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Elstow is a village and civil parish in the English county of Bedfordshire. Elstow is the birthplace of John Bunyan. The village and the northern part of the parish are inside Bedford's southern bypass, and Elstow has increasing been absorbed into Bedford since the late 20th century. The largest population centre in the parish nowadays is not Elstow village itself, but a large housing development dating from the first few years of the 21st century called Abbeyfields, which is effectively a suburb of Bedford. William the Conqueror granted Elstow to his niece, Countess Judith, who founded a nunnery in 1075. In the Middle Ages Elstow Abbey was one of the richest Benedictine nunneries in England. The abbess and nuns held Elstow until the Dissolution of the Monasteries under King Henry VIII. The abbey survives in part as the parish church of St Mary and St Helena. Another feature of the village is the Moot Hall, a Tudor timber-framed market house that stands in isolation on the village green. It is now a museum illustrating 17th century English life with particular reference to John Bunyan.
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