SAW made a special visit to the Moot Hall in Elstow on Saturday 15th December and were made very welcome by Gary Mudd, Assistant Curator, who gave us a short but fact-filled talk on the history of the building. The Moot Hall has stood on this spot for since the 15th century from its origins as part of the original Elstow Abbey, its associations with John Bunyan, (who at one time rang the Abbey bells), to becoming a medieval 'shopping mall'.
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| One of the building construction joints identified by the children. |
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| A carpenter's mark on one of the beams, indicating the top side of the constructed section, from which we can deduce something of hoe the building was made. |
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| Mark showed us how to look at the block-work in this end wall of the Abbey Church, to help identify that this wall was built after the original Norman building was constructed. |
In the Moot Hall the children learnt how to measure and record an old building and spent time examining the construction of the timber frames, trying to identify the joints and find the carpenters' marks.
Inside the Abbey Church Mark Philips pointed out differences in the stone construction and decoration that the children could use to help understand the age of an English church.
Many thanks to Clive Arnold and Gary Mudd of the Moot Hall Museum and the Rector Jeremy Crocker, for letting us explore these fascinating buildings.
We thought we might come back in warmer weather for a picnic!
A very enjoyable visit, i'd recommend going and seeing both the abbey church and the moot hall
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