Today Tuesday 1 April is the 500th anniversary of Lesnes Abbey’s closure.

The occasion has been marked with a visit by the Bishop of Rochester Jonathan Gibbs and the Mayor of Bexley Sue Gower to unveil a plaque remembering Frank Elliston-Erwood (1883-1968).

The historian Frank Elliston-Erwood led the archaeological excavations which revealed the extensive remains of the abbey church and buildings covered by earth and grass.

When he began he had just completed his book on the Pilgrims’ Way called The Pilgrim’s Road. A Practical Guide For The Pedestrian On The Ancient Way From Winchester To Canterbury.

In 1909 he was turning his attention to the major site on the Southwark branch of the Pilgrims’ Way which took many years. This may explain why he never wrote a follow-up guide to walking from London.

The date of Lesnes Abbey’s dissolution is usually given as 13 February 1525 when Abbot William Tysehurst surrendered the property to Cardinal Thomas Wolsey’s secretary William Burbank.

However, the Bishop of Rochester St John Fisher had not been consulted by Cardinal Wolsey and delayed giving his reluctant approval for six weeks.

Today is the 500th anniversary of that confirmation of dissolution made at Rochester. Bishop Fisher’s successor Jonathan Gibbs said today that the transfer of wealth from Lesnes to Oxford may have given Henry VIII the idea for his successful dissolution of all religious houses in the next decade.

Bishop Fisher was later to suffer execution on the orders of the King having been the chief supporter of Katharine of Aragon. He was beatified by Pope Leo XIII on St Thomas Becket’s Day 29 December 1886 and canonised in 1935. He is remembered in the calendar along with fellow martyr Thomas More on 22 June.

Chris Hawkins, Friends of Lesnes Abbey & Woods chair, said that the abbey, dedicated to St Thomas Becket, was a major stop on the Pilgrims’ Way. Pilgrims were able to view Becket relics in the Lady Chapel.

For today’s pilgrims to Canterbury a stamp is available to anyone presenting a passport at the cafe.

On Sunday market days (13 April, 8 June, 13 July, 10 August, 14 September, 12 October and 9 November) pilgrims can also purchase a Lesnes Abbey pilgrim badge (£8.50) from the Abbey Friends stall.

The latest Walking The Pilgrims Way guidebook (£14.95), updated 2024, is available direct from Cicerone Press.

Lesnes Abbey (£11.99) by Chris Hawkins is available by post here or from the Friends stall on Sunday market days.

Franciscans arrived in Canterbury 800 years ago in the wake of St Thomas Becket’s murder. Their hidden garden survives off the main street carrying the Pilgrims’ Way to the Cathedral.

An early supporter of the newly arrived Franciscans was Archdeacon Simon Langton, brother of Archbishop Stephen Langton who negotiated Magna Carta and presided over the translation of Thomas Becket’s body to his permanent shrine in the cathedral.

Herbs known to the friars and used in medicine can be found throughout the gardens where just a visit was thought to be part of achieving recovery.

‘Mentioned in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales’ says a notice below a Medlar tree. The fruit is best enjoyed when ripe and almost mushy.

A more recent addition is a Victorian vinery where its plant is claimed to come from a cutting of Hampton Court’s famous vine. The structure is part of ongoing restoration.

The Franciscan Gardens along with the Greyfriars Chapel are part of the Eastbridge Hospital founded in 1180 with Becket’s nephew Ralph as its first master.

The Hospital provided accommodation for poor pilgrims whilst the Franciscan chapel spanning the water was also a guesthouse.

Today’s pilgrims bearing a pilgrim passport are welcome to enjoy the Gardens free of charge.

Open during the middle of the day from 11am. Admission £4 for other visitors.

Sandhole Barn on the edge of Snodland is the latest overnight stop to have a stamp for pilgrim passports.

One night accommodation at the barn can be available to pilgrims booking ahead.

This is not bed and breakfast but a comfortable stop with a food welcome pack. A grocer’s open late is nearby.

The best approach is to leave the PW before Upper Halling. Turn off south to walk down to Paddlesworth which was on the ancient route for those crossing the River Medway at Snodland Ferry.

At Paddlesworth’s pilgrim chapel climb over the stile to continue south. At a path junction go left. The path later bears right to reach Snodland Road. Take Sandy Lane almost opposite and at Horn Street hamlet, where the lane bends left, walk to the end. Here the way continues as a footpath. Go right to reach Sandhole Barn.

The latest reprint with updates of the guide Walking The Pilgrims’ Way is now available.

Among the changes and additions are directions for those wishing to begin their walk from London at St George’s Roman Catholic Cathedral in Southwark.

St George’s Cathedral, which holds a relic of St Thomas of Canterbury, has the national shrine of the ‘twentieth-century Becket martyr’ St Oscar Romero whose relics can be found at Canterbury.

The one mile Romero Way links St George’s Cathedral to the Anglican Southwark Cathedral.

The updated guide book reprint, dated 2024, can be obtained at 20% discount + free post direct from Cicerone until 23 February.

Those starting out on the Pilgrims’ Way today 14 February can find a special association with St Valentine in both Winchester and Southwark.

On the edge of Winchester, the PW passes through Hyde Abbey where the head of St Valentine was to be found in the church. This most important relic had been given by Queen Emma, mother of Edward the Confessor, and featured on the abbey seal .

The local celebration was prolonged with a St Valentine Octave observed until 21 February.

Meanwhile in Southwark Cathedral there is the colourful tomb of John Gower.

His Ballades ‘Saint Valentin l’amour et la nature’ and ‘Saint Valentin, plus qe null Emperour’, written about 1390, make him one of the first to suggest Valentine has a connection with love and birds choosing a mate on this day.

About the same time his friend Geoffrey Chaucer in his Parliament of Foules writes ‘…this was on Seynt Valentyne’s day/Whan every foul cometh ther to choose his mate’.

William Shakespeare, who knew Southwark Cathedral where his brother is buried, takes up Chaucer’s suggestion of birds mating at this time in A Midsummer Night’s Dream when Theseus says:

‘Good morrow, friends. Saint Valentine is past:
Begin these wood-birds but to couple now?’

In Hamlet Ophelia in sings:

‘Tomorrow is Saint Valentine’s Day,
All in the morning betime,
And I a maid at your window,
To be your Valentine.’

Shakespeare can be said to have helped make popular the idea of St Valentine’s Day 14 February being associated with love.

Valentine is the patron of travellers, beekeepers, engaged couples, lovers and young people.

On 13 February 1525 Abbot William Tysehurst surrendered Lesnes Abbey to Cardinal Thomas Wolsey’s chaplain and secretary William Burbank.

It was almost exactly twelve years since Tysehurst’s installation.

However, the abbey fell just within the Diocese of Rochester whose bishop John Fisher had an uneasy relationship with the cardinal.

Fisher (the martyr St John Fisher) had been unaware of the announced closure of Lesnes Abbey and so it was more than six weeks before he gave his reluctant agreement.

Only on 1 April did Bishop John Fisher officially consent to a document confirming that he had suppressed and dissolved the monastery of Lesnes. However, the register records that the closure had taken place without consultation.

On Tuesday 1 April the Mayor of Bexley Cllr Sue Gower MBE will mark the 500th anniversary by visiting the abbey.

During the day the Mayor will unveil a plaque commemorating Frank Elliston-Erwood (1883-1968) who led the archaeological excavations beginning in 1909.

In addition to the abbot there were just five remaining canons which is why the community was closed a decade ahead of the suppression of the monasteries.

Lesnes Abbey had been founded in 1178 by Richard de Lucy who helped Henry II to secure the election of Thomas Becket as Archbishop of Canterbury.

Lucy, although once excommunicated by Becket, dedicated the Augustinian abbey to the Virgin Mary and new saint Thomas Becket.

Precious relics held by Lesnes Abbey included Becket’s vestments, his handkerchief and a fragment of the cloth in which his body had been wrapped after the murder.

Richard de Lucy retired as chief justiciar (head of government) in 1179 and joined his community where he died after about three months. His son Godfrey, a future Bishop of Winchester, succeeded his father as abbey patron.

In 1300 Edward I visited Lesnes on his way to Canterbury as did the Bishop of Worcester who stayed the night in 1313. Chaucer, accompanied by The Tabard inn landlord, visited in 1387 when starting to write The Canterbury Tales.

Cardinal Wolsey had obtained Papal permission to convert the Priory of St Frideswide in Oxford into Cardinal College. To assist funding, the Lesnes Abbey property with annual revenues of almost £250 was given to the new college (now known as Christ Church College. )

The community owned property in Erith, Dartford, Eynsford, Canterbury and Newington in Kent.

A year later a disgruntled Bishop Fisher was still examining the accounts. He compensated the ousted abbot by appointing him to the living of Horsmonden in Kent.

Much of the abbey’s stone buildings slowly disappeared leaving today’s outline of the church, cloister, kitchen and refectory.

On the low ground to the north is Thamesmead which the monks knew as drained marshland pasture liable to flooding during Thames spring tides.

The abbey shield featuring the heraldic de Lucy fish is displayed on the ceiling of Canterbury Cathedral cloister (SW corner). The fish also appear on the abbey seal and today are depicted on the stamp available to pilgrims calling at the cafe.

Lesnes Abbey is on the second stage of the Pilgrim’s Way out of London. The nearest station is Abbey Wood on the Elizabeth Line.

***There is a Farmers’ Market every second Sunday 10am-3pm which is the successor to a market known to have been held every Sunday at the abbey gate during 1387 when Chaucer visited.

Overcast Lesnes Abbey on anniversary eve

The memorial service for former Dean of Canterbury Robert Willis is to be at Salisbury Cathedral on Candlemas, Sunday 2 February at 3pm.

Tickets are not required and all are welcome at the service which will take the form of choral evensong with an address by former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams.

The service will be livestreamed and can be viewed here or via the cathedral website.

Robert Willis, much loved long serving Canterbury Dean who retired in 2022, died unexpectedly last year in the USA where his funeral took place.

It may be a surprise that the memorial service is not to be at Canterbury but the venue may prove convenient to those wishing to attend who live near Salisbury. Robert Willis began his ministry in the Salisbury Diocese.

As Dean, Robert Willis visited Segni in Italy where Alexander III presided over the fast canonisation of Thomas Becket in 1173.

Salisbury Cathedral’s saint for pilgrims is Osmund..

This year 2025 is the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen’s birth.

The author was born on 16 December 1775 and many anniversary celebrations are planned during this year and on the actual birthday 16 December.

All along the Pilgrims’ Way there are places associated with Jane Austen but she does not mention the existence of this ancient path in her books.

It is true that the Pilgrims’ Way had few if any pilgrims in the late 18th century but the dormant path was being reawakened in Surrey during her lifetime by William Bray and she was deeply aware of heritage. Her very last writing shortly before her death featured St Swithun -the saint who sends pilgrims off to Becket at Canterbury.

Can anyone find evidence of Jane Austen acknowledging the Pilgrims’ Way?

Jane Austen’s grave is in the nave of Winchester Cathedral. The house where she was staying when she died in July 1817 is nearby.

Jane also knew Canterbury well from her many day trips from Godmersham.

Twenty miles out of Winchester on the PW is Chawton where there is a campaign to preserve the fields from new housing because this is countryside as known to Jane Austen. It is also the timeless Pilgrims’ Way countryside.

At Charlton the route passes Jane Austen’s House which was her home for eight years. Jane chose it in preference to another offered by her brother in Godmersham at the far end of the PW .

Opposite Jane Austen’s House in Chawton is Cassandra’s Cup tearoom named after Jane’s sister who in 1804 was the first person to make a written reference to afternoon tea.

Jane unwittingly walked the Pilgrims’ Way into Alton when she was catching the coach to London from outside the Swan Hotel.

Alton’s museum was founded by Jane’s doctor William Curtis and her brother Henry Austen owned one of the town’s banks.

A little further on are Bentley and Farnham where Jane’s bother Henry was curate.

Box Hill is featured in Emma where there is a picnic.

Jane’s uncle John was rector of Chevening where its now demolished parsonage was the model for the vicarage in Pride and Prejudice.

Just outside Kemsing the PW passes the intriguing St Clere where William Evelyn, brother of the diarist John, lived. Jane and William knew each other having met in Bath.

George Moore, rector of nearby Wrotham on the PW , was a relative of Jane who visited when writing Pride and Prejudice.

The vicar of Lenham was Edward Bridges, brother of Jane’s sister in law Elizabeth. When Jane stayed at Lenham vicarage it is believed that the vicar unsuccessfully proposed to her.

Godmersham Park has huge resonance for fans for although Jane chose not to accept the house there offered by her brother she did often stay at the big house whilst working on Pride and Prejudice and Mansfield Park, which feature Godmersham, and also Emma. Her brother Edward is commemorated in the church where she worshipped on Sundays.

Nearby Chilham, where pilgrims often spend their last night before reaching Canterbury, was where Jane attended dinners and a ball at the castle.

Those walking the London PW from Southwark will find a Jane Austen plaque in Dartford High Street where she often stayed at the now demolished Bull & George when travelling to and from Godmersham.

After St Thomas Becket yesterday we have St James the Great today.

Both are our pilgrim saints.

St James’s shell has become the universal pilgrim badge familiar on both the Camino and Pilgrims’ Way.

Today 30 December is the Translation of St James recalling the arrival of St James’s body in Galicia having been brought by sea from the Holy Land.

The celebrations this morning at Santiago de Compostela mirror those on St James’s Day 25 July. The difference is that today there are more locals in the cathedral and not so many pilgrims arriving on foot.

Shere church on the Pilgrims’ Way is dedicated to St James.

Sunday 29 December is the 854th anniversary of Thomas Becket’s murder during vespers in Canterbury Cathedral.

On Sunday the saint will be remembered at the 5.30pm evensong which is being streamed live via the Canterbury Cathedral website.

The clergy move to the Martyrdom during the service for readings from T.S Eliot’s Murder in the Cathedral and the banging close of the cloister door.

The preacher will be Father Robert McCulloch.

Sung Vespers of St Thomas is in the Cathedral Crypt at 8pm.