Leigh Hatts

This Saturday there will be a National Mass of Thanksgiving in St George’s Roman Catholic Cathedral in Southwark for the recent canonisation of St Oscar Romero. On the day of the canonisation in Rome last month there were many references to St Thomas Becket. Oscar Romero was, like Becket, murdered in church for making a […]

On Friday 16 November I shall be giving talk about walking the Pilgrims’ Way at The Royal Oak in Southwark. The Royal Oak, in Southwark’s Tabard Street behind St George the Martyr Church, is the first pub on the ancient route after Borough High Street and can claim an interesting heritage. The illustrated talk, Walking […]

Flowers were laid on St Edith’s Well in Kemsing during the morning and afternoon on Sunday. St Edith’s Day started with a procession from the parish church after the main morning service. The singing could be heard in the old Post Office (now Kemsing Italian Deli and Coffee Shop). In the afternoon a Roman Catholic […]

This year St Edith’s Day falls on a Sunday so celebrations at Kemsing are on the actual day: 16 September. Kemsing is by the Pilgrims’ Way just east of Otford so pilgrims from both London and Winchester pass the village. Many stop to see the well, church and call at a pub. Edith, born at […]

This Friday St Bartholomew’s Day 24 August is the fortieth day after St Swithun’s Day. Swithun is the saint of forty days sun or rain fame. We have had forty days of sun but it was a little out of kilter starting too early and ending too early. In Suffolk there has been 51 days […]

As we approach Lammas it was appropriate to hear in church last Sunday the hymn For the Fruits of all Creation with the lovely line silent growth while we are sleeping, Wednesday 1 August is Lammas Day when the first wheat from the harvest is made into a loaf and presented at a  thanksgiving Mass. At […]

St Swithun’s Day is 15 July and this year 2018 it falls on a Sunday. The patronal festival of Winchester Cathedral will of course be observed on Sunday. However, the procession to the shrine site at the end of evensong is on Saturday 14 July. The service begins at 4.30pm. Many of the Cathedral Friends […]

St Swithun’s Day may bring relief from the heat. A column in The Times today has an interesting look at the weather possibilities on St Swithun’s Day this weekend. In The Weather Eye feature, Paul Simons writes: “One thing for sure is that, after weeks of blazing sunshine, we are now entering a much more […]

Many of those arriving in Canterbury on Saturday 7 July will be aware that it is  the Translation of St Thomas Becket Day, This marks the day in 1220 when Thomas Becket’s body was moved upstairs from the Cathedral crypt to the new shrine in the Trinity Chapel behind the high altar.   FRIDAY 6 […]

The importance of the Thomas A Becket pub in Old Kent Road is highlighted in a new book. The historic pub closed suddenly last April leaving its future uncertain. London’s Hidden Rivers by David Fathers shows the line of the stream which runs up against the pub’s wall in Albany Road before flowing across the […]