36. John Bunyon Museum Bedford and 37. Cowper and Newton Museum Olney Buckinghamshire, 14th October 2011

Photos

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I must have been about ten years old in Sunday School in Mevagissey listening to Mrs Ewing reading Bunyon’s ‘the Pilgrims Progress’ to us - in modern English I might add!  I remember sitting on the oversized seats of an old caravan parked round the back of the chapel that served as our ‘room’.  In my teens I re-read it and, while some of the puritan moralising and theology is not my thing, it is a very clever allegory and a fast-moving story to boot – all written by a 17^th century tinker.

I think it was this memory that spurred me to check out the Bunyon Museum.  I vaguely knew he was from Bedford and had been put in jail but that was about it – nothing else.

0800 The day promises to be a sunny one and I need to catch the train from Oakham back to Leicester.  The pub breakfast tanks me up with the requisite calories so I puff up the hill from Broughton-in-Rutland back to town and am soon on my way.

1156 After navigating the busy shopping centre of Bedford I arrive in one piece at the Bunyon Museum next door to his chapel which I decide to investigate later.  Once again, the museum staff are happy to accommodate the rucksack and I feel a bit like Christian in the story as I unload my own burden from my back!

The first thing I see when I turn the corner at the top of the stairs leading to the museum is a waxwork of the man himself and he was huge – well over six foot and broad.  The museum guide points out a few of the artefacts: the most interesting is his tinker’s anvil which is a 60lb lump of iron that he would carry with him as he travelled from house to house.  I can see where he got the idea of Christian carrying his burden!

The staff in the museum are all dyed-in-the-wool Bunyon fans of couse, and proudly show me the editions of his books translated into many languages.  There’s also a timeline putting events in Bunyon’s life in context - interesting times he lived through - Civil War and all.

After about an hour I’m all ‘Bunyoned-out’ and wander to the chapel next door for a cup of coffee and a look at the stained glass and bronze engravings which, no surprise, show scenes from the PP.  The interior is pretty much unchanged and in the puritan style with a high central pulpit, dark varnish on unadorned wood pews and an encircling gallery.

1250 Leave the town behind to cycle to Olney through the level Bedfordshire countryside, not stopping except to check that a fellow cyclist working on his bike is OK – he calls back to me that he’s got a couple of punctures but has everything to fix them with.  As I approach Olney from a small bridge over the nearby river Ouse the view of the tall-steepled church with its clutch of houses around it is great – the steeple has little windows built into it, perhaps to let the sound of the bells out?  The vista reminds me of a Constable painting of Salisbury Cathedral.

1500 Olney is the home of another museum dedicated to the lives of John Newton and William Cowper where I’m greeted by an archetypal ‘little old lady’.  Newton – famous for ‘Amazing Grace’ of course and a reformed slave trader, Cowper for loads of other hymns and poetry.  The collection is in the house that Cowper lived at which gives it a good atmosphere especially when you look at old pictures of the very room you are standing in! There are artefacts belonging to C or N, others are books or ephemera based on their lives some of which is rather sad -   Cowper’s life was blighted by his illness which we would now call bipolarism that caused him to attempt suicide on a number of occasions.

I come back to the museum entrance to find a group of locals having a bit of a social gathering.  They try to make me stay for a pot of tea and would’ve done but unfortunately I’ve a train to catch in – staying with Robert tonight in Redbourn.

Olney is a lovely town with a good community atmosphere.  After visiting the C and N museum you can go just down the road and look at Newton’s church and the market place where Cowper exercised his pet hares (!).

1600 Cycled to Wolverton to catch my connecting train to Harpenden.   The train was stuffed with commuters and it didn't help that someone had brought an enormous bike and trailer on board. Standing room only but I was only going two stops.   Harpenden to Redbourn was probably the scariest bike ride I’ve had and I ended up doing most of it on the pavement.  Come on St Albans DC get those cycle paths built!