The First Miracle Window: Becket’s Earliest Pilgrims in Canterbury Stained Glass by Rachel Koopmans is a new 35 page booklet.

It has beautiful illustrations of the windows made just fifteen years after the murder of Thomas Becket.

The stained glass is found in the ambulatory embracing the Trinity Chapel where the Becket shrine stood.

But the scenes depicted are before this shrine was created in 1220. The pictures are thought almost certainly to be based on the records of Abbot Benedict of Peterborough who had been part of the Canterbury priory community in 1170 and witnessed the first pilgrims arriving a few years later.

There is a sense of crowd comprising of all classes wishing to throng the narrow streets and cathedral crypt. Already the early arrivals are wearing yellow pilgrim purses. One window depicts the queue for pilgrim water.

There is a lovely collection of pilgrim boots looking like Christmas stockings.

Until recently these lights were thought to be maybe Victorian. Such a conclusion was partly because they had been taken out occasionally and slightly altered. Heads were replaced and one even improved as a women’s head.

Leone Seliger, director of the cathedral’s stained glass studio, adds a handy afterthought with a digital correction suggesting how the windows probably appeared when new.

Medieval historian Dr Koopmans is an expert on Becket’s miracles.

You may wish to buy this booklet on arriving at Canterbury. It is light enough to carry and much cheaper when purchased on site than buying by post which almost doubles the price.

The First Miracle Window by Rachel Koopmans is published by Out of the Box Publishing; £6.99.

It’s encouraging to know that it has been possible to publish a new Good Beer Guide for 2022 and that it has already sold out.

This year’s highlighted Pilgrims’ Way pubs are on the Southwark-Canterbury leg.

The nearest one to Southwark Cathedral is The Market Porter where on some weekday early mornings you can have ale at breakfast like the early pilgrims.

The Royal Oak in Tabard Street, known the first pub on the Pilgrims’ Way, has ‘a range of beers…unusual for London’ as well as their own Harvey’s.

A surprise is finding a mention for The Bull on top of Shooters Hill which means it must be on the up. It introduced pizzas cooked and served in the garden during the pandemic.

An interesting entry for Rochester is The Coopers Arms dating from 1189 and once part of the cathedral’s monastic estate.

Rochester’s Golden Lion Hotel, a Wetherspoons in the High Street and often very busy, is listed with the added attraction of handy accommodation.

If you approach the last church before Canterbury feeling tired you might find The Eight Bells in London Road tempting. But be warned the only food is Sunday lunch.

The Good Beer Guide (Camra Books; £15.99)

An oil painting depicting the downstream scene at Wouldham is included an exhibition at the Russell-Côtes Art Gallery & Museum in Bournemouth.

It is the work of Geoffrey Baker (1881–1959) who may have painted the scene, featuring a steam tug and Thames barge, before the Second World War.

The artist was a founder member of the Bournemouth Arts Club which is celebrating its centenary with an exhibition of noted artists associated with its history.

Wouldham, opposite Halling, is on the path to Rochester Cathedral and today the church is seen from the new Peters Bridge river crossing on the way to Aylesford.

A Century of British Art is at the Russell-Côtes Art Gallery in Bournemouth until 6 March; admission £7.50.

David Meara’s book on John Betjeman appeared towards the end of last year as we faced renewed Covid restrictions.

A Passion For Places: England Through The eyes of John Betjeman is a book which makes one want to go out and ‘church crawl’ as Betjeman would have described his explorations.

In the foreword Simon Jenkins recalls walking around Southwark with Betjeman.

In what he calls an ‘extended essay’, the author David Meara endeavours to cover all the Poet Laureate’s passion for churches, places and railways.

Church crawling is how Betjeman called his days out looking at churches .

He had so many favourite ones that not all can get a mention in the 96 page paperback but it is interesting see that strong favourites include some on the Pilgrims’ Way which could be called a long church crawl.

The extraordinary St Peter & St Paul at Albury in Surrey was on the original way until 1785 when the road was closed and the village moved.

The ancient Saxon church which has a 15th-century St Christopher wall painting, a chapel remodelled by Pugin and featured in Four Weddings and A Funeral film, may be visited via the gateway at the south end of Albury Street 10am-5pm; winter 3pm.

Kemsing church in Kent associated with St Edith of Wilton was another favourite. Betjeman would have appreciated not just the 13th-century door, worn by pilgrims, but the rood figures by Nina Comper whose work he championed.

Chilham church, another Kentish church, was not only a Betjeman favourite but it is also one of the author’s who has known the building since childhood holidays. For many the village, with its castle, pub and church all in a row, is the last overnight stop before the climax of their pilgrimage.

A Passion for Places: England Through The Eyes of John Betjeman by David Meara (Amberely; £15.99).

Today Wednesday 29 December is the Martyrdom of St Thomas of Canterbury.

Evensong from Canterbury cathedral at 3pm today can be joined online.

‘We have the added worship of the Feast of St Thomas of Canterbury on 29 December which gives a special Canterbury climax to our worship before 2022 begins,’ says Dean of Canterbury Robert Willis.

Canterbury Cathedral has announced services for the Feast of St Thomas Becket on Wednesday 29 December.

The 8am Eucharist will be celebrated at the Altar of the Swordpoint on the Martyrdom site in the north transept.

There will also be a said Eucharist at 12.30pm.

The main focus is the candlelit Evensong & procession at 3pm sung by the Lay Clerks. This service, at about the hour of Thomas Becket’s murder, includes ‘medieval chant’ and readings from TS Eliot’s Murder in The Cathedral.

Evensong will be broadcast live on the Cathedral website and YouTube.

Roman Catholic Solemn Vespers in the Cathedral Crypt is at 8pm.

Although in 1899 Hilaire Belloc insisted on walking from Winchester starting on 22 December to reach Canterbury on 29 December this winter festival day was never in Pre-Reformation years a crowded occasion.

The Twelve Days of Christmas was too cold for travel and more a time to stay at home and feast.

Estimates of visitors on each 29 December during the first 300 years following the martyrdom are sometimes as low as sixty.

The bigger day, when crowds filled Canterbury, was on the 7 July Translation in the summer.

‘In the shadow of a tall, nine-arched, red brick railway viaduct, a long, thin, green valley extends besides the River Darent in Kent,’ writes Peter Stanford in his new book If These Stones Could Talk.

He is describing the Pilgrims’ Way as it runs south from Dartford to Otford. Thomas Becket came this way in his last weeks before death and Henry VIII as a pilgrim in his earlier years.

Peter is here to find a vital church for his history of Christianity in Britain and Ireland through twenty buildings. In the Darent Valley it is not Eynsford church where the feud between archbishop and king began or even Lullingstone’s lovely ‘church on the lawn’.

It is the building disguised as Lullingstone’s Roman Villa. Appropriately the Pilgrims’ Way passes the door and you can stop to have your passport stamped.

But go deeper inside and you will find evidence of an early church which may have had worshippers in the 4th century. Here is a chapel or a purpose built house church making it the oldest known site of Christian worship in the UK.

The author takes a wider look at Canterbury Cathedral suggesting that it had important saints before Becket’s murder brought greater crowds.

But even more arresting is the chapter on St Martin’s Church at Canterbury. It said to pilgrims arriving at Santiago de Compostela that they should stay awhile to look round rather than just heading home at once.

So pilgrims arriving at Canterbury should stay to walk on for just half a mile up to St Martin’s which is Britain’s oldest church and one of huge resonance.

If These Stones Could Talk offers a sweep of history around interesting places with a handy timeline and good index.

If These Stones Could Talk: The History of Christianity in Britain and Ireland through Twenty Buildings by Peter Stanford (Hodder £20).

The cathedrals at the start and end of the long Pilgrims’ Way are included in the new book Europe’s 100 Best Cathedralsby Simon Jenkins.

Winchester and Canterbury are awarded four stars.

We are told that Winchester, begun by William the Conqueror, ‘was to be twice the length of the abbeys of Normandy’. The chantry chapels highlighted include Richard Fox’s which ‘was used by him for hours of daily prayer for ten years before his death in 1528’.

There is a picture of the statue by Anthony Gormley whose work is seen again when you reach Canterbury Cathedral and go down to the crypt.

This ‘is one of joys of Canterbury and the most extensive in England’ observes the author who suggests that upstairs Becket’s shrine should be recreated.

We are also told that the silvery towers beckon pilgrims to its bosom ‘as they have done for centuries’ and on arriving they find a close retaining ‘the ambience of a medieval enclave’.

In the London section there is sadly no room for Winchester’s daughter cathedral Southwark although it is centuries older than the featured St Paul’s .

Other Great Britain entries include such pilgrim cathedrals as St Davids and Salisbury where you find St Osmund. At Lincoln both St Hugh and the Lincoln Imp get a mention, the latter being the 21st century attraction which reaches out to the city and its football team.

The Pilgrims’ Way is just a first leg for those going on to Santiago de Compostela or Rome and both feature strongly.

Visiting the Abbey of Vezelay in France, Simon Jenkins walks up a hill and senses ‘the feet of millions who must have made this climb over the centuries before setting out on the long road to Santiago’.

He adds: ‘The memory is one of heat, sore feet and the beckoning cool of an ancient church.’ At Santiago he recalls an interior ‘as a haze of heat and incense’.

There is also space for Rouen which is today twinned with Southwark and like Southwark is part of the last days of Thomas Becket.

This book could tempt you beyond Canterbury.

Europe’s 100 Best Cathedrals by Simon Jenkins (Penguin Viking; £30).

Today Tuesday 30 November is St Andrew’s Day.

It’s special in Scotland, Greece, Barbados, Amalfi and many other places.

It was once a special day at Boxley Abbey which possessed a St Andrew relic, a finger encased in silver, which was in the freestanding St Andrew’s Chapel built in 1484 about a quarter of a mile from the abbey church.

It was at a southern entry point to the abbey but only functioned as a chapel for 53 years. The abbey was dissolved in 1537 when the community had fallen to just four monks.

The chapel, after being hidden for years, can now be seen from Boarley Lane, opposite the post box near the junction with Grange Lane.

The lost chapel has been purchased by the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings and careful restoration is in progress.

The plan is to eventually place it on the market to raise funds for the next project.

Should we think about purchasing it to be a pilgrim hostel so once again pilgrims can stay at Boxley Abbey? An example is Refugio Gaucelmo on the Camino in Spain run by Southwark-based Confraternity of St James. Last month it celebrated its 30th anniversary.

If you are on the Pilgrims’ Way walking through Aylesford this weekend it may be cold but you will find mulled wine and refreshment at Aylesford Priory’s Christmas Fair.

The medieval priory offers bed and breakfast at its large guesthouse all year.