Elstow
Elstow Abbey
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Elstow Abbey
Elstow Abbey was founded by Judith, a niece of William the Conqueror, c 1078. Some think it was in remorse for having caused the death of her husband Waltheof, the Saxon Earl of Northampton, by betraying his part in a plot against her uncle. Judith endowed the abbey with property from Elstow, Wilstead, Maulden and Kempston and by the time of the dissolution of the monasteries it was the eighth wealthiest house in England. The abbey and its inhabitants were not always over strict and one injunction ordered the nuns to stop eating with men in the buttery and to wear gowns that closed in front.
On the 26th August 1539 the abbey surrendered to Henry VIII. The Abbess and 23 nuns were granted pensions. The Abbess, Elizabeh Boyfield retired to a house in Potter Street in Bedford.
Henry VIII initially considered maintaining the abbey as a cathedral for Bedfordshire but this plan came to nothing. In 1553 the lands and buildings were granted to Sir Humphrey Radclyff. In 1616 the property was sold to Sir Thomas Hillersdon - for £700 - who built a mansion out of the stone from the abbey. The ruins are still visible today. About this time the chancel, tower and lady chapel were demolished leaving the nave as a parish church.
In 1880-82 the Abbey was restored by Samuel Whitbread II. He employed Thomas Jobson Jackson to oversee the work.
The site of the abbey was excavated between 1965 and 1972. No traces of a preceding Saxon church were found but the excavators did find evidence of early Saxon cremation burials and Roman pottery. In 1967 stone masons repairing the east wall of Elstow Abbey church found the base of a ninth century Saxon cross shaft reused as building stone. The stone was decorated with dragons and patterns.
Elstow Abbey church has many associations with John Bunyan. In 1628 he was baptised in the church and he attended services there for the first twenty five years of his life. He also rang the bells in the detached tower (one of only two in Bedfordshire). The tower has been suggested by some writers as the original for Castle Beelzebub in Pilgrim's Progress.
Sources:
- Church guides in the local studies collection of Bedford Central Library
- Elstow Abbey by David Baker in the Archaeological Journal Vol. 139, 1982
- Elstow Abbey: an illustrated history by Rachel Marchbank, Friends of Elstow Abbey, 2003
- Elstow Moot Hall and village by Bernard West in the Archaeological Journal, Vol. 139, 1982
Further reading:
- Excavations at Elstow Abbey 1965-1970, third interim report by David Baker in Bedfordshire Archaeological Journal, Vol. 6, 1971
- Recent discoveries at the Benedictine Abbey of Elstow by David Baker in the Bedfordshire Magazine, Vol. 11, No. 87, Winter 1968, pp. 286-292
