ELSTOW, BEDFORDSHIRE
  • Home
  • News
  • Contact and Links
  • Local History
    • Abbey School
    • Bunyan Family
    • 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
    • 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
Picture
May Festivals
Picture
Elstow May Festival 1925
For hundreds, possibly thousands, of years, Elstow village has held a May Festival at the beginning of the month of May.    These still take place - on the Saturday of the first May Bank holiday weekend.

Originally a pagan fertility rite and an opportunity for men and women to meet up in the spring, May festivals were appropriated by the Catholic church and made into a Christian event. Elstow Abbey was, like many others, granted a royal charter to hold huge commercial fairs here.

The fairs continued after the abolition of the abbeys and, in the 1600s, when the Puritan government banned maypoles Elstow ignored that and continued to hold their celebrations. Indeed, those events were almost certainly the original inspiration for John Bunyan's "Vanity Fair" in his world famous book "The Pilgrim's Progress". 

The cattle and horse market moved, in 1900, to a purpose-built site, beside Bedford river.

From 1925 to 1965, the event was run by the village school and it attracted visitors from all over the world. To see photos from that time, visit our Picture Archive.  
may_festival_history.pdf
File Size: 66 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

may_queens_1925-2013.pdf
File Size: 649 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

Updated July 2023
poem_maypole_at_elstow_1957-1958.docx
File Size: 246 kb
File Type: docx
Download File

Picture

​To view our large archive of May Festival pictures, click here.
Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
  • Home
  • News
  • Contact and Links
  • Local History
    • Abbey School
    • Bunyan Family
    • 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
    • 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