Stevington
Stevington is an attractive village in Bedfordshire, 4 miles from Bedford.
St. Mary`s Church, with its partly Saxon tower, contains fine mediaeval pews, and there is a holy well, much visited in the Middle Ages, in the churchyard wall . The well is said to have never dried up.
The mediaeval village cross, at the crossroads in the centre of the village, was restored in the 19th century.
Cross, church and well are believed to have inspired passages in "The Pilgrim`s Progress" by John Bunyan.
The Manor House, rebuilt in the 19th century on the site of a mediaeval hospitum built to serve pilgrims, has beautiful gardens created by Kathy Brown, who also gives demonstrations of cookery using flowers.
A striking post mill was built in the late 18th century.
Joan, the Fair Maid of Kent, widow of the Black Prince and mother of Richard II, died at Stevington in 1385.