The Moot Hall, also known as the Green House, is a medieval structure on The Green in

Elstow Elstow is a village and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Borough of Bedford, Bedfordshire, England, about south of Bedford town centre. History The Countess Judith of Lens, niece of William the Conqueror, founded a Benedictin ...

Bedfordshire Bedfordshire (; abbreviated ''Beds'') is a Ceremonial County, ceremonial county in the East of England. It is bordered by Northamptonshire to the north, Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Hertfordshire to the south and the south-east, and Buckin ...

, England. The structure, which currently operates as a museum, is a Grade II* listed building.

History

The building was originally commissioned as a market hall to serve Elstow Abbey. It was designed in the Tudor style, built in

timber frame Timber framing () and "post-and-beam" construction are traditional methods of building with heavy Beam (structure), timbers, creating structures using squared-off and carefully fitted and Woodworking joints, joined timbers with joints secure ...

in-filled with

wattle and daub Wattle and daub is a composite material, composite building method in which a woven lattice of wooden strips called "wattle (construction), wattle" is "daubed" with a sticky material usually made of some combination of wet soil, clay, sand, and ...

and was completed around 1500. 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 Jettying (jetty, jutty, from Old French ''getee, jette'') is a building technique used in medieval timber framing, timber-frame buildings in which an upper floor projects beyond the dimensions of the floor below. This has the advantage of incr ...

timber framing allowing the creation of extra space for the meeting room on that floor. The building was fenestrated by bi-partite

casement window A casement window is a window that is attached to its frame by one or more hinges at the side. They are used singly or in pairs within a common frame, in which case they are hinged on the outside. Casement windows are often held open using a c ...

s 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 manorial courts were the lowest courts of law in England during the feudal period. They had a civil jurisdiction limited both in subject matter and geography. They dealt with matters over which the lord of the manor had jurisdiction, primar ...

, the room on the first floor was used for hearings of the court of piepowders which resolved commercial disputes among merchants. 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 Humphrey Radcliffe (died 30 August 1566) was an English landowner and Member of Parliament. Biography He was a son of Robert Radcliffe, 1st Earl of Sussex and Elizabeth, a daughter of Henry Stafford, 2nd Duke of Buckingham. Radcliffe was a Mem ...

, and in July 1553, he was granted ownership of the estate. 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. The moot hall was one of the venues at which the writer,

John Bunyan John Bunyan (; 1628 – 31 August 1688) was an English writer and preacher. He is best remembered as the author of the Christian allegory ''The Pilgrim's Progress'', which also became an influential literary model. In addition to ''The Pilgrim' ...

, who was born in the village, developed his nonconformist ideas in the mid-17th century. 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. Major Simon Whitbread presented the Moot Hall to

Bedfordshire County Council Bedfordshire County Council was the county council of Bedfordshire in England. It was created in 1889 and abolished in 2009. Throughout its existence, the council was based in Bedford. Luton was a county borough independent from the county cou ...

in 1950 and council restored the building as part of their celebrations for the

Festival of Britain The Festival of Britain was a national exhibition and fair that reached millions of visitors throughout the United Kingdom in the summer of 1951. Labour Party cabinet member Herbert Morrison was the prime mover; in 1947 he started with the ...

. 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.

References

{{Authority control Grade II* listed buildings in Bedfordshire Museums in Bedfordshire Historic house museums in Bedfordshire

History

See also

References