Details
CARLTON AND CHELLINGTON
1869/0/10016 EDENS LANE
17-AUG-07 Fishers Farm Barn
II
Barn. Early/mid and mid/later C17 in two phases.
MATERIALS:
Coursed squared stone with corrugated iron roof.
EXTERIOR:
This barn, which has a stable section with open loft over to the east and an open barn to the west, is of two phases:
The end facing east is likely to be early/mid C17. It is built of very carefully laid courses of squared stone, a single course of larger stones then four courses of smaller stones. This follows round, but perhaps not quite so carefully, into the side walls. The result is a fine 'show' gable end facing what is now just orchard but what is likely to have the been the Fishers' house since there are undulations in the ground further to the east. This first third of the building has large quoins and a good doorway on the southern side leading into the stable section. This doorway has a lantern niche internally in the wall to the side. The barn was extended, probably in the mid/later C17, westwards by three bays. There is a double doorway to the south and an opposing single doorway. At the time when the barn was extended, or subsequently in the C18, the roof pitch of the original section was altered raising the side walls and widening the roof pitch. The barn was further altered in the C18 when a new roof was put on. The present roof has scant remains of this C18 roof and most of it is C20. Single-storey later extension to south.
HISTORY:
This barn is sited in a large orchard which is likely to be ancient, and is the remaining part of a farm known as Fishers. It is marked as such on the first OS map and also on a mid C18 map. In 1672 the house at Carlton belonging to one Gideon Fisher was licensed for Congregational worship at the 'First Declaration of Indulgence', and it is very likely that it was this farm, as it is isolated from the rest of the village, which was very important in those unsettled times. Bedfordshire is of international importance for general British history as well as for that of Nonconformist worship in that John Bunyan lived, wrote and preached in Bedford and the surrounding villages, and was imprisoned in Bedford Gaol. 'Pilgrim's Progress' is probably one of the best known books in the English language. This site seems to have been long associated with Bunyan, and it is said that he preached in this barn.
The evidence for John Bunyan preaching in this barn is not actually documented (and one could not necessarily expect documentation given the dangers for Nonconformist worship in those uncertain times) but is strong. We know however that Bunyan definitely preached in the villages surrounding Bedford and is known to have baptised in the river at Stevington less than 2 miles away across the fields.
The Fisher family had lived in Carlton since the C16 and probably since the C15 since a John Fisher was the joint purchaser of Pakenham Wood surrounding Carlton Manor in 1495. The family are referred to in the Parish Records as Esquires or Gentry. The house of Gideon Fisher appears from the 1672 Notes of Licences to be one of the very few places licensed for worship in Bedfordshire and it is virtually certain that his house and this farm were one and the same and that it was the seat of the family. Gideon Fisher Sr. died in 1671 and so Gideon Fisher Jr. is the one who was given the licence. It is thus likely that Bunyan would have preached at Fishers as a place of worship for dissenters after he finally gained his freedom in 1677, but he may even have done so in 1672 when he had a brief moment of freedom when he became the pastor of the Bedford meeting.
There is however also an even closer connection between Bunyan and this farm for his daughter Sarah married William Brown in 1686, 2 years before Bunyan died and in the Carlton village appraisal of 1993 the writer states: 'Carlton Baptist Meeting was first granted a licence to hold services in a barn at Fishers Farm belonging to William Brown, who was married to John Bunyan's daughter Sarah.' In a note on village history published in 1988 it also states that the Brown family lived at Fishers but there is no reference and none can be found at present. However the Brown family are known to have lived in Carlton and the neighbouring Harrold since the late C16. It is documented that Sarah and William married in St Cuthbert's, Bedford, in 1686 though then they were 'both of this parish'. Gideon Fisher died in 1685, as far as is known without children, and therefore there is likely either to have been a change of ownership or he left Fisher's to William Brown: in either case the farm was available for the couple to move into. As it is documented that the Brown family were living at Fishers in the C18, the connection is even more certain. Frances Bithrey, nee Brown and known to be Bunyan's great granddaughter, died at Fishers in 1803, presumably in her childhood home, since the Bithrey family, another well-off Carlton family, lived at Staysmoor Manor and she outlived her husband by 19 years. Frances was the owner of Fishers and she left the farm to the children of another William Brown, her nephew, who had died at Fishers 3 years before she did.
The Baptist Meeting church at Carlton was only officially founded in the year of Bunyan's death so Gideon Fisher's house, and thus this farm, was likely to have been host to Bunyan not only before his daughter married but certainly after she moved to the farm, for he was constantly travelling and Carlton is only a few miles from Bedford. In the late 1670s Bunyan had become famous with the publication of Pilgrim's Progress, and in the 80s he was frequently preaching in London, being the unofficial chaplain to the Lord Mayor in the year of his death.
SUMMARY OF IMPORTANCE:
Importantly substantial elements of the C17, two-phase, 5 bay stone barn survive, notably the 'show' gable end of alternating bands of wide and narrow stones. This is a 5 bay C17 stone barn built in two phases, the earlier with a 'show' gable end of alternating bands of wide and narrow stones. It is virtually certain that John Bunyan preached in this barn in the 1670s and 80s for the farm was licensed for Congregational worship in 1672 and it is highly likely that Bunyan's daughter lived at the farm after her marriage in 1686 two years before his death.
As far as is known it is the best evidenced physical survival of places of worship that could be associated with Bunyan, since all the original meeting houses have been rebuilt later and one barn moved. The Fishers barn reflects the difficulties of worship for Bunyan's group of Dissenters in the later C17, the 'heroic times of Nonconformity,' and reflects the necessity for secluded places, and is therefore an important part in the nation's social history.
SOURCES:
John Pestell, pers. comm.
John Crookall, John Bunyan and the Bithreys of Carlton, Carlton and Harrold Historical Society (pubd. in The Bridge Magazine).
VCH Beds. 1912, p.50-1.
Domestic State Papers 1672(pubd.edn.p.238).
carltonwithchellington.co.uk/village_history.htm
P. and K. Dynes, Information collected from:
Bedfordshire and Luton Archives and Record Service
Beds. Parish Registers Series Vol.34 (Carlton),
and other sources.
Listing NGR: SP9601154814
