Bedford Tourism Office

The book’s huge readership in languages other than English is no doubt due, in part, to the efforts of Christian missionaries. As it entered different cultures and societies it was adapted and interpreted differently, and its meanings changed significantly. This is especially obvious in the illustrations, where, for example, we see Christian in the garb of a Samurai warrior, or leaving an African hut to set off on his journey. Nevertheless there are many aspects of The Pilgrim’s Progress which reach across cultural boundaries. The story of a man on a quest for the truth is one with strong echoes in folk-tale. The heroes of Bunyan’s book are ordinary people striving to hold on to their beliefs in a hostile and uncomprehending world. Their story might offer consolation and inspiration to oppressed people in any society.

Anyone interested in Bunyan will find much to explore in Bedford and the surrounding area. He was brought up in Elstow, a little village on the outskirts of Bedford. On the village green where he played tip-cat as a boy there still stands the Moot Hall, which now contains a wonderful museum devoted to Bunyan and to rural life in the seventeenth century. At the other side of the green is the magnificent Abbey church of St Mary and St Helena, where Bunyan was baptized. Somewhat unusually, its lofty church tower stands separate from the main church building. It was here that Bunyan rang the church bells as a young man, and where, during a period of religious despair, he feared that the tower might fall on him.

In Bedford town itself, the Bunyan Meeting Free Church stands on the site where Bunyan preached in a converted barn. The church is open to visitors, and it contains part of the communion table used by the congregation in the seventeenth century, as well as many stained-glass windows depicting scenes from The Pilgrim’s Progress. Adjoining the church is the beautifully laid out Bunyan Museum, completely re-furbished and re-opened in 1998. Here are many artefacts and documents associated with Bunyan, including the anvil that he carried on his back in his work as a travelling brazier, and copies of many editions of The Pilgrim’s Progress in different languages.

Many of the surrounding villages and towns are also of great interest to Bunyan enthusiasts. The village of Stevington, to the north east of Bedford, is thought by many to have been in Bunyan’s mind as he composed The Pilgrim’s Progress. Early on in the book, Christian comes up to a cross, where a great burden on his back is loosed from his shoulders and tumbles down a hill into a sepulchre. In the centre of Stevington there is a striking medieval cross standing on a series of high steps, and just down the hill, built into a wall supporting the church, is an arched opening over a spring, known as the ‘Holy Well’. The water in this well has never dried up or frozen over, and in medieval times it was much visited by pilgrims who believed that it had healing properties. It is a most evocative and beautiful spot, well worth visiting. In nearby Ampthill may be seen the still impressive ruins of the most costly and imposing house to have been built in Bedfordshire during the seventeenth century. This was ‘Houghton House’, built in 1615 for Mary, Countess of Pembroke (sister to the more famous Sir Philip Sidney), and thought by many students of Bunyan to have been the building he had in mind when describing the ‘House Beautiful’ in The Pilgrim’s Progress.

If you would like more information about Bunyan sites in Bedfordshire, I recommend the beautifully produced illustrated guide book by John Pestell, Travel with John Bunyan, published in 2002 by Day One Publications. I myself have recently prepared a new edition of The Pilgrim’s Progress for the paperback Oxford World’s Classics series (2003). This is the first edition to include the charming little woodcut illustrations that appeared with the book in Bunyan’s lifetime, giving a sense of what the experience of the book was like for contemporary readers.
For more information about the John Bunyan Society,
visit www.arts.ualberta.ca/~dgay/Bunyan.htm

W. R. Owens, The Open University