Elstow
Elstow maps (2 available)
Map of Bedfordshire
Beautifully hand-drawn and coloured, dating from around 1840
See this old map of Bedfordshire
Personalised maps
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Elstow books (7 available)
- 6 photos on Elstow appear in 2 Frith books - View photos of Elstow
- Read extracts and see photos from these books on Elstow and Bedfordshire
Elstow memories
Read and share memories of Elstow and Bedfordshire inspired by Frith photos
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You can also read memories of nearby places in Bedfordshire below.
Bedfordshire memories
Swimming in the river at Kempston
Great times were had at the river at the bend as we children called it, we would make mud slides down the banks. What fun we had. There was always a good crowd there on a Sunday afternoon, but now its all quiet, no swimmers, the bend has long since gone.
A memory of Kempston contributed by jackie fleming
I was a projectionist at the Picturedrome
I worked there for a few years with Stan Hunt at the Picturedrome, and the Plaza which was nearly opposite across the river was owned by a man called Mr Cheetam. I also worked at the Plaza as a relief projectionist and also another cinema in Ampthill owned by Mr Cheetam.
They were great days and I now live in Leicester but now see that all four cinemas in Bedford are gone, what is left?
I thought the Picturedrome and the great cinema The Granada were LISTED buildings so who had them demolished should be SHOT. These cinemas have brought great memories to a lot of people and been destroyed by Bedford Council.
Don't you think the Granada would have ...read more here
A memory of Bedford contributed by Eric Bootles
Working memories.
I was the main weekday driver of the launch photographed during the student holiday periods of 1955-1958. When I drove it, the name was 'Silver Stream'. It was the largest of a set of three electric launches which carried paying passengers for trips of about 40 minutes duration from the steps on the downstream, north side of the town bridge. Typically this launch would carry about 40 passengers maximum. Silver Stream was a magnificent launch to drive, giving a silent drive, almost no water disturbance up to the 6 knots maximum for the river, and had a tubular rudder form which surrounded the propeller. This permitted a very tight turning such that most of us could turn round in places where ...read more here
A memory of Bedford contributed by Mr PC Hedgecock
My First Visit to Marston
The first time I went to Marston my boyfriend was taking me to visit his parents. I was 15 and he was 17. We caught a train from Bedford St John's and got off at Milbrook Halt. His family lived in a Brickyard home in "Jubilee Cottages". It wasn't as modern as my parents' council house as it had no hot water and an outside non-flush toilet. He thought that I was posh because we had two flushing toilets, one inside the house and one outside. His house had no bathroom either.
Back then the Brickyards were still working and I remember all of the chimneys in the skyline.
His family moved to Peterborough a few months later and we have ...read more here
A memory of contributed by Alice Pope
Extracts From Elstow & Bedfordshire books
John Bunyan was born near Elstow, and made his adult home in the village. The Moot Hall shown in the photograph dates back to the 17th century, and was undoubtedly used by Bunyan for religious meetings. The guilty appearance of the boys suggests that they too enjoy the mildly hooligan pastimes that caused Bunyan so much angst in later life.
An extract from from"Bedfordshire Photographic Memories".
As should be expected of the founder of a religious concept, John Bunyan’s home and the village in which it stands have almost become a place of pilgrimage. His tribulations and his works, of which ‘Pilgrim’s Progress’ might be the best known but is far from singular, are celebrated in the establishment of the Bunyan Trail. This 75-mile-long footpath winds through the Bedfordshire countryside linking elements of Pilgrim’s journeys and the more factual aspects of Bunyan’s life.
An extract from from"Bedfordshire Photographic Memories".
The wooden plaque above the door of the cottage on the right proclaims it as John Bunyan’s home. The village is not a great deal larger than is indicated in the picture. The majority of the buildings are in whole or part 17th-century in origin.
An extract from from"Bedfordshire Photographic Memories".
Sandy was originally a modest
Roman settlement on the Roman
road between St Albans and
Godmanchester; in the 18th
century the town became
important for its coaching inns
servicing the Great North Road.
However, it is a somewhat bitty
town, and the market square is a
distinct disappointment. Here, a
little further north up High Street,
we look west along Bedford Road.
The late 19th-century town hall is
on the left. By 1925 it was the
Astor Cinema, and is now the
Roundabout Club, for there is
now a roundabout roughly where
the photographer is standing.
An extract from from"Bedford Photographic Memories".
Going east from Market
Place along Church Street,
we reach the small square
with the brown stone
church on its north side, a
curiously villagey one for a
town. On the left is the
cliff-like Dynevor House,
with 1725 on the rainwater
hopper-heads, three
storeys of box sashes and
a corniced parapet. No 36a
on the right is late
Georgian, while the Feoffee
almshouses are late 16th-
century timber-framed
under the render.
An extract from from"Bedford Photographic Memories".