We recently discovered quite a few more names, proven descendants of John Bunyan, some of whom were born as recently as the beginning of the 20th century. We are anxious to trace any descendant of those people - who probably will not realise that they are descendants of John Bunyan. So, if your surname is Bonney, Branson, Brown, Davison, Foster, Johnson or Millward and your ancestors came from one of these areas: Bozeat; Carlton: Farndish; Guilseborough; Newton Blossomville; Stagsden; Turvey then do please take a look at the January edition of the Bunyan family tree. You can download the file from the link below. If one of your ancestors is on one of the bottom rows of that tree, then do please get in touch with us.
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Bedford Borough's new solar farm is now in operation. It is sited to the west of the A6/Wilstead Road roundabout, between the waste recycling plant and the lakes. You can watch an aerial film of it below. I regret to announce that there will be no Autumn edition of the magazine. This is due to a lack of contributions!
The Spring 2022 edition has been published and delivery to Elstow residents started today. For anyone else, you are welcome to download a copy from the file link, below;
The UK's Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) has raised £100m for its Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal in just four days, which is the equivalent of more than £1m an hour since its launch. Much more will be needed.
You can donate here; https://www.dec.org.uk/appeal/ukraine-humanitarian-appeal Other ways to help; Download this picture and publish it on your social media; Elstow Post Office has new owners - Den and Peter, who started last week.
Having completed their on-site training, from this week their new opening hours come into effect; Monday to Friday 9am to 530pm. (No half-day closing). All the usual PO services are available. In the freshly-cleaned, brighter, re-arranged shop, they will be stocking everyday essentials. They already have milk and some breads (they aim to have more choice soon) plus tinned goods and everything you would expect from a small grocery shop, including greetings cards. Their telephone number is 01234 214162 Today, Elstow Parish Council took delivery of its new information board for John Bunyan's birthplace. The content was designed for the Parish Council by Clive Arnold, made by Metrosigns and installed by Daniel Lewis Landscaping. The idea of the board is to reward those pilgrims who make the short walk (only 600 paces) from Bumpy Lane, Harrowden to the site. Whilst there has been a commemorative stone there since the Festival of Britain in 1951, it was felt that it would be good to have a bit more information there about Bunyan. And, as this year is the 70th anniversary of Moot Hall opening as a museum - for the Festival of Britain - this would be an appropriate time. The new information board, Moot Hall curator Clive Arnold, and the 1951 commemorative stone. We thought of putting a picture of the content of the board here on the website but then felt that, if people want to see it, they really should go visit the site.
The location and route to Bunyan's birthplace is now clearly shown on Google Maps - something else we organised for this anniversary year! So go on, dust off your boots, go for a pleasant walk and pay your respects to our world famous author. We have now published the Parish Council's Magazine as a pdf , - downloadable here;
Moot Hall will re-open this Saturday - 7th August 2021. Do come and visit.
This year is the 70th anniversary of Moot being restored and opened as a museum - which happened in May 1951, as part of Bedfordshire County Council's contribution to the Festival of Britain. You may have noticed some of the things we, in partnership with various organisations, have been doing to celebrate this. Despite lockdown - we have a newly created illustration on the village sign on the green; new signs in Bumpy Lane, Harrowden - directing people to Bunyan's birthplace - and, in the next few weeks, an interpretation board will be installed at the birthplace. Today, Elstow Parish Council installed the new sign board on the green.
On the east side is an adapted version of the illustration that is on the Elstow 'gate' in Progress Way and, on the west side is a new version of Vanity Fair. Both illustrations are by Bedford artist Alasdair Bright. |
AuthorClive Arnold Archives
January 2024
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