Elstow
Elstow is a village and civil parish in the Borough of Bedford, Bedfordshire, England, about 2 mi south of Bedford town centre.
John Bunyan was born here at Bunyan's End, which lay approximately halfway between the hamlet of Harrowden and Elstow's High Street.
Countess Judith, niece of William the Conqueror, founded a Benedictine nunnery in Elstow in the year 1078. The Elstow nuns came from wealthy families, and each came with an endowment of money and/or lands.
In 1538 Elstow Abbey was valued as being the eighth richest nunnery in England. On 26 August 1539, the Abbess was forced to surrender the Abbey, the manor of Elstow and all the Abbey's other lands and estates throughout England, to King Henry VIII, as part of his Dissolution of the Monasteries.
So large and significant was the Abbey at Elstow that, a vote was carried in Parliament to create a cathedral for Bedfordshire using the now available site. But this motion never received the royal assent hoped for by its sponsor, Bishop Stephen Gardiner of Winchester.
South of the village, from 1942 to 1946 during World War II, the munitions factory ROF Elstow operated. Author H.E. Bates wrote about it in The Tinkers of Elstow (1946).
John Bunyan was born here at Bunyan's End, which lay approximately halfway between the hamlet of Harrowden and Elstow's High Street.
Countess Judith, niece of William the Conqueror, founded a Benedictine nunnery in Elstow in the year 1078. The Elstow nuns came from wealthy families, and each came with an endowment of money and/or lands.
In 1538 Elstow Abbey was valued as being the eighth richest nunnery in England. On 26 August 1539, the Abbess was forced to surrender the Abbey, the manor of Elstow and all the Abbey's other lands and estates throughout England, to King Henry VIII, as part of his Dissolution of the Monasteries.
So large and significant was the Abbey at Elstow that, a vote was carried in Parliament to create a cathedral for Bedfordshire using the now available site. But this motion never received the royal assent hoped for by its sponsor, Bishop Stephen Gardiner of Winchester.
South of the village, from 1942 to 1946 during World War II, the munitions factory ROF Elstow operated. Author H.E. Bates wrote about it in The Tinkers of Elstow (1946).
Map - Elstow
Map
Country - United_Kingdom
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| Flag of the United Kingdom | |
The United Kingdom has evolved from a series of annexations, unions and separations of constituent countries over several hundred years. The Treaty of Union between the Kingdom of England (which included Wales, annexed in 1542) and the Kingdom of Scotland in 1707 formed the Kingdom of Great Britain. Its union in 1801 with the Kingdom of Ireland created the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Most of Ireland seceded from the UK in 1922, leaving the present United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, which formally adopted that name in 1927. The nearby Isle of Man, Guernsey and Jersey are not part of the UK, being Crown Dependencies with the British Government responsible for defence and international representation. There are also 14 British Overseas Territories, the last remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in the 1920s, encompassed almost a quarter of the world's landmass and a third of the world's population, and was the largest empire in history. British influence can be observed in the language, culture and the legal and political systems of many of its former colonies.
Currency / Language
| ISO | Currency | Symbol | Significant figures |
|---|---|---|---|
| GBP | Pound sterling | £ | 2 |
| ISO | Language |
|---|---|
| EN | English language |
| GD | Gaelic language |
| CY | Welsh language |