the cambered tie-beams. There are only the main components to the end truss, which was evidently butted up against a pre-existent house. Along the front wall, a blocked 5-light original window with diamond mullions in situ and housings for another similar window. Roof-structures concealed.

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