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John Bunyan - his Family and Life

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​John Bunyan's Birthplace
 
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Article about the unveiling of the Bunyan Birthplace memorial stone in 1952;
birthplace_opening.pdf
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​Although the Bunyans' cottage no longer exists, a large granite stone marks the site.​

​How to find Bunyan's Birthplace;  for detailed directions, routes, maps and photos click; HERE
​

​​John Bunyan Trail - Maps and Route
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The John Bunyan trail takes in all of the places in Bedfordshire that have a Bunyan connection.
It starts in Pavenham village (six miles north of Bedford)southwards to Elstow Village. Then from Elstow to Sundon Hills - down in the south western corner of Bedfordshire.
Below are downloadable Maps of these two sections, plus a document describing the route and a short book about the Trail. 
bunyan_trail_map_part_1.pdf
File Size: 1856 kb
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bunyan_trail_map_part_2.pdf
File Size: 1309 kb
File Type: pdf
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the_john_bunyan_trail_part_1.doc
File Size: 53 kb
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john_bunyan_trail_-_book.pdf
File Size: 2010 kb
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​John Bunyan's Family and Life
The origins of the Elstow Bunyan family are somewhat uncertain but here is everything we know. 

In 1199, a  court of the King’s Bench determined that Willium Bunion of Wilstead held (of the Abbess of Elstow) a virgate (30 acres) of land at Wilstead. 

The Rev'd Dr. John Brown (19th century biographer of John Bunyan) states that, possibly in the 13th century, the Bunyan family at Pullokes Hille (Pulloxhill in Bedfordshire) divided - some moving to Chalgrave,  others to Elstow.  Dr. Brown - a scrupulous historian - did not state the source of his information but he was not given to stating such things unless he had seen it in a source document.  As both villages are within 10 miles of Pulloxhill, this claim is certainly plausable.   

At some point, some of the Chalgrave family appear to have moved to the nearby village of Flitton .  Then there arises an interesting co-incidence:  The Flitton Bunyans' family tree - dated from the 17th century onwards, shows that they commonly named their male children 'Thomas' - as did the Elstow Bunyans. 

For these reasons, we have  included John Boynun of Pullokes Hille and  a few others named in documents from those early times, near the top of our tree as a possible ancestors of the Elstow Bunyans. 
See also; http://www.mikesclark.com/genealogy/bunyan.html

Although John Bunyan had six children, we have never discovered any living descendants. Several families have claimed him as their ancestor but, upon careful examination of their family trees, fundamental errors were discovered which showed these claims to be erroneous eg. many find a Thomas Bunyan born in Flitton and wrongly assume that he is John's son Thomas. 
Very recently, we discovered descendants of John's daughter Sarah, who were alive at the beginning of the 20th century, so the possibility that we may one day  discover living descendants  has increased significantly. So, if you are descended from any of the people in the bottom row of the latest version of the Bunyan Family Tree, do please contact the curator of Moot Hall via his website.

You can download a PDF of the Elstow Bunyan family's tree via the link immediately below.  There are also a number of Bunyan-related articles that you may find of interest.
bun_family_tree_jan_2024.pdf
File Size: 202 kb
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life_of_john_bunyan.doc
File Size: 35 kb
File Type: doc
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bunyans_as_landowners.pdf
File Size: 908 kb
File Type: pdf
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bunyan_pulloxhill.pdf
File Size: 1890 kb
File Type: pdf
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bunyans_publisher.docx
File Size: 382 kb
File Type: docx
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bunyan_sig_dates.doc
File Size: 32 kb
File Type: doc
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Joyce Godber's "John Bunyan of Bedfordshire" booklet.  
(as the maximum permitted file size on this site is 10mb., we have  split this document into two pdfs: The first contains the text and the second, the illustrations.
jgodber_jb_of_beds.pdf
File Size: 6709 kb
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godber_illusurations.pdf
File Size: 5739 kb
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​John Bunyan and the English Civil War

​John enlisted with Cromwell's Parliamentary army and was based at the garrison at Newport Pagnell.
muster_roll_john_bunyan.pdf
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muster_map.pdf
File Size: 5397 kb
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More information can be found at this site:
Cromwell's Garrison Town - Exhibition

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​Imprisonment
imprisonment_pt1.pdf
File Size: 131 kb
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imprisonment_pt2.pdf
File Size: 183 kb
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proclamation_against_conventicles.pdf
File Size: 898 kb
File Type: pdf
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​The best-selling book of all time.

John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress held the world-wide 'best selling book ' title for 350 years. 
The Pilgrim's Progress has only been out-sold in very recent times - by JK Rowling's Harry Potter series - but whether this will continue to be the case remains to be seen!
​

​The Pilgrim's Progress
- Animated film



​Bunyan's Grave

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​In 1688, whilst on horseback from Reading, Berkshire to the house of his friend, grocer John Strudwick of Snow Hill in the City of London, Bunyan was caught in a storm and fell ill with a fever.

He died in Strudwick's house on the morning of 31 August 1688 and was buried in a tomb, belonging to Strudwick, 
in Bunhill Fields Burial ground, ​38 City Road, London EC1Y 2BG 

The  main entrance to the grounds is on the western side of City Road. Bunyan's tomb is in the south side of the grounds, at the end of a wide walkway. (There is a leaflet and site plan,that you can download, below.)
bunhill-fields-leaflet.pdf
File Size: 1384 kb
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​Education - Bunyan Round Table group

In an effort to promote knowledge of Bunyan and his works, in 2018 a group called "Bunyan Round Table" was set up.

The group in secured funding to supply every school in Bedford with a teaching pack about Bunyan and The Pilgrims Progress.

To encourage wider education about Bunyan and the Pilgrim's Progress, teachers from any school or church may obtain free copies of the Bunyan/ Pilgrims Progress  Curriculum and Frieze. Go to; 
https://bunyansbedford.weebly.com/teaching-materials.html

The group also tried to 'brand' Bedford as the 'home of John Bunyan', in the same way that Stratford is known as the home of Shakespeare. They managed to get all the main roads into Bedford signed to announce that it is the home of Bunyan and The Pilgrims Progress. The first entry gate  into Elstow was opened in October 2019 and more gates will be built soon.   See; https://elstow.weebly.com/events--news/bunyansbedford

The group hosted the premiere of the new animated film of The Pilgrim's Progress at Cineworld Bedford in October 2019 and also set up a website;  John Bunyan's Bedford


​To view our archive of Bunyan-related pictures, click here

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  • Home
  • News
  • Contact and Links
  • Local History
    • Abbey School
    • Bedford Racecourse
    • Bunyan Family
    • Chapel & Education
    • Evacuees
    • Hillersden Family
    • May Festival
    • Miscellaneous
    • Moot Hall
    • Nirex
    • Radcliffe Family
    • The Abbey
  • Picture Archive
    • Elstow in the snow
    • Exhibits at Moot Hall
    • John Bunyan
    • May Festivals >
      • 1920s
      • 1930s
      • 1940s
      • 1950s
      • 1960s
      • 1970s & 80s
      • 2000s
      • 2010s
      • 2020s
    • Modern Elstow >
      • Abbey Fields
      • Abbey Church
      • Bunyan's Mead
      • Church End
      • High Street
      • Moot Hall
      • People & Events
      • Pilgrim House
      • Southern Elstow
      • The Green
      • The Swan development
      • West End
    • Old Elstow >
      • Abbey Church
      • Bunyan's Cottage
      • By-pass
      • Church End
      • High Street
      • Moot Hall
      • Schools
      • Sport