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BEDFORD , some thirty miles east of Buckingham, has struggled to
retain a modicum of character in the face of redevelopment, but the end
result is pleasant enough, the town's neat and tidy centre hugging the
north bank of the River Ouse. Bedford also makes the most of its
connections with John Bunyan (1628-88), a blaspheming tinker turned
Nonconformist preacher, who lived most of his life in and around the
town. Bunyan fought for Parliament in the Civil War and became a well-known
public speaker during Cromwell's Protectorate, but the Restoration
proved disastrous for him. In 1660, he was arrested for breaking Charles
II's new religious legislation, which restricted the activities of
Nonconformist preachers, and he spent most of the next seventeen years
in Bedford prison. During his incarceration, he wrote The Pilgrim's
Progress , a seminal text whose simple language and powerful allegories
were to have a profound influence on generations of Nonconformists.
Built in 1850 on the spot where Bunyan founded his first Independent
Congregation, the Bunyan Meeting Free Church (Tues-Sat 10am-4pm), just
east of the High Street on Mill Street, is still a Nonconformist church.
It bears several memorials to Bunyan, beginning with the splendid bronze
doors, decorated with ten finely worked panels depicting scenes from The
Pilgrim's Progress . Inside, the stained glass windows develop the
theme, again depicting scenes from the book, plus one showing Bunyan
scribbling away in prison. Next door, the homely Bunyan Museum
(March-Oct Tues-Sat 11am-4pm; free) features extracts from his book and
tracks through the author's life and times.
Bedford's other noteworthy attraction is the Cecil Higgins Art Gallery ,
just to the south of Mill Street on Castle Lane (Tues-Sat 11am-5pm & Sun
2-5pm; £2.10, free on Fri). The gallery holds strong collections of
ceramics, glass and local lace as well as a competent range of
watercolours and prints, though these are not always on display due to
their sensitivity to light. There are also several period rooms, done
out in high Victorian style, and it's here you'll find the eccentric
Burges Room, a colourful fantasy of ersatz classical and medieval
decoration created by William Burges (1827-81), one of the leading
figures in the Gothic Revival movement. The gallery's admission charge
covers the adjacent Bedford Museum (same hours), an extremely dull trawl
through the city's history.
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