John Bunyan Museum

A must for kids studying local history, a visit will let you help out with their schoolwork and spend some quality time together. Special quizzes and hands-on trails take them through Bunyan's amazing life at their own pace.

Visitors to the museum are able to take a walk through Bunyan's life and times. On entering the museum, visitors are greeted with a three-dimensional model of Bunyan towards the end of his life. Visitors are invited by Bunyan to join him as he looks back over his life. The periphery of the room is made up by a series of tableaux, room sets and reconstructions, interspersed with information points which explain how Bunyan's determination to preach as he saw fit saw him come into conflict with the authorities under Charles II, become imprisoned and then famous for spreading hiw beliefs by writing books.

Bunyan in Prison

See the warrant, signed by 13 magistrates in 1675, for the arrest of John Bunyan for unlawful preaching. It led to his second imprisonment for six months in 1677. This area is a self-contained reconstruction of the day room in Bedford jail. The door displayed on the wall is believed to be the door of the prisoners' day room from the county jail, which was situated at the corner of the High Street and Silver Street. Bunyan was imprisoned behind this door for 12 years. While he was incarcerated he wrote his famous work The Pilgrim's Progess, arguably the most famous Christian allegory, which has been translated into over 200 languages and has never been out of print since its publication in 1678.