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In the early 13th century, Elstow Abbey was granted a charter, by Henry I, permitting the nuns to hold an annual fair, from 2nd to the 5th May. Unlike modern village fairs, these were commercial events, where all sorts of products, livestock, clothes, food etc., were sold.
Elstow fair was large, occupying not just the village green but several adjacent fields, extending to 3/4 mile to the west. The Abbey raised almost a quarter of its annual income from these fairs; by charging rents for stalls/ booths, levying tolls for entry and taxes on sales. They probably also had their own stalls from which the nuns could sell produce from the Abbey.
As the Abbey grew, cottages to house tradesmen and other lay workers were built. Also several inns, to house the many visitors to the Abbey and its fairs. All of Elstow's properties were owned by the Abbey, which also owned numerous other buildings and land in the surrounding county of Bedfordshire as well as in 12 other counties. The rent from these numerous properties generated the bulk of the Abbey's substantial annual income.
Perhaps the Abbey's most unusual building project was the “Green House”. Designed to serve as a market-house and courtroom, it was built in approximately 1440 to 1450, possibly by the Abbey's then carpenter, William Arnold.
The ground floor of the Green House was originally 5 into bays, most of the space being used as small shops. The upstairs was used for several types of courts::
1 Manor courts; Elstow's local administrative sessions.
2. The abbess could also hold judicial courts and stocks, the ducking stool or even to hang them.
3. Courts of pie powder. These were for hearing disputes arising at the fairs, examining merchant's credentials and testing weights and measures.
As ‘Lord’ of the Manor, the Abbess, or her steward, would have presided over all of these courts.
Two years after the 1539 Dissolution Act, Elstow’s green and Abbey were leased to Edmund Harvey, a relative of one of the former Abbesses.
Some of the former Abbey's properties were purchased by private individuals; eg. The Green Corner, The Swan Inn, The Chequers (now Pilgrim House).
Harvey's daughter, Isabel, subsequently married Sir Humphrey Radcliffe and, in 1553, Edward VI gave Radcliffe all the former Abbey's Elstow estates and its manorial rights.
Sir Humphrey died 13 years later and, in 1616, his son Edward sold the Elstow estates to Sir Thomas Hillersden, whose grandson built a grand manor house, named “Elstow Place”, incorporating walls from the former Abbey’s inner cloister.
Fairs continued to be held during the days of the Hillersden family, though on a smaller scale than in the days of the nunnery, and the Green House continued to be used for Manor Court hearings; In 1554, Thomas Bonyon (John Bunyan's great, great Grandfather) was a member of the "homage" (the Court’s presiding jury) when his wife was fined 1 penny for 'breaking the assize of ale'. She also appears in subsequent court records, for committing further offences involving the sale of ale or bread!
In 1773, the Hillersden family finances were dwindling so they leased the Green House, its equipment and fair tolls to a Thomas Coleman.. By the 1790s, the Hillersden family consisted of just two sisters. They moved out of “Elstow Place” (which was left to fall into ruin) and they sold the Elstow estates, piece by piece, to brewer Samuel Whitbread. The 1800 Enclosure Act allotted Elstow Green to Whitbread, who subsequently purchased several privately-owned houses in the village. (The numbers on houses in High Street, Wilstead Road and West End today are still Whitbread Estate, not street, numbers.)
During the 19th century, the Whitbread Estate used the Green House's ground floor for storage and the upstairs became - on Sunday evenings - home to Elstow's Congregation of the Bunyan Meeting church. Bunyan, who fought for freedom of non-conformist worship would probably have been pleased to note that the congregations in the Green House were regularly larger than those in the nearby Abbey parish church.
From 1810 Moot Hall was used during the day as a National and on various days as a Night School. It was also used to operate what became a large Sunday School.
The pastor of the main Bunyan meeting church in the late 1800s was the Reverend Dr John Brown and he published a biography of John Bunyan in which he referred to the Green House as ‘what we may call Moot Hall’. This appears to be the earliest recorded use of this name, but it is an appropriate name - 'Moot' being the medieval word for "meeting" - and so it caught on.
The National school continued to be held in Moot Hall until 1873, when compulsory education began and the day school moved to new, purpose-built premises in Elstow's High Street. The Bunyan Meeting continued holding evening classes and the large Sunday School and holding evening services in Moot Hall until 1910, when they moved to a new chapel, next door to the school in Elstow High Street.
Fairs continued to be held on Elstow green long after the Abbey had been abolished - sales of cattle only ceased when Peacocks - auctioneers - built a cattle market on the north bank of Bedford's River Great Ous e. The fairs at Elstow continued but only as a small pleasure fair, until that too ceased during the Second World War. The stump of the original Market Cross - which denoted Elstow Abbey’s Fairs as having Royal Charter status - still stands, some 50 yards west of Moot Hall.
The May festival was revived in 1925 by the headmaster of Elstow school and this flourished until 1968 when the schools changed to three tier system.
In 1950, Major Simon Whitbread gave Moot Hall and Elstow green to Bedfordshire County Council, which restored the building as their main contribution to the 1951 Festival of Britain. and Moot Hall was made into a permanent museum, to illustrate English 17th century life and the life and works of John Bunyan.
The May Festival was revived again in 1974 on a small scale at the lower school and returned to Elstow green in 1998.
Moot Hall - construction
When first built, the timber frame would have been in-filled with wattle and daub, rather than brick. The original building had only four bays on the ground floor, the western-most two bays each containing two small shops. Each of them had a separate door with a broad window, with a four-centred arch above. These ‘windows’ may have included a wooden panel which could be let down and used as a serving counter. Most of the main timbers between the shops remain and slots in the ceiling and floor timbers show where the remaining uprights stood. Between those uprights would have been slim willow rods, interwoven and covered with daub to form partition walls.
The fourth bay contained a separate room, with an east-west ladder stairway to the upper storey, which consisted of one large hall. The external door to the fourth bay was probably at the southern end of the east wall.
Within about a 100 years of the building’s original construction, a fifth bay was added to the east end, including a large chimney breast. This extension contains fireplaces on both storeys, suggesting that it was designed as accommodation for important visitors to the monastery. Probably at the same time: the window in western wall was moved to a higher position; a cellar was excavated under the fourth bay across the width of the building; a south-north staircase was erected and accessed by an Elizabethan doorway (now removed) inserted into the south wall next to where the eastern-most shop door stood; the external wattle and daub in-fill was replaced with bricks.
In 1950, during the Bedfordshire County Council's renovations, the original medieval form of both floors was restored and the window in the western wall moved back down. The external walls’ brick in-fill was retained and replacement bricks obtained from a medieval brewery that was being demolished in Ampthill. The staircase was reversed so that it ran from north to south. A utility room was formed and the east wall of the north-east shop was moved to form a reception area. Into that new wall, a fire door was inserted, to allow access from the reception area. The. Medieval roof was left intact, but with a full set of new rafters being laid over the originals.
Similar late-medieval market houses/courtrooms, with shops below and a long chamber above, are rare. Two others survive in Buckinghamshire - at Long Crendon and West Wycombe and a similar, but later, example is to be found in Bedfordshire - in Leighton Buzzard. Moot Hall is the only known example of a courtroom, built for a nunnery, containing a shopping centre, courtroom and a guesthouse.
Clive Arnold. Pilgrim House Publishing © 2025
This content of this article is available as a downloadable pamphlet, below;
Elstow fair was large, occupying not just the village green but several adjacent fields, extending to 3/4 mile to the west. The Abbey raised almost a quarter of its annual income from these fairs; by charging rents for stalls/ booths, levying tolls for entry and taxes on sales. They probably also had their own stalls from which the nuns could sell produce from the Abbey.
As the Abbey grew, cottages to house tradesmen and other lay workers were built. Also several inns, to house the many visitors to the Abbey and its fairs. All of Elstow's properties were owned by the Abbey, which also owned numerous other buildings and land in the surrounding county of Bedfordshire as well as in 12 other counties. The rent from these numerous properties generated the bulk of the Abbey's substantial annual income.
Perhaps the Abbey's most unusual building project was the “Green House”. Designed to serve as a market-house and courtroom, it was built in approximately 1440 to 1450, possibly by the Abbey's then carpenter, William Arnold.
The ground floor of the Green House was originally 5 into bays, most of the space being used as small shops. The upstairs was used for several types of courts::
1 Manor courts; Elstow's local administrative sessions.
2. The abbess could also hold judicial courts and stocks, the ducking stool or even to hang them.
3. Courts of pie powder. These were for hearing disputes arising at the fairs, examining merchant's credentials and testing weights and measures.
As ‘Lord’ of the Manor, the Abbess, or her steward, would have presided over all of these courts.
Two years after the 1539 Dissolution Act, Elstow’s green and Abbey were leased to Edmund Harvey, a relative of one of the former Abbesses.
Some of the former Abbey's properties were purchased by private individuals; eg. The Green Corner, The Swan Inn, The Chequers (now Pilgrim House).
Harvey's daughter, Isabel, subsequently married Sir Humphrey Radcliffe and, in 1553, Edward VI gave Radcliffe all the former Abbey's Elstow estates and its manorial rights.
Sir Humphrey died 13 years later and, in 1616, his son Edward sold the Elstow estates to Sir Thomas Hillersden, whose grandson built a grand manor house, named “Elstow Place”, incorporating walls from the former Abbey’s inner cloister.
Fairs continued to be held during the days of the Hillersden family, though on a smaller scale than in the days of the nunnery, and the Green House continued to be used for Manor Court hearings; In 1554, Thomas Bonyon (John Bunyan's great, great Grandfather) was a member of the "homage" (the Court’s presiding jury) when his wife was fined 1 penny for 'breaking the assize of ale'. She also appears in subsequent court records, for committing further offences involving the sale of ale or bread!
In 1773, the Hillersden family finances were dwindling so they leased the Green House, its equipment and fair tolls to a Thomas Coleman.. By the 1790s, the Hillersden family consisted of just two sisters. They moved out of “Elstow Place” (which was left to fall into ruin) and they sold the Elstow estates, piece by piece, to brewer Samuel Whitbread. The 1800 Enclosure Act allotted Elstow Green to Whitbread, who subsequently purchased several privately-owned houses in the village. (The numbers on houses in High Street, Wilstead Road and West End today are still Whitbread Estate, not street, numbers.)
During the 19th century, the Whitbread Estate used the Green House's ground floor for storage and the upstairs became - on Sunday evenings - home to Elstow's Congregation of the Bunyan Meeting church. Bunyan, who fought for freedom of non-conformist worship would probably have been pleased to note that the congregations in the Green House were regularly larger than those in the nearby Abbey parish church.
From 1810 Moot Hall was used during the day as a National and on various days as a Night School. It was also used to operate what became a large Sunday School.
The pastor of the main Bunyan meeting church in the late 1800s was the Reverend Dr John Brown and he published a biography of John Bunyan in which he referred to the Green House as ‘what we may call Moot Hall’. This appears to be the earliest recorded use of this name, but it is an appropriate name - 'Moot' being the medieval word for "meeting" - and so it caught on.
The National school continued to be held in Moot Hall until 1873, when compulsory education began and the day school moved to new, purpose-built premises in Elstow's High Street. The Bunyan Meeting continued holding evening classes and the large Sunday School and holding evening services in Moot Hall until 1910, when they moved to a new chapel, next door to the school in Elstow High Street.
Fairs continued to be held on Elstow green long after the Abbey had been abolished - sales of cattle only ceased when Peacocks - auctioneers - built a cattle market on the north bank of Bedford's River Great Ous e. The fairs at Elstow continued but only as a small pleasure fair, until that too ceased during the Second World War. The stump of the original Market Cross - which denoted Elstow Abbey’s Fairs as having Royal Charter status - still stands, some 50 yards west of Moot Hall.
The May festival was revived in 1925 by the headmaster of Elstow school and this flourished until 1968 when the schools changed to three tier system.
In 1950, Major Simon Whitbread gave Moot Hall and Elstow green to Bedfordshire County Council, which restored the building as their main contribution to the 1951 Festival of Britain. and Moot Hall was made into a permanent museum, to illustrate English 17th century life and the life and works of John Bunyan.
The May Festival was revived again in 1974 on a small scale at the lower school and returned to Elstow green in 1998.
Moot Hall - construction
When first built, the timber frame would have been in-filled with wattle and daub, rather than brick. The original building had only four bays on the ground floor, the western-most two bays each containing two small shops. Each of them had a separate door with a broad window, with a four-centred arch above. These ‘windows’ may have included a wooden panel which could be let down and used as a serving counter. Most of the main timbers between the shops remain and slots in the ceiling and floor timbers show where the remaining uprights stood. Between those uprights would have been slim willow rods, interwoven and covered with daub to form partition walls.
The fourth bay contained a separate room, with an east-west ladder stairway to the upper storey, which consisted of one large hall. The external door to the fourth bay was probably at the southern end of the east wall.
Within about a 100 years of the building’s original construction, a fifth bay was added to the east end, including a large chimney breast. This extension contains fireplaces on both storeys, suggesting that it was designed as accommodation for important visitors to the monastery. Probably at the same time: the window in western wall was moved to a higher position; a cellar was excavated under the fourth bay across the width of the building; a south-north staircase was erected and accessed by an Elizabethan doorway (now removed) inserted into the south wall next to where the eastern-most shop door stood; the external wattle and daub in-fill was replaced with bricks.
In 1950, during the Bedfordshire County Council's renovations, the original medieval form of both floors was restored and the window in the western wall moved back down. The external walls’ brick in-fill was retained and replacement bricks obtained from a medieval brewery that was being demolished in Ampthill. The staircase was reversed so that it ran from north to south. A utility room was formed and the east wall of the north-east shop was moved to form a reception area. Into that new wall, a fire door was inserted, to allow access from the reception area. The. Medieval roof was left intact, but with a full set of new rafters being laid over the originals.
Similar late-medieval market houses/courtrooms, with shops below and a long chamber above, are rare. Two others survive in Buckinghamshire - at Long Crendon and West Wycombe and a similar, but later, example is to be found in Bedfordshire - in Leighton Buzzard. Moot Hall is the only known example of a courtroom, built for a nunnery, containing a shopping centre, courtroom and a guesthouse.
Clive Arnold. Pilgrim House Publishing © 2025
This content of this article is available as a downloadable pamphlet, below;
| a_brief_history_leaflet.pdf |
More about Moot's History
Photos of many of Moot's exhibits can be viewed in an album on the Elstow Village website.
All our historical documents relating to Moot Hall can be viewed via the Elstow history archive pages.
Our collection of old pictures of Moot Hall is located in the Elstow picture archive.
Likewise, our collection of modern pictures is here.
All our historical documents relating to Moot Hall can be viewed via the Elstow history archive pages.
Our collection of old pictures of Moot Hall is located in the Elstow picture archive.
Likewise, our collection of modern pictures is here.
