(Below): The Abbey Gate, English Provincial School, c. 1710.

(Below): The Norman Tower, watercolour, by Samuel Read, c. 1850.

(Below): Autumn Fair on Angel Hill, watercolour, by Joseph Clarendon Smith, 1808.

(Below): The opening of the railway between Ipswich and Bury St. Edmunds in 1846, English Provincial School.

The first woman to serve as a town councillor in Bury St. Edmunds was Mrs. Eva Wollaston Greene. She was also the first lady mayor during two periods of office, 1928 and 1931. In 1933 she presented the large collection of topographical prints collected by John, her husband, to the borough. John Greene who died in 1925, founded the firm of solicitors in Guildhall Street, and his family were connected with the Greene King brewery.

The topographical prints date mainly from the eighteenth century. They include some fine views of Angel Hill and the abbey precincts by Jacob Kendall (1741-1789) who had an engraving, framing and print-selling business on Cook Row (now Abbeygate Street). He was an associate of the artist Henry Bunbury and it is thought that Bunbury added the elegant and lively figures to some of Kendall's compositions - e.g. A View in the Churchyard 1786 and the Ascent of Captain Poole in a Balloon, 1785.

(Above): Angel Hill, engraving, by Jacob Kendall, second version 1777.

Other notable artists represented in this collection include Henry Davy (? 1780-1833), an architect from Ipswich who produced a series of etchings of important Suffolk buildings in 1818 and 1827, and William Pickett (fl. 1792-1820) whose work is represented by a set of four fine coloured aquatints.

(Above): St. Edmunds' Abbey in the Olden Times, watercolour, by Arthur Lankester, 1895.

In addition to the Greene Collection, the topography room displays other prints and paintings representing important chapters in the history of Bury St. Edmunds. These include two Victorian prints illustrating artists' impressions of the meeting of the local barons at the high altar of the abbey to discuss the drawing up of the Magna Charta; it is thought that the original draft of this document was signed here before being presented to King John at Runnymede in 1215. A watercolour of 1883 by William Kimber-Hardy is another artist's impression of how the abbey may have looked before the Dissolution in 1538. Joseph Clarendon Smith records the Fair on Angel Hill 1808, a very popular annual event held in the autumn which had to be discontinued later in the nineteenth century because of the drunken and rowdy behaviour it attracted. A naive oil painting records the Opening of the Railway between Ipswich and Bury St. Edmunds in 1846.