Ken Haigh, resident in Canada, has written an account of his walk from Winchester to Canterbury.

Those who have walked the Pilgrims’ Way from Winchester will find this book an enjoyable account. So might those who come from London joining the converged way at Otford.

It is interesting that at Otford Ken chooses to take the lower path to Kemsing (as in the latest edition of the Cicerone guide) rather than the main road. This alternative is not only more pleasant and direct but also ancient and known to earlier pilgrims.

The author’s reading ahead is thorough and includes the Cicerone guide so his asides are mostly relevant. He highlights some connections usually forgotten such as early PW guidebook writer Julia Cartwright living on the Pilgrims’ Way and the Wetherspoons pub in Canterbury having a tenuous link with the PW.

Is there anything worrying in the book? it is maybe the number of times he finds a church locked. He was walking in summer before the pandemic.

It is important to get churches as well as pubs and b&bs open as soon as possible next year.

The book is a Hilary Weston WT Prize for Nonfiction finalist.

On Foot to Canterbury: A Son’s Pilgrimage by Ken Haigh (University of Alberta Press; $26.99/£20.99)

For many 3 November is the day after All Souls’ Day or maybe Martin de Porres Day. However, in some calendars it is St Rumwold’s Day.

Alternative spellings include Rumwald, Rumbald and Rumbold. Rumwold is favoured by churches in Kent.

St Rumwold was born into the Mercian royal family in the 650s. The birth took place just south of Kings Sutton in Northamptonshire.

He lived for just three days during which he is reported to have spoken and even preached a sermon.

This remarkable claim did not impress Norman bishops who did little to promote the feast day.

However, 3 November was always a red letter day on the PW at Boxley Abbey where there was a St Rumwold statue which is said to have proved suddenly heavy if a sinner tried to lift it.

Another important date at the abbey was St Andrew’s Day at the end of month when a relic was displayed.

**Boxley Abbey remains, below the parallel vineyard path, are not open to the public although the surviving long barn can be seen from the PW.

Alfred the Great died on 26 October 899 and the anniversary is marked annually in Common Worship.

The church calendar entry is Alfred the Great, King of the West Saxons, Scholar, 899.

Alfred is buried in St Bartholomew’s churchyard at Hyde Abbey next to the Pilgrims’ Way on the edge of Winchester.

His statue dominates Winchester’s main street.

A much older statue of Alfred is found in Southwark which the King founded as a fortified place in 880.

This month grapes have been harvested for the first time at Boxley.

Vine planting began in the spring of 2019 at the 388 acre Boarley and Abbey Farms to create England’s largest vineyard.

The age old diversion to a parallel path still taken by pilgrims at Boxley, originally to visit the now lost Boxley Abbey, now runs through a vast vineyard.

The surprise vineyard is a welcome improvement and even the path now appears less muddy than in previous times after rain. There is also new clear signage.

The farm has become part of Chapel Down winery of Small Hythe near Tenterden.

Boxley Abbey ran a brewery until the dissolution of the monastery 1537 but may also have had vines as did the monks at Hollingbourne a little further along the Pilgrims’ Way.

Peter Walker’s art installation The Leaves of the Trees is made up of 5,000 steel leaves with the word HOPE on each one. The impression is of autumn leaves fallen from the trees and scattered by the wind.

This reflective memorial to the effects of the pandemic was seen before the high altar and great screen of Southwark Cathedral over several weeks up to last Sunday.

Now pilgrims leaving from Winchester will find the same leaves before the cathedral’s high altar and great screen which inspired Southwark’s. The installation will remain until All Souls Day Tuesday 2 November.

Concern is being expressed in the Wey Valley area and nearby Alton in Hampshire over a proposed multi-million-pound incinerator near the Pilgrims’ Way.

The possible impact on visitors including walkers along the Pilgrims’ Way was highlighted during Thursday’s BBC South Today programme.

No Wey campaigners are calling for the plan to be decided by the Secretary of State ‘because of the serious long-term impact its potential approval would have on nationally important issues such as climate change’.

The planning application by Veolia is due to be considered by Hampshire County Council this autumn.

The incinerator, being called a waste-to-energy plant, with 260 foot chimneys would be visible to the south as you walk between Holybourne and Upper Froyle.

The site is less than half a mile away between the A31 and the railway.

The Final Review of Environmental Statement takes issue with the applicant by highlighting the potential impact on the Pilgrims’ Way, known locally as St Swithuns’ Way.

‘The proposal will significantly affect visual tranquillity from St Swithun’s Way,’ writes Fiona Sharman of Indigo Landscape Architects in a report for Hampshire County Council.

‘I would also consider that the scale of the proposal would evidently detract from one’s appreciation of key characteristics such as the ‘distinct flat valley’ landform as the proposal would be out of scale with the small scale valley characteristics in which it sits.’

The Little Gem pub in Aylesford has quietly reopened after being closed for ten years.

The tiny building dates from 1106 which is fourteen years before the birth of Thomas Becket. Prior to becoming a pub in 1968 it was a cafe. It is now Kent’s smallest pub.

Today the PW almost passes the door as it turns up Mount Pleasant from the church.

Maidstone brewer Goacher’s stepped in to save the pub which according to the Kent Messenger has ‘no pool table, no darts, no fairy lights, no jukebox, no TV screen, no games, and above all, no pretension at all’.

The inglenook fireplace is ready for a log fire in winter.

Tuesday 24 August is St Bartholomew’s Day and forty days after St Swithun’s Day.

It seems that global warming may have upset the old August pattern of consistent weather. Although the period which began in sunshine is ending in good weather there was a lot of rain in the middle.

However, there is a saying for today which suggests a dry autumn:

All the tears St Swithin can cry,
St Bartholomew dusty mantle wipes away.

Swithun is associated with rain for apple trees and at this time of the year you will walk across fallen apples in various places on the PW in Surrey and through a lovely Kentish hillside orchard on the last day into Canterbury.

Canterbury Cathedral’s attractions once included an arm of Bartholomew as well as Becket’s shrine.

There is a St Bartholomew’s church at Hyde Abbey as you leave Winchester.

Another is at Otford in Kent which is visited by pilgrims coming from both Winchester and London as the routes converge at the village pond.

The way ahead continues down the south side of the church to take in St Edith at Kemsing. Try Otford church in the morning for a pilgrim passport stamp.

The Woolpack at Chilham, which claims to have been in existence since 1480, has a new inn sign.

The image on the hanging sign has changed at least five times during the last century.

The latest painting is by Julian Kirk and depicts the pack horse passing a milestone on the Pilgrims’ Way which runs through the village just seven miles from Canterbury.

The Woolpack is a Shepherd Neame pub offering refreshment, including the PW ale Bishop’s Finger, and accommodation.

Being over 500 years old it has unconfirmed claims to a ghost and a secret tunnel leading to Chilham Castle.

Pictures of the inn and its changing signs can be seen here.

This year St James’s Day 25 July falls on a Sunday which means that 2021 is a Holy Year in Santiago de Compostela.

Many seek to be a pilgrim to Santiago in a Holy Year and due to the pandemic this special year is going to continue into 2022.

The Pilgrims’ Way from Southwark to Canterbury is not just the way to St Thomas Becket but the first leg of the Camino which reaches across France and Northern Spain to St James the Great in Santiago.

The familiar yellow arrow of the Camino will be projected on Southwark Cathedral’s east end exterior on Friday evening 23 July.

This is part of a light projection to mark Holy Year and is best viewed from the south end of London Bridge or a train entering London Bridge Station.

The Camino Pilgrim office where pilgrims to Santiago visit before setting out is just half a mile from Southwark Cathedral.

The Camino shell which has become the badge for other pilgrimages including Canterbury where you enter the cathedral by way of the door with a shell at the Christ Church Gate.

London’s main St James’s Day Mass is 24 hours early at noon on Saturday 24 July at St James’s Spanish Place W1 where Cardinal Vincent Nicholas will be the celebrant. But due to the virus there will not be the usual party afterwards.

***Churches dedicated to St James the Great on the Pilgrims’ Way are in Surrey where the path passes the door at Shere (14th-century glass in the east window) and nearby Abinger Hammer although here a visit to the church requires a diversion up to the Common.

***St James, patron of Spain, is one of the twelve Apostles of Jesus and brother of St John.

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