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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Ambitious plans to save and make accessible the Archbishop’s Palace at Charing have been abandoned.

With no prospect of being able to achieve its objectives in the foreseeable future it has been resolved by the trustees to wind up the Charing Palace Trust .

This is a blow to all who are aware of the important role played by the building known to Thomas Becket and Henry VIII as well as many other significant figures.

Charing was an overnight stop for archbishops and VIPs on the London-Canterbury road.

Another was Otford. The Charing trustees have very generously transferred their remaining assets to Otford’s Archbishop’s Palace Conservation Trust.

Otford is today a pivotal resting place on the Pilgrims’ Way since it is where the Winchester and London routes merge.

The remains of Otford Palace, also known to Becket and Henry VIII, are impressive. Indeed Otford inspired Wolsey’s Hampton Court Palace.

Meanwhile there must be continued concern about the future of Charing which has recently lost pubs and teashop.

It’s a special day at Winchester this week.

Thursday 15 July is St Swithun’s Day when choral evensong and the procession to the shrine will be broadcast online from Winchester Cathedral at 5.30pm.

The body of St Swithun was until the Reformation in Winchester Cathedral.

However, pilgrims from Winchester would have found St Swithun’s head at Canterbury. The precious relic survived the Reformation having been taken to Évreux Cathedral in Normandy where it remains.

The custom of wondering if St Swithun’s Day will be followed by forty days of rain or sunshine takes us to St Bartholomew’s Day on Tuesday 24 August. A good period for a slow walk to Canterbury.

The Friends of Winchester Cathedral’s 90th anniversary festal evensong on Saturday looked back to St Swithun and the beginning of the cathedral .

The service, broadcast online to Friends unable to be present, included impressive camerawork featuring unusual views around the building.

After a procession to St Swithun’s shrine there were prayers of thanks invoking names we meet along the Pilgrims’ Way including Richard de Lucy, Richard Fox and Jane Austen.

Former BBC presenter and Friends Chair Bruce Parker laid flowers not only at the shrine but also on Swithun’s original outdoor grave. It was the translation to inside which gave rise to the forty days of rain or sun story.

The service is available to watch online.

St Swithun’s Day is Thursday 15 July when the weather is expected to improve.

Choral evensong is being broadcast online live from Canterbury Cathedral on Wednesday the Feast of the Translation of St Thomas of Canterbury.

Before the pandemic the annual service was in the choir and followed by a procession of canons to the shrine in a pre-Reformation tradition.

At present services are sung in the nave.

This is the 801st anniversary of Thomas Becket’s body being moved from the crypt to his new shrine upstairs. Archbishop Stephen Langton presided in the presence of King Henry II’s grandson Henry III.

David Guest, vicar of Otford, is coming up the Pilgrims’ Way to host Southwark Cathedral’s Stories of Cats day.

Cathedral cat Hodge is expected to be around on Saturday 7 August to welcome visitors joining the day event.

Speakers include George Hoyle (aka Cunning Folk) on The Folklore of Cats, Dr Kathleen Walker-Meikle on Literary Cats in History and Celia Haddon on How to Read Your Cat.

Anita Kelsey is calling her talk Claws: Confessions of a Professional Cat Groomer.

Julia Bird is speaking on The Poetry of Cats.

Pilgrims often had Hodge’s famous predecessor Doorkins on their of what to look for list before setting out for Canterbury.

Tickets are £18. Full details and booking are here.

**David Guest is vicar of St Bartholomew’s Otford where the Pilgrims’ Way paths from Winchester and Southwark converge. The village has associations with St Thomas Becket and The Bull pub has a Becket seat.

Nancy Sullivan, who has appeared in west end productions and BBC1’s Call the Midwife, is bringing theatre to Lesnes Abbey.

She has formed the The Ruined Theatre company to stage Our Teacher’s a Troll, a play for all the family by Dennis Kelly.

The performances are in mid August and will be at 10am and lunchtime which will enable passing pilgrims to enjoy the show.

Lesnes Abbey was founded in 1178 and is dedicated to St Thomas Becket. After being closed in 1525 by Cardinal Wolsey the monastery has become an attractive ruin with just one church service a year.

Visitors to the Augustinian community, used to receiving pilgrims travelling from London to Canterbury, included Geoffrey Chaucer.

Now on the edge of London, Lesnes was once considered a first stop on horseback out of London before reaching Dartford.

Nancy lives next to the Abbey which she visits daily. Her plans include an ambitious programme to attract and involve others living nearby.

These days will pass and we shall more easily be able to go on pilgrimage. But we don’t know what it will be like.

‘Please believe these days will pass’ is the message seen by visitors to Southwark Cathedral and most certainly by those present at the midday Eucharist at 12.45pm which is usually at the nave altar.

A huge installation at the east end is by Mark Titchner whose work is found in many public collections. Me, Here Now has a permanent place in nearby London Bridge Station.

The words on the banner in the cathedral evolved during the pandemic after the artist found his poster work Please Believe These Days was being shared on social media by his friends.

‘Mark Titchner’s monumental installation in Southwark Cathedral will be a stark reminder that we need to look beyond these islands to a world still suffering,’ says Dean of Southwark Andrew Nunn.

He quotes the words of Jesus about the passing of days: ‘Truly I tell, this generation will not pass away until all things have taken place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.’ (Luke 21. 32-33)

The Dean describes the artwork as ‘both reassuring yet realistic’ and asks ‘these days may pass, but what will remain, what will we find, what is there new that awaits us beyond the passing?’

A sermon preached by the Dean on the Feast of Corpus Christi, when the installation was first revealed, can be seen here (from 16.35).

The artwork will remain in place until Friday 23 July.