Great charter brings ABA to Bury St Edmunds

Members of the American Bar Association (ABA) have made a flying visit to Bury St Edmunds to celebrate the town’s significant role in the history of Magna Carta.

The ‘delegation’ was welcomed to Bury last Wednesday (June 10), led by James Durant III, who was Chief of Legal Services Europe before his retirement from the USAF base, RAF Mildenhall, last summer.

The group received a guided tour of St Edmundsbury Cathedral and the Abbey ruins, before watching morris dancing and enjoying dinner at the Pilgrims’ Kitchen.

Bury’s links to Magna Carta stem from the belief that, in November 1214, 25 barons and the Archbishop of Canterbury met at its Abbey to swear an oath to force King John to put his seal to the charter at Runnymede the following year.

The ABA paid for the Magna Carta Memorial at Runnymede, erected in 1957, which is maintained by the Magna Carta Trust.

l See page 17 for a David Cameron exclusive on the charter’s 800th anniversary.