If it rains on St Swithun’s Day it will rain for forty days says the popular rhyme. The fortieth day is St Bartholomew’s Day Saturday 24 August.

Pilgrims’ Way

The Pilgrims’ Way has a church dedicated to Bartholomew found at Hyde Abbey on the edge of Winchester. St Swithun’s shrine is in Winchester Cathedral.

Another St Bartholomew church is at Otford in Kent where the routes from Southwark in London and Winchester converge.

Winchester

St Bartholomew’s Church at Winchester will be open on St Bartholomew’s Day Saturday 24 August 11am-4pm with refreshments and hourly tours. The Patronal Festival service is the following morning, Sunday at 10am.

Sandwich

The day is kept with much colour at Sandwich in Kent where St Thomas Becket landed from exile just weeks before his martyrdom at Canterbury twelve miles away.

The port belonged to Canterbury Cathedral whose sacred relics included St Bartholomew’s arm.

St. Bartholomew’s Hospital in Sandwich dates from about 1190 and was built as a hostel for pilgrims. It now provides almshouse accommodation.

The St Bartholomew’s Day service in the church at 11am is attended by the Mayor. Afterwards children run around the outside of the church to receive a current bun as a symbol of the food once provided to pilgrims. Adults at the service are given a specially baked biscuit embossed with the Hospital seal.

Sandwich also has a St Thomas’s Hospital built in the 14th century and dedicated to St Thomas Becket.

Who is St Bartholomew?

Bartholomew is one of the Twelve Apostles and patron of farmers who are much concerned about the weather at this time of the year.