John Bunyan was born the son of a tinker, in Elstow, south of Bedford. He lived in the village until he was sixteen, learning his father's trade. The outbreak of Civil War in 1642 led to a brief spell serving with  parliamentary forces at Newport Pagnell, from which he returned to Elstow and married. The arrival of his first child Mary, who was born blind, triggered a spiritual crisis in Bunyan who may have blamed his sinful life for his daughter's blindness. In 1653 he sought out the congregation of St John's Church and became friends with John Gifford the pastor. By 1656 Bunyan was preaching himself and had written his first book Some Gospel Truths Opened.      In 1660 Oliver Cromwell's protectorate came to an end and the state forbade preaching. Bunyan was interrupted as he began to preach in Samsell and was arrested. He received a three month sentence. By refusing to stop preaching, Bunyan extended his sentence to twelve years, a period in which he wrote the famous Pilgrim's Progress. In 1672 Charles II issued the Declaration of Religious Indulgence and religious dissenters were freed from prisons. A year later the Declaration was withdrawn and Bunyan returned to prison. He continued to write and on his final release was able to preach in a barn on the site of the current Bunyan Meeting House. Bunyan died in 1688.

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