The Mothers’ Union has reached 150 years in age with supporters all round the world. Millions of people are helped by the MU.

Mary Sumner founded the Mothers Union at Old Arlesford – the PW passes near New Arlesford to the south.

Later Mary, wife of a bishop, lived at Farnham Castle on the PW.

She died in Winchester on 11 August 1921.

This Sunday 9 August at 2.30pm flowers will be laid on her tomb outside the east end of Winchester Cathedral where she will be remembered at Evensong.

***The Mothers’ Union has ‘three pillars of impact’: Ending injustice, Ending Violence, Ending Poverty.

Lammastide was marked at Southwark Cathedral on Friday when a new loaf from Borough Market provided the communion bread.

The celebration began in the Bread Ahead bakery where the Dean of Southwark, The Very Revd Mark Oakley, blessed harvest grain, new bread, the bakers and bakery students with holy water.

Afterwards a harvest sheaf, new bread including a large Cathedral Loaf, were carried in procession across the road and into the cathedral.

Lammas means ‘loaf mass‘ and the loaves were placed in front of the altar for the Eucharist or Mass.

The Dean was the celebrant assisted by Canon Roxanne Eversley who read the passage from Deuteronomy featuring ‘all the fruit of there ground, which you harvest from the land’.

Lammas used to be the ‘harvest festival’ for the start of harvest on 1 August but this summer pilgrims from Southwark to Canterbury have been walking through fields already cut.

Prayers were offered that we may conserve and share the earth’s resources. Earlier, at the bakery, the Dean had spoken of this year’s difficult harvest.

Following the service Bread Ahead hosted the congregation for doughnuts and coffee.

The July calendar features several saints associated with pilgrimage: St Thomas Becket, St Swithun and St James.

At the end of the month comes St Martha’s Day on 29 July.

Since 2021 this day is now designated as the Memorial of Saints Martha, Mary and Lazarus who shared a home in Bethany where Jesus was known to be welcome.

Martha provided supper for Jesus in her home at Bethany a week before his crucifixion when she is remembered for complaining that her sister Mary did not help her in the kitchen.

St Martha is a rare dedication for a church.

St Martha-on-the-Hill church in Surrey is a landmark on the Pilgrims’ Way between St Catherine’s, near Guildford, and Shere.

The hill, 570 feet above sea level with views of several counties, featured in the opening sequence of the 1944 film A Canterbury Tale.

The church, although much restored by the Victorians, dates from the 1100s and had a Thomas Becket chapel. Today he is depicted in a window.

Martha gets little recognition as 29 July is also St Olaf’s Day. He has over forty church dedications including the lost church of St Olave next to London Bridge and across the road from Southwark Cathedral.

**St Martha’s celebrated its feast day ahead last Sunday so no special events this Wednesday 29 July.

Gatton church is promoting itself as a pilgrim church with an open day fundraiser on August Bank Holiday Monday 31 August.

Although very close to the path, the ancient church is easily missed being hidden in the Gatton Park.

Pilgrims walking Stage 6 from Box Hill to Merstham pass through Gatton Park towards the end. On Bank Holiday it will be a good stop for refreshment. Pilgrim Ale from nearby Reigate will be available.

The church has Saxon origins and is richly furnished with items from European churches.

It is expected that the church’s planned pilgrim stamp will be available in time for the open day.

This year St Swithun’s Day will be extra special in Winchester where St Peter’s Roman Catholic Church is celebrating its centenary.

In July 1926 The Tablet newspaper reported that the church was opened on ‘the Feast of St Swithun’.

This year the Mayor of Winchester and guests from the cathedral and local churches will gather at St Peter’s for Ecumenical Vespers on the eve of St Swithun at 7pm on Tuesday 14 July.

The Centenary Mass is on St Swithun’s Day Wednesday 15 July at 11am.

The reredos contains, in canopied niches, statues of St Peter and St Swithun.

The preacher at the Opening Mass on St Swithun’s Day 1926 was Cardinal Francis Bourne who told the congregation that St Swithun did more than anyone else in that part of England for the building up of the civil unity of the country by uniting it in one same religious faith.

‘We know little about Swithun’, said the Cardinal. ‘But we know the fundamental humility of his character, that humility which is the foundation of all other virtues ; humility, which is common in legend, probably historical fact, whereby we are told that he willed that his body should be laid where those who entered the church would walk across it, and upon which the drops of rain should continually fall.’

The Cardinal was recalling at the legend that should it rain on St Swithun’s Day it will rain for forty days.

The hundred year old English gothic St Peter’s incorporates a late Norman doorway of 1174 brought from the Hospital of St Mary Magdalen on the Alresford road.

St Peter’s was one of the last churches of architect Frederick Walters who was also responsible for Buckfast Abbey’s church. In London he designed the Church of the Most Precious Blood which some pilgrims visit when walking from St George’s Cathedral to Southwark Cathedral. before setting out for Canterbury.

St Peter’s parish priest, Fr Mark Hogan, is a canon of Winchester Cathedral.

Winchester Cathedral

At Winchester Cathedral there is no Choral First Evensong of St Swithun on Tuesday 14 July although Evening Prayer will be said at 5.30pm.

On St Swithun ‘s Day Wednesday 15 July there is a Choral Eucharist at 5.30pm, ending with prayers at the Shrine, which will be live streamed on the Cathedral website.

At the end of the Friends Evensong on Saturday 18 July there will also be a procession to St Swithun’s Shrine. This year’s preacher is The Very Reverend Christopher Palmer, the newly-installed Dean.

***A popular rhyme claims that if it rains on St Swithun’s Day it will rain for forty days. The weather forecast was until recently showers during evensong at Winchester.

On Sunday the church of St Thomas in Salisbury marked the coming Translation of St Thomas Becket Day early with its annual Rose Petal Sunday.

The church’s patronal festival was kept with a choral Eucharist of St Thomas presided over by new curate Carly Taylor who was celebrating her first Mass following ordination at the nearby cathedral.

At the end there was a procession out of the church into St Thomas’s Square to see Carly Taylor bless the city from the tower before rose petals were thrown from the castellated top to blow across Salisbury.

The Salisbury church was dedicated to St Thomas Becket around 1220, the year of the translation of his body from the crypt of Canterbury Cathedral to the shrine upstairs.

The church’s great attraction is a doom painting dating from 1470 and best seen at this time of the year when light shines from the west window.

The new Rector of St Thomas Salisbury, Canon Jo Haine, will be installed on Our Lady’s Birthday 8 September.

The Translation of St Thomas Becket falls on 7 July marking the moving of the saint’s body from Canterbury Cathedral crypt to the shrine in the main church in 1220. This was always a much better attended occasion than the anniversary of his martyrdom on 29 December.

Monday 6 July

Cathedral: 5.30pm First Evensong of St Thomas Translation.

St Dunstan’s Church: 7.30pm Annual Thomas More Commemoration Service marking his execution day. Lecture by Court of Appeal Judge Sir Mark Warby called ‘More and more: law and the Charterhouse in London’. (St Dunstan’s is the last church on the PW before the West Gate. St Thomas More like St Thomas Becket defied a King Henry.)

Tuesday 7 July Translation

Cathedral: 8am Holy Communion in Trinity Chapel.

Cathedral: 5.30pm Solemn Evensong & procession to Shrine (live stream via Cathedral website).

Cathedral : 7.30pm RC Mass (live stream).

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Canterbury’s Medieval Pageant and Family Trail on Saturday 4 July includes a Medieval Music Programme.

Ancient St John’s church in Medway’s riverside Halling will be keeping its patronal festival with an open evening.

Wednesday 24 June is St John’s Day when the church is opening from 6-9pm offering free refreshments and a chance to have go at bellringing.

The village has long been on the Pilgrims’ Way as it maintained one of the ferries for crossing the River Medway.

Now the main crossing is Peters Bridge at the south end of Halling. This means that whilst once pilgrims might have split up to cross at Cuxton or Snodland now they head for the bridge.

Halling church, dating from the Norman period, has just restored its 13th-century chancel arch paintings featuring the Crown of Thorns, the Washing of the Feet and the Last Supper.

The churchyard’s wall with lancet windows was the west end of the dining hall belonging to the Bishop of Rochester’s palace.

The church is not at present open daily but it is open weekends 10am-12 noon: Saturday during choir practice and Sunday when the service (Holy Communion/Eucharist) is at 11am.

A pilgrim stamp is available by the hymn books on the back pew. When the church is closed a stamp can be obtained at The Five Bells opposite or in the early morning at Jo’s Cafe coffee stall outside at the pub.

Soon there will be handy PW waymarks found along the route.

The plan is to start in places where they are most needed -for example where the PW is not over the same ground as the North Downs Way.

If there are any places where you have briefly felt confused let us know in the replies/comments. We are looking at both the legs out of Southwark and Winchester as well as the shared path from Otford.

The discs have been funded by the Alpkit Foundation.

This is the 75th year for the Bart’s Summer Fair at Otford.

It was first held in Festival of Britain year 1951 when Abram Games designed the village’s guide book cover. He had been responsible for the official Festival emblem, known as the Festival Star.

Otford in Kent is where the Southwark and Winchester arms of the Pilgrims’ Way come together at St Bartholomew’s church by the pond.

Expected stalls at this year’s fair on the green include: books, plants, white elephant, cakes, raffle, coconut shy and ice cream. .

There will be games for children as well as a bouncy castle.

Lunch and teas will be available.