This year 2023 the Translation of St Thomas of Canterbury, Thomas Becket, falls on Friday 7 July.

The day is the anniversary of St Thomas Becket’s body being moved in 1220 from Canterbury Cathedral‘s crypt to the shrine upstairs in the rebuilt Trinity Chapel at the east end of the cathedral church.

Some pilgrims aim to arrive on this day as it is easier and warmer than the 29 December St Thomas Becket Day.

At 8am the Eucharist will be celebrated at the Altar of the Swordspoint in the Martyrdom, the site of the Archbishop’s murder in December 1170.

There will be another Eucharist (also Anglican) at 12.30pm in the Chapel of Our Lady Undercroft in the crypt.

The Roman Catholic Mass in the cathedral is at 7.30pm followed by light refreshments in the chapter house.

The main ecumenical service, attended by the Cathedral Friends, is Solemn Evensong sung by the lay clerks at 5.30pm followed by a procession to the site of the shrine.

Evensong will be broadcast live on the cathedral website.

Winchester keeps St Swithun’s Day a week later.

Before you set out from Southwark Cathedral on your pilgrimage you may wish sit next to William Shakespeare in the churchyard or say hello to Hodge the cat.

This summer you can also look for a large golden nest made from reflective wire in a plane tree.

You will find the nest by Angela Wright in the Cathedral’s herb garden.

‘Nesting is something we have ‘in common’,’ says Angela. ‘We animals nest to protect us and our ‘eggs’… an enclosure for nurturing families.

‘Nests are architectural in construction and use. Birds may use twigs, weaving them one by one into a sustainable nest; distinctive in design according to species and habitat.

‘There are high rise nests, or those on water’s edge, in a colony inside a hedgerow, or on a cliff face and there are squatters who build no nest at all.

‘Mine is a mental nest.’

Prayer

The Dean of Southwark, The Very Revd Andrew Nunn, has written a prayer:

Hospitable God,

in whose kingdom trees

the birds nest,

in whose Temple

the sparrow finds a home:

May we dwell in your house,

nestle in your love,

and know you as the God

of open door

and open heart.

Amen

The Herb Garden is outside the east end of Southwark Cathedral. The nest came also be seen from the high pavement of London Bridge approach.

The installation is part of the London Festival of Architecture.

There are plans for the former Kentish Drovers pub building in Old Kent Road, part of the Pilgrims’ Way, to be restored.

The pub, on the corner of Commercial Way, has been a landmark since at least 1838 due to having England’s longest pub sign.

This takes the form of a curving mural of extremely rare ceramic block Doulton tiles. The signed picture, depicting a rural Old Kent Road, is by a female artist although the name ‘ALICE D…’ has become indecipherable.

Work will include the conservation and restoration of the mural which is damaged

The pub’s original name was The Kentish Drovers and Halfway House being halfway between Deptford and London Bridge. Drovers and their flocks of sheep and cattle once came over Shooters Hill and up the Old Kent Road from Kent on their way to Smithfield. Nearby Drovers Place may indicate the site of a field used for resting and grazing.

The corner building is now occupied by the New Saigon restaurant. The interior retains late 19th-century carved mahogany fittings and engraved glass.

The frame of the Truman’s pub sign remains on the pavement.

The restoration of the building exterior, along with its deteriorating mural, is being made possible with the help of a £15,000 grant from the Heritage of London Trust as well as Community Infrastructure Levy payments.

Southwark Council will consider the planning application shortly with work expected to start next year. The former pub remains on Historic England’s At Risk Register.

If you are walking from Halling to Aylesford on Sunday 25 June you will find the annual summer fair at Aylesford Priory.

Those planning to start their pilgrimage to Canterbury this Thursday or Friday morning from Southwark may wish to know the arrangements at Southwark Cathedral for Ascension Day, Thursday 18 May.

At 8am on Thursday the Dean will be leading a group of people up to the top of the tower to sing Ascension Day hymns and hear the reading from the Acts of the Apostles.

Those wishing to join in should be aware that there are a great many steps to climb. The group will descend in time for Morning Prayer at 9am.

The Ascension Day Choral Eucharist is at 5.30pm.

An organ meditation of music and poetry celebrating the feast of the Ascension follows at 7pm. Music will include L’Ascension by Olivier Messiaen.

A window has been unveiled at the City of London’s Brewers’ Hall to remember the Brewers’ patron St Thomas Becket.

It was commissioned from the Stained Glass Studios at Canterbury Cathedral and designed by its director Léonie Seliger whose work is seen in the Pilgrim’s Way churches at Boughton Aluph and Godmersham.

The design features the Brewers’ Company’s current coat of arms, granted in 1544 following the Reformation when Henry VIII expunged the Becket name from the calendar and banned pilgrimage. But the ‘new’ arms managed a subtle reference to their now secret patron by including a female moorish figure with golden hair to represent Becket’s step mother from North Africa.

Thomas Becket’s father was a malt merchant known as Gilbert the Brewer.

The original Brewers’ shield incorporating Becket’s archbishop arms, with its three choughs proper and pallium, is depicted below.

The Company’s Master Jonathan Neame, the Clerk and the Beadle, together with a number of volunteers from Shepherd Neame Brewery, walked the Pilgrims’ Way to collect the glass. This was handed over to the Master by the Archdeacon of Canterbury on the martyrdom site in Canterbury Cathedral.

The unveiling in London was performed by the Master who is also Shepherd Neame chief executive. His brewery produces the Bishops Finger ale which takes its name from the finger-shaped signposts pointing pilgrims the way to Canterbury and the tomb of Thomas Becket. It is one of the UK’s oldest bottled beers.

The label for Carolean Crown, a limited edition ale brewed to mark the Coronation of King Charles III, is based on a pub sign found on the Pilgrims’ Way in Southwark.

The pub’s name is a reference to the future Charles II hiding in an oak tree during the Cromwellian period.

The pub sign, above The Royal Oak in Southwark’s Tabard Street, is by Sussex artist Julian Bell.

The same artist has reworked the sign for the label chosen by Harvey’s brewery in Lewes for the celebration ale.

Southwark’s Royal Oak is a Harvey’s pub.

Carolean Crown pale ale is the lightest beer ever produced by Harvey’s and is described as ‘fresh with fragrant citrus notes’.

The bottled version (4% ABV) is blended with a portion of Elizabethan Ale, aged in oak casks, to mark the transition to a second Carolean era.

Pilgrim passports can be stamped at the Royal Oak.

Morris dancers will be up early on the two high points of the Pilgrims’ Way on May Day, Monday 1 May.

On St Martha’s Hill near Guildford the Pilgrim Morris are being joined by the Guildford Vox Community Choir at 5am to await, with song in the darkness, sunrise at 5.35am.

Further east the Kingston Spring Grove Morris, Ewell St Mary Morris Men and the Rampant Rooster Morris are meeting at the Box Hill viewpoint at 5am. Note that this top viewpoint is higher than the Pilgrims’ Way which runs round the south side of the hill.

In Rochester the rising sun is welcomed a little later at 8am with Jack in the Green making an appearance for the Awakening. There will be music and dancing around the cathedral for the rest of the day.

At Otford, where pilgrims from Southwark and Winchester meet, there is a fair on Palace Field with maypole dancing at 11.30am and 1pm.

Southwark Council has named a new building on the Old Kent Road after a Pilgrims’ Way village.

The residential development, on the corner of Mina Road opposite The Dun Cow, is to be called Wouldham Court.

Canterbury-bound pilgrims, when walking along Tabard Street, already encounter buildings bearing the names of pilgrim villages they will later visit. The Old Kent Road is also part of the ancient trail.

Wouldham village in Kent faces Halling across the River Medway and was reached by ferry. Although pilgrims now use the nearby Peters Bridge they can still pass through Wouldham when visiting Rochester Cathedral.

Southwark Council’s Wouldham Court is providing 17 flats and four three-bedroom houses for local people as well as a new community hall and a commercial space.