Is Bedford town centre the original Garden of Eden?

Another lovely day out somewhere local this week. I’m trying to make the most of my time not working (just volunteering, which is work, but I am doing it for free!) and when I find somewhere interesting or special, I need to blog about it! As always, I hope it helps someone if they are ever in the areas I visit and need somewhere to go!

So, this time I went to the Panacea Museum in Bedford town centre. I had picked up a leaflet for this place when I revisited another local museum recently (The Cowper & Newton Museum in Olney, that you can read about in a previous blog post) and finally found a date that was good for me and one of my favourite museum-visit companions, my Mum!

We only live about 30 minutes from Bedford, but never even knew this place existed until I saw the leaflet! We parked in a multi-storey on Lurke Stret (NOT FREE!) as it was only a short walk to the museum from here and the place I had researched we could eat at.

First stop, lunch at the Higgins Pantry, which is inside another museum that I will go back to visit soon. Nice, modern café/restaurant with well-spaced tables and a friendly atmosphere. We ordered a chicken caesar salad each and a soft drink. It was delicious! Plenty of dressing (probably why it tasted so good!) and two pieces of thick bread, smothered in butter. Really was lovely and would recommend this place to anyone visiting. Staff were attentive ad friendly and pricing not to bad either. We walked outside and read a couple of boards on the history of Bedford (there used to be a castle there!) and then crossed the road and we had arrived at our destination.

We were welcomed by Adrian, who gave us a great introduction to the museum, and who had recently self-published a book on the stories that surround the museum, that you can buy in the gift shop. He was incredibly knowledgeable and friendly and clearly explained how the museum worked and the best way to navigate our way around.
We started with an introductory video and then walked through a series of bright and airy rooms, full of information. There were stairs to navigate, but a lift was available, so easy access to all.

(Source of below information: The museum info boards!)

The Panacea Society had its origins among a group of women interested in prophecy and the coming millennium. In 1919, one of these women became their leader and messiah – Mabel Barltrop. Originally calling themselves ‘The Community of the Holy Ghost’, they changed the name in 1926 when they believed they had discovered a cure – a ‘panacea’ – for all illnesses.

The society began after a revival of interest in Joanna Southcott, who, within her lifetime, had thousands of people believe in her prophesies of a coming messiah called Shiloh. When she died in 1814, she left an unopened box of prophesies and said that it should only be opened in a time of National danger by 24 bishops of the Church of England. In 1914, when the First World War broke out, Mabel Barltrop was one of many people who tried to convince the bishops to open the box.

Some of this group of people became the first members of the society, who found that they all shared an interest and belief in the coming messiah and several also reported being part of religious experiences, where they thought God was communicating with them. Mabel began receiving messages and visions from God between 1914-1916 and shared this with other similar minded women. One of these was Ellen Oliver, a former Suffragette, who became convinced that Mabel herself was the new Messiah – Shiloh, and announced this to the group, who after looking at the evidence, all agreed with her. It was at this point that Mabel became known as ‘Octavia’ the 8th prophet (seven had come before her and the museum told their stories too).

Octavia’s community in Bedford was then formed. During 1919, she had written to other members of the society about her dream that their circle of believers could live in communal houses, have common meals and conversation, but keep to their own rooms. As she already lived in Bedford, many other women and eventually men and married couples moved to the area and began to buy houses in the same street, which resulted in the museum we were visiting that day. A group of buildings that had all been bought and used as the ‘centre’ of the society.

One of the buildings was a house that they kept in constant expectation of the 24 bishops visiting at any point to open the box, which also held the official room where the box would be opened, following strict instructions created by Joanna Southcott.

The Panacea they believed they’d discovered to cure all ills was healing water. Mabel (Or Octavia) had a history of mental and physical suffering, having twice been committed to an asylum, but believed that her trust in God would relieve her ailments. In 1921, while she was at home in Albany Street (where the museum stands now) she was about to take her medication and had said a prayer over the water she was about to use, when the pill jumped out of her hand. Octavia understood this to mean that she should not take the medicine, but drink only the prayed over water. After this, she felt better – the society’s idea about healing water slowly took shape.

The idea was that the healing power of Octavia’s breath (as Shiloh) could be transmitted to water using small squares of linen that, during a ceremony, she first prayed over and then breathed over. These squares would then be sent to anyone who asked for them (hundreds of thousands once people began to know about the society) to add to water, which they needed to pray over, then drink, as well as following some strict instructions that were sent along with the linen square.

They sent the linen to anyone who asks, completely free of charge, so no money was made, and just asked that they keep them up to date with their progress and success.

During 1925, a special work of protection for Bedford took place where a circle was drawn with a radius twelve miles from the Panacea Society chapel (which you can visit at the museum). At eight points of the circle, these linen squares were ceremoniously buried. This created an ‘ark of protection’ called the Royal Domain, which members believed now belonged to God’s Daughter – Shiloh Octavia. My hometown is within the circle – is anyone else’s?!

It was quite a museum! Lots to read and learn – I haven’t covered everything here, there is so much more to the story of the Society, so really worth going along yourself if you can. AND ITS FREE TO VISIT! We left a donation as it was so well laid out and informative and spent a good three hours there and could have stayed for longer.

And dear readers, the box still remains unopened….

Sadly, the tea shop wasn’t open when we visited, so we instead walked about five minutes to The Mill Yard Coffee Lounge. The owner served us, who used to work as a Patisserie chef and was so warm and welcoming. The lounge itself is decorated nicely and is quite quirky. If the weather had been kinder to us, we could have sat outside too. We each had a skinny latte and shared a chocolate twist. This is an independent business and I strongly recommend you go here for your lunch or a coffee/tea stop – reasonable prices and lots of choice. I want to go back for lunch to try their open cheese scones and cake as its all made on-site.

I hope you’ve learnt something and enjoyed reading about all these new places to visit! By the way – the title of this blog post asked if Bedford was the Garden of Eden – you’ll need to visit the museum to find out why I asked…..

I am off on holiday again!

I will be flying off to Lisbon with two of my lovely friends soon, staying in an AirBnB house, so I will blog about the highlights when I get back, but the big news is…..I am off in my caravan again in July! I’ve booked two weeks in Cornwall, staying on two campsites and will be blogging as I go along like I did last year. I am also looking at somewhere to stay halfway down so that I can have a more relaxed and broken up seven hour journey down there on my own! More details soon….