Needing overnight accommodation in Winchester for a quick visit I stayed at Cathedral Cottage where pilgrims sometimes spend a first night.

This bed and breakfast is in the Winchester city centre. The cathedral wall runs along the bottom of the garden from where there is a view of the cathedral.

A special attraction is an en-suite double room in the garden (£95). You can see the stars through the roof light.

The freshly cooked breakfast is taken at a large table back in the main house’s kitchen overlooking the garden or, in summer, on the terrace.

This is a non smoking and non credit card household. I was greeted by family member Richard who later served breakfast.

Cathedral Cottage, 19 Colebrook Street SO23 9LH; 01962 878975.

The Red Lion on Shooters Hill is at the end of your first day out of London.

It is almost certain to be open when you arrive. In  addition to real ale and food you can now ask for a stamp to be added to your pilgrim passport.

The milestone outside Christ Church opposite says that it’s 8 miles from London Bridge where you started in Southwark Cathedral.

There is  handy shop next to the Victorian pub which makes this spot on the western side of the hill the natural focus and finish.

If you want to end on top there is The Bull 400 yards further up for another drink.

• Burgers at The Red Lion are served with healthy sweet potato chips. There is also a vegetarian version.

The Thomas A Becket in Old Kent Road from today has its own stamp for marking pilgrim passports.

The famous pub building, opposite Tesco, is now Rock Island at Thomas A Becket and is open 12 noon to 12 midnight.

After Southwark Cathedral, where you can obtain a pilgrim passport in the shop, this is the first main stop on the pilgrim route to Canterbury.

Here at the Old Kent Road crossroads known as St Thomas A Watering pilgrims on horseback used to pause to water their horse in the stream running across the road.

The pub sign is a reproduction of a 13th-century glass image of Thomas Becket in a Canterbury Cathedral window.

The Thomas A Becket pub was reopened earlier this year as Rock Island bar & grill serving burgers and pizzas from noon to midnight.

This was Geoffrey Chaucer’s first stop in his book The Canterbury Tales but some walkers also stop briefly first at St George the Martyr Church in Borough High Street where a stamp is also available.

Passing through Denbies vineyard on the Pilgrims’ Way you may notice that grape picking has started.

The first day was Thursday 7 September which is the earliest in the estate’s history.

Concerns about a late frost and a hot June followed by poor weather have proved unfounded. “The quality is quite outstanding,” says  Denbies CEO Christopher White.

Denbies lies below Box Hill with south facing slopes enjoying a micro climate.

Accommodation for walkers is available at The Farmhouse.

You need several vital items for your walk from Southwark in London to Canterbury.

Your pilgrim passport and the guide book can both be obtained from Southwark Cathedral shop.

And you should not forget to carry water.

Your water bottle can be filled free from water taps and fountains in Borough Market which you will pass through on leaving the cathedral.

The Market is phasing out the sale of water in single-use plastic bottles and now selling a lightweight refillable water bottle made from recycled plastic for £2. Perfect for a pilgrimage walk.

Try the market office behind one of the prominent taps.

Drinking fountains with two streams of water, for drinking or filling a bottle, are being installed in Borough Market.

Borough Market is alongside Southwark Cathedral so the new amenity will be ideal for Canterbury bound pilgrims starting out from the cathedral.

At present you must bring your own bottle although it is planned to have reusable water bottles on sale later this year.

One of the taps on a new freestanding pillar can be found outside the Market Office near the main gateway.

What should you do at Southwark Cathedral when setting out on your walk to Canterbury?

Get your passport from the shop; buy postcards for your friends; look at figures on the great screen behind the high altar and find St Thomas Becket and St Swithun; say a prayer and light a candle.

And of course look out for Doorkins the cathedral cat.

A delightful book called Doorkins the Cathedral Cat is being launched on Sunday 20 August at 12.30pm in the churchyard. All are welcome to enjoy coffee, sparkling wine and cat themed biscuits.

Author Lisa Gutwein and illustrator Rowan Ambrose will be signing copies.

Will Doorkins, often seen walking through the cathedral ignoring a sermon, attend her own party?

Tuesday 18 July is the 200th anniversary of Jane Austen’s death in Winchester.

The novelist, who is buried in the cathedral, will be remembered at Choral Evensong with music familiar to her and a hymn based on a prayer written by her.

Earlier in the afternoon, Bank of England staff will be in the cathedral to unveil the new £10 note featuring Jane Austen.

Visitors will be allowed to handle the note which enters circulation in September.

The design features places associated with Jane Austen along the Pilgrims’ Way: her Chawton house writing table and her brother’s home Godmersham Park, near Canterbury, which became the inspiration for a number of her novels.

To visit the bank note exhibition (2.30pm-5pm) and attend evensong (5.30pm) on this special day it is necessary to book free via the cathedral box office (01962 857275).

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Next weekend is good time to start out from Winchester on the Pilgrims’ Way. Saturday 15 July is  St Swithun’s Day.

At Winchester Cathedral the First Evensong of St Swithun will be sung on Friday evening 14 July at 5.30pm.

On Saturday 15 July, St Swithuns’s Day, there are celebrations of the Eucharist at 8am and noon.

The main St Swithun observance is Choral Evensong at 4.30pm when the new Dean, The Very Revd Catherine Ogle, is the preacher.

The service climax is a procession to the Shrine of St Swithun.

The calendar name for the day is The Translation of St Swithun. It was this moving of the saint’s body to a new grave which has given rise to him being associated with rain.

Walkers will find that the forecast for Saturday is no rain.

Friday 7 July is the Translation of St Thomas of Canterbury.

Translation refers to the moving of Thomas Becket’s body in 1220 from the Canterbury Cathedral crypt to his new shrine upstairs in the main church.

So Friday’s observances at the cathedral are like his feast day in December except at a more convenient time and in warmer weather.

The eve of the Translation, Thursday 6 July, is the anniversary of the execution of St Thomas More who, like Becket, was killed for opposing a King.

More’s anniversary is marked, as always since 1971,  by a lecture at nearby St Dunstan’s on the Pilgrims’ Way in Canterbury.

This is where Henry II started his barefoot walk to Becket’s shrine.

It is also where now the head of St Thomas More rests in a vault. The gateway of his daughter Margaret Roper’s house is nearby.

A descendant Anne Roper gave one of the first talks. Other guest speakers  have included Archbishop Michael Ramsey, Elizabeth Longford and Tim Tatton-Brown.

This year’s address is being delivered by St Dunstan’s former rector Maurice Worgan who in 1993 encouraged the publication of past addresses which have built a picture of St Thomas More’s life.

Fr Worgan’s talk is called ‘The Polarity of Sir Thomas More: Saint or Sinner?‘.

Early on Friday morning, the Translation,  the Eucharist will be celebrated on the spot where Becket was murdered in December 1170.

In the afternoon choral evensong is followed by a procession to the Shrine site.  Here the chapter, the monks’ successors,  and congregation gather round the place which drew so many pilgrims until the shrine’s destruction in the conflict of Henry VIII’s reign.

The Roman Catholic Mass is celebrated at 8pm.

On Saturday 8 July there is the second annual Canterbury Medieval Pageant commemorating Henry ll’s pilgrimage to Canterbury in 1174. This is mainly for families with young children but the programme includes Canterbury’s Gregorian Music Society singing the Angelus at noon in St Peter’s Church.

Canterbury Cathedral programme for the Translation 2017

Thursday 6 July

5.30pm First Evensong of Translation of St Thomas

7.30pm St Thomas More Commemoration at St Dunstan’s Church

Friday 7 July

8am Eucharist at Altar of Sword-point

12.30pm Festal Communion Service in Trinity Chapel

5.30pm Choral Evensong and procession the Shrine site

8pm Roman Catholic Mass in cathedral crypt