HeroLegendary
A Voice on Elstow Green
Mid-swing, Bunyan heard Heaven ask him a question.
See it clearly
- What's there
- The village green and the Moot Hall museum
- Legend from
- 1650s
- Tone
- Curious
Coming up is Elstow Green, where a young John Bunyan was in the middle of a game when he heard a voice from Heaven.
John Bunyan, author of The Pilgrim's Progress, grew up in Elstow. One Sunday, after the vicar had preached against Sabbath-breaking, he went out to play cat on the village green, a game in which a small piece of wood is struck into the air and hit again. As he swung, he later wrote, a voice did suddenly dart from Heaven into his soul, asking whether he would leave his sins and go to Heaven, or keep them and go to Hell. He stopped the game, and the long struggle that led to his conversion began. The green is still there, and the medieval Moot Hall beside it is now a Bunyan museum.