Our speaker, Martyn Taylor, told us all about the ‘Inns, Alehouses and Pubs of Bury St. Edmunds’ starting roughly around the time of the 1830 Beerhouse Act which liberalised the brewing and selling of beer thus lowering its price. This resulted in a number of establishments opening up so beer could be sold from more ‘desirable parlours’ hopefully appealing to the slightly higher echelons of society. It was even hoped that the lower strata could be weaned off the easily available, but strongly alcoholic, gin! From those times, up until the 1920s Bury St. Edmunds appeared to have been saturated in all kinds of drinking venues; the oldest pub which is still operating being the Fox Inn in Eastgate Street. An enormous number have closed and are now splendid private houses scattered throughout the town; others have undergone conversions (The Suffolk Hotel) or completely new development (Everards Hotel).Martyn had a wealth of former landlord stories; he pointed out where plaques had been removed, where archways for coach and horses had stood, besides much timber framing on the front of many alehouses and inns. 
We recognised the names of most of the remaining 23 pubs in the town and their Greene King ownership, I believe. The largest is The Greengage and the smallest (smallest also in Britain, it is claimed!) is The Nutshell at around 15 X 7 feet and containing a myriad of quirky collections including a mummified cat!