Moot Hall, Elstow

The building was originally commissioned as a market hall to serve Elstow Abbey.{{cite web|url=https://www.bedford.gov.uk/leisure-parks-and-sport/arts-and-culture/history-and-heritage/moot-hall|title=Moot Hall|publisher=Bedfordshire Council|access-date=7 April 2023}} It was designed in the Tudor style, built in timber frame in-filled with wattle and daub and was completed around 1500.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cnHW7TjQ8b4C |title=Bedfordshire and the County of Huntingdon and Peterborough (Buildings of England Series)|first=Nikolaus |last=Pevsner|year= 2002 |page=87|publisher=Yale University Press|isbn=978-0300095814 }} The original design involved an asymmetrical main frontage of four bays facing onto Church End. On the ground floor, the first three bays from the west end featured round headed doorways which provided access to the original shop units. The first floor involved extensive use of jettied timber framing allowing the creation of extra space for the meeting room on that floor. The building was fenestrated by bi-partite casement windows on the ground floor and by single casement windows on the first floor. The roof was formed by rows of clay tiles.

In addition to being used as a manorial court, the room on the first floor was used for hearings of the court of piepowders which resolved commercial disputes among merchants.{{cite web|url=https://moothall.weebly.com/uploads/2/2/0/1/22015178/moothistory_pdf.pdf |title=Elstow and Moot Hall: A Brief History|publisher=Pilgrim Publishing|year=2014|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20190125183158/https://moothall.weebly.com/uploads/2/2/0/1/22015178/moothistory_pdf.pdf |archive-date=25 January 2019 |url-status=dead}} Following the dissolution of the monasteries, the estate was leased to Edward Harvey. His daughter, Isabel Harvey, married the local member of parliament, Humphrey Radcliffe, and in July 1553, he was granted ownership of the estate.{{cite web|url=https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1558-1603/member/radcliffe-sir-humphrey-1509-66 |title=Radcliffe, Sir Humphrey (c.1509-66), of Elstow|publisher=The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1558-1603|access-date=7 April 2023 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20210624153619/https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1558-1603/member/radcliffe-sir-humphrey-1509-66 |archive-date=24 June 2021 |url-status=dead}}

The building was extended to the east by an extra bay later in the 16th century, and, around the same time, the wattle and daub was replaced by bricks. The estate was then acquired by a local squire, Sir Thomas Hillersden, in 1616.{{cite web|url=https://bedsarchives.bedford.gov.uk/CommunityHistories/Elstow/ElstowMootHall.aspx |title=Elstow Moot Hall|publisher=Bedford Archives Department| access-date=7 April 2023}} The moot hall was one of the venues at which the writer, John Bunyan, who was born in the village, developed his nonconformist ideas in the mid-17th century.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7ebqBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA211 |title= Compassionate Stranger Asenath Nicholson and the Great Irish Famine |first= Maureen O'Rourke |last=Murphy|year= 2015|publisher= Syracuse University Press |isbn= 978-0815652892|page=211}}{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=C9YHAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA6 |title=Pilgrimages to English Shrines |first=S. C.|last= Hall |year=1850|page=6|publisher=Arthur Hall, Virtue & Company}}

The estate was then acquired by the brewer, Samuel Whitbread, in 1792. The Whitbread family allowed a religious group known as "the Congregation of the Bunyan Meeting" to use the moot hall for their meetings during much of the 19th century.{{cite web|url=https://bedsarchives.bedford.gov.uk/CommunityHistories/Elstow/BunyanMeetingElstow.aspx |title=The Bunyan Meeting in Elstow|publisher=Bedford Archives Department| access-date=7 April 2023}} Major Simon Whitbread presented the Moot Hall to Bedfordshire County Council in 1950 and council restored the building as part of their celebrations for the Festival of Britain.{{cite web|url= https://virtual-library.culturalservices.net/bedfordshire/vlib/0.digitised_resources/elstow_historic_house_moot_article.htm |title=Elstow Moot Hall|publisher=Bedfordshire Libraries|year=2011| access-date=7 April 2023}} It became a museum displaying items related to John Bunyan in 1951 and works of art in the museum include a painting by Andrew Geddes depicting Bunyan in prison.{{cite web|url=https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/john-bunyan-16281688-in-prison-48324 |title= John Bunyan (1628–1688), in Prison|first=Andrew|last=Geddes|publisher=Art UK|access-date=7 April 2023}}

• Grade II* listed buildings in Bedfordshire
• Listed buildings in Elstow

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Category:Grade II* listed buildings in Bedfordshire

Category:Museums in Bedfordshire

Category:Historic house museums in Bedfordshire