The ruins  of Lesnes Abbey church will be treated as a living church again on Sunday.

it will be the starting point for a Procession of the Blessed Sacrament. This is a Corpus Christi procession held two weeks late.

A Corpus Christi procession was an annual event in nearby Bostall Woods before the Second World War. The present custom of gathering at the Abbey each summer dates from 1970.

The Augustinian monastery was founded in reparation for the murder of St Thomas a Becket in Canterbury Cathedral. It was closed by Cardinal Wolsey in 1525 for being too small.

But a decade later Henry VIII closed all monasteries.

The procession, organised by Roman Catholic parishes in Bexley and Greenwich, on Sunday 24 June starts at 3pm.

+Lesnes Abbey is on the PW route out of London and is usually reached on the second day. Pilgrims can obtain a stamp for their pilgrim passport at the cafe. 

The nearest station is Abbey Wood which has been rebuilt ready for being part of the Crossrail Elizabeth Line next year.

The Thomas A Becket pub in London’s Old Kent Road is closed.

Bailiffs have repossessed the ground floor space.

The pub reopened with a fanfare on St Valentine’s Day last year calling itself Rock Island Grill at the Thomas A Becket.

The ribbon was cut by Frank Bruno in recognition of the pub’s boxing heritage. A blue plaque records Henry Cooper training in an upstairs room.

The pub, listed as an ‘asset of community value’, was built in 1898 on the site of an earlier inn which was the first stop on the pilgrimage to St Thomas Becket’s shrine at Canterbury.

A handy stream running across the road was used for watering the horses. Geoffrey Chaucer, in The Canterbury Tales, describes his characters pausing here to hear the first tale.

Passports: Pilgrim passports were stamped at the pub until its closure in April. Now walkers should obtain a last ‘London’ stamp at The Royal Oak in Tabard Street. The next stamps are available at Blackheath Church and The Red Lion on Shooters Hill.

The path across Steer’s Field just before Denbies has reopened.

During the first weekend in June many in Southwark will be marking the first anniversary of the fatal terrorist attack on London Bridge and Borough Market.

Borough Market and Southwark Cathedral were closed for a week during a long and careful search of the area.

A total of eight innocent people died in the one night along with the three attackers.

Australian nurse Kirsty Boden from Guy’s Hospital died outside the cathedral.

Cathedral artist in residence Alison Clark has started work on a piece of art for the anniversary.

The theme is Broken Beauty taken from the Japanese art of Kintsugi where ceramics that have been damaged are repaired with gold.

The specially commissioned work, supported by Southwark Council, incorporates prints on taken from the sacristy door damaged in the attack aftermath together with prints from other parts of the Cathedral that show traces of the past.

Gold will be added to the piece as an echo of Kintsugi.

This installation of heavy cloth is to be hung in the retrochoir by Saturday 2 June and will remain until Thursday 14 June.

Pilgrims setting out from Southwark may see Alison at work this week.

Pilgrims from Winchester approaching Box Hill may find that there is diversion due to travellers having occupied and blocked the National Trust owned Steer’s Field.

Here, where the PW and North Downs Way coincide, the advice is to use the Pilgrims Way as shown on OS map and enter Denbies vineyard via Dorking:

“Take the Pilgrims Way track at the bottom of the scarp passing Landbarn Farm, keeping right when the track forks. When the track meets the road keep right on the footpath by the school to pick up the Mole Gap Trail which takes you back to the North Downs Way by the Denbies Vineyard Visitor Centre.”

Monday 23 April is St George’s Day.

On the Pilgrims’ Way there is the oldest church dedicated to England’s patron saint. This is at Wrotham in Kent where there has been a St George’s Church since about 950.

The present building dates from about 1280.

Thomas Becket would have known the first one as he stayed next door on his last ride back to Canterbury.

Those setting out from London Bridge at Southwark pass the capital’s oldest St George church.

St George the Martyr in Borough High Street has foundations dating from at least 1122. The present above ground building is Georgian.

The London St George church is the focus for the annual St George in Southwark Festival held around St George’s Day.

Details of events at Canterbury Cathedral on the Translation of St Thomas Becket, Saturday 7 July, are now available.

The Translation marks the day in 1220 when St Thomas Becket’s body was moved upstairs from the Cathedral crypt to the shrine built in the Trinity Chapel behind the high altar.

Saturday 7 July

11am Medieval Pageant featuring historical characters, mounted warrior , East Kent Giants , local schools and re-enactment groups sets out from the city’s West Gate.

12:30pm  Festal Anglican Communion in the cathedral’s Trinity Chapel.

3:15pm Choral Evensong in cathedral’s Quire.

6:30pm Cathedral Lodge Summer Party Night at The Canterbury Cathedral Lodge.

8pm Roman Catholic Mass in cathedral’s Quire.

Details of the annual St Thomas More lecture at St Dunstan’s Church on Friday evening 6 July have yet to be announced.

Each year a hundred people walk from St Martin-in-the-Fields to Canterbury over four days.

The Pilgrimage along the Pilgrims’ Way is a sponsored event raising thousands of pounds for the work of The Connection at St Martin-in-the-Fields.

It begins at the steps of the church in Trafalgar Square and ends in the Canterbury Cathedral cloisters.

There, where St Thomas Becket took his last walk just before death, pilgrims gather in front of the memorial to St Martin’s most famous vicar Dick Sheppard who became Dean of Canterbury.

To join the 28th pilgrimage over the Spring Bank Holiday weekend you must register by 30 April using the special form.

Tony Robinson’s Britain’s Great Cathedrals on Channel 5 this Friday features Canterbury.

He will be at Winchester on Friday 11 May.

The series began on Good Friday with York Minster.

Also due to feature are Salisbury, Durham and Liverpool.

From today you can have your Pilgrim Passport stamped at Lesnes Abbey.

The monastery was opened just eight years after Thomas Becket’s murder by his supporter Richard de Lucy who dedicated it to the martyr Archbishop.

Today its ruins remain in a delightful woodland setting famous for its daffodils which are now appearing.

Passports should be presented at the new Abbey Good Coffee refreshment kiosk in the monastic garden.

Open hours during British Summer Time, staring this weekend, are Tue-Sun 10.30am-4pm.

Lesnes Abbey is between Shooters Hill (Red Lion for stamp) and Dartford and is usually reached on the second day of walking from Southwark.

*** Passports are included in a Pilgrim Pack which are available to walkers for £1 when setting out from Southwark Cathedral; ask in the shop where the first stamp is obtained.