Context!

“ENGLAND’S TROUBLES WILL INCREASE UNTIL THE BISHOPS OPEN JOANNA SOUTHCOTT’S BOX”

For decades, weirdly cryptic messages like this could be found plastered on walls and buses, paid for by the Panacea Society. The group was formed by prophet Octavia (formerly Mabel Barltrop) in the 1920s. In a few years, the Society had thousands of members across the world, and as many as 70 adherents living at a compound in suburban Bedford, which they believed was the site of the original Garden of Eden. Their history, beliefs and their origins from 19th century prophet Joanna Southcott (and her mysterious box), have now largely been forgotten. The Panacea Museum is a really admirable attempt to preserve the legacy of a uniquely female cult – a few members were even former Suffragettes.

I think the reason why the Panacea Society isn’t well remembered any more is simply because the cult was amusingly suburban. It’s more of a cute story than a scary or horrifying one. There was no violent ending to the Society like what happened in Jonestown – the last elderly follower simply died in 2012, at which point the religion ceased to exist and the Society (along with its £34 million in assets) was converted into the charity which maintains the museum.

The Experience

The cult’s beliefs were definitely esoteric – something the adverts they commissioned makes clear enough – but there were no sex scandals or elaborate rituals involving extraterrestrials. For some women, the Panacea Society provided a safe space for them to live out the rest of their lives, in the company of other women (and occasionally a few men) who shared their beliefs. One of the billboards pointed out that the Society was one of the few places in the UK at the time with a female preacher.

It’s clear that a lot of thought and care was put into turning the site into an educational experience  – what could just be another “Check it out we have a house from the 1930s you can walk around” sort of museum goes a few steps beyond. The site has been open for less than a decade, and the staff have obviously learned from how 21st century museums are structured. They’ve wisely not stuffed the complex with every artifact they could (“look at this dish Octavia ate from once!”) and focused on fewer, more intriguing objects. My personal favourite is a taxidermy display, showcasing Octavia’s pet raven, Jack.

One problem the Panacea Society Museum has is the issue of summarising a very complex set of events that most of the general public has no clue about. This basically means there’s entire rooms that consist mostly of billboards, trying to cover the many, many prophets that claimed to succeed Southcott. I learned that one of the successor prophets to Southcott formed a basketball team in his church named “The House of David” and ended up playing against the Harlem Globetrotters.

The woman at the desk apologetically warned me that some of the exhibits had “A lot of reading” and… she wasn’t wrong. It took me about an hour to get through the rooms providing context. There’s an introductory video but to really understand why the Panacea Society you realistically need to read the… many many billboards. It’s all really interesting stuff, but it’s definitely a lot.

Still, I’d recommend this museum for anyone at all interested in cults and new religious movements. The museum was extremely quiet while I visited although I did choose to go on a Sunday afternoon with miserable weather right after lockdown ended. I might advise you to do some reading on the Panacea Society ahead of time, but this a really unique place that’s worth going out of your way to visit.

Helpful Information

* Entry is free and self guided. At time of writing you don’t need to book a slot. There’s a gift shop at the entrance but currently they only accept cash.

* Despite the property’s age and nature there’s several toilets you can use

* Staff are really friendly and are happy to answer any questions you might have

* Coming from St Pancras, it took me about an hour to arrive in Bedford by train, and another fifteen minutes or so to walk to the museum. On the way I passed through a biker meet-up for some reason.

* There’s a lift for those who need it, and large text booklets in each room for people with vision problems.