All The Things We've Been Getting Up To

 

The Journey From Bunyan To The Brickworks

April 2017 - October 2017 and beyond

 

On Tuesday 18th April a new partnership project between John Bunyan Museum and The Bedford Chronicles, and made possible by funding from the National Lottery was launched.

 

The Journey from Bunyan to the Brickworks brings together two key aspects of Bedfordshire heritage; the journey John Bunyan envisioned as he was persecuted and imprisoned for his beliefs, and the journeys of people who came to Bedford after the Second World War to work at The London Brick Company, often escaping persecution and imprisonment to make the journey to, hopefully, a better life.

 

Find out more

 

 

 

We PLAYED Bedford Chronicles GO - The FREE Fun App

 

Congratulations Mia - Winner of The Bedford Chronicles BIG Easter Egg Hunt 
We were delighted to exchange the virtual eggs for some real chocolate ones!

The App will be back in October

 

 

WW2 - Secrets & Spies - School Workshops

 

We have been out and about in schools across the Borough cracking codes and keeping things 'under our hats' !

 

 

 

WW2 - Secrets & Spies

 

Everyone was 'keeping it under their hat' at our fun Easter workshop at the John Bunyan Museum. We found out about the history of Secrets & Spies in Bedford durning WW2, did some top code-breaking and wrote messages in 'invisible ink'.

 

 

 

A Most Magnificent Magic Lantern Show at The Panacea Museum

 

We had such wonderful morning at The Panacea Museum for our jam packed - Most Magnificent Magic Lantern Workshop.  We learnt all about the magic lantern as part of a wonderful interactive original lantern show. It was then time to make some cool flip books!  

 

 

 

Viking Workshop

 

We had such a brilliant afternoon at Wilden Lower School for our Bedford Chronicles Viking Workshop.  We learnt all about the Vikings of Bedford, made some Viking Brooches and created a Wilden School Viking God! 
 

 

 

Town Tour

 

We had an amazing day showing comedian and journalist Mark Steel around Bedford as he prepared for his BBC4 Radio Show - Mark Steel's In Town

 

 

 

Meeting The Normans

 

Delighted to welcome The 'No Nonsense' Normans to our half-term workshop at The Ent Shed. We found out all about Bedford Castle, Norman fashion was tried on, swords measured for size and super shields were created.

 

 

 

At The Museum

 

We had such fun on our half-term Potions, Posies and Poems workshops at the John Bunyan Museum. We found out about the history of love, plus there was ring and potion making and big group poems were created.

 

 

 

Chronicles Workshops

 

To start the year we hosted some fun workshops for the PSG Cub packs. Such a great bunch!

 

 

 

Bedford Stories - The Film

 

On Love Bedford Day in partnership with Future Legend Media, we took part in an ambitious project, ‘BEDFORD STORIES’ - capturing as many stories of Bedford as we could in just 5 hours and making them into film!

We did it and you can watch it Here

 

 

 

Town Trail Winners

 

Fantastic morning at Waterstone's Bedford for the presentation of prizes to the winners of the Chronicles Summer Town Trail.
There were two £25.00 Love Bedford Vouchers presented to Daphne Thomas and Rebecca Marsh by Christina Rowe BedfordBID - Director of Operations.
The overall winner, Mandy Stagg, was presented with a specially painted watercolour by Alasdair depicting Beda and Mandy's grandchildren.

 

 

 

App Launch

 

In a first for Bedford, and in partnership with Andrew of Digitwell Solutions, we launched the Bedford Chronicles GO App, a free fun app game for all the family which ran throughout October. It was a huge success and will be back at Easter.

 

 

 

Coin Display

 

There was a wonderful display of King Offa Coins hosted in the Bedford Town Library. All the coins were drawn as part of our half-term workshop.

 

 

 

Workshops

 

We held lots of fun workshops this year on The John Bunyan Boat, in the Bedford Library and in the John Bunyan Museum. More coming in 2017.

 

 

 

Events

 

We had great fun getting out and about to some of the events held in Bedford over the summer. It was super to meet so many people and talk about the Bedford Stories.

 

 

 

Pride In Bedfordshire And The Launch Of The Basement

 

We were delighted to be invited to some wonderful events this year including Pride In Bedfordshire, the launch of The Basement and to the Gala performance of the Harpur Trust Play, 'Somewhere in England'. We met some brilliant people and had a super time.

 

 

 

 

 

Summer Fun With Our Town Trail

 

In the summer we launched our free Chronicles Town Trail. Whilst out and about in Bedford, Beda had managed to loose his most prized pantaloons and he needed your help to find them! Loads of you looked and many of you found our 'Beda's' hidden all across the Town Centre.

 

 

 

 

On World Book Day 2016 The Bedford Chronicles Was Launched

 

As part of the World Book Day launch, every Bedford Borough child in school years 4 and 5 received a FREE Special Edition copy of the book. This was in partnership with The Harpur Trust as part of this year's 450th Anniversary Celebrations.