Leigh Hatts

Good news from Hollingbourne in Kent. The Dirty Habit next to the Pilgrims’ Way is due to reopen in 2026. The pub was devastated by fire in the autumn of 2022. The exterior restoration is nearing completion and in the New Year work will begin on the interior. The reopening, expected late next year around […]

A Pilgrims Way patch is now available from the Rochester cathedral shop. The woven patch (71mm height x 53mm) is made from recycled yarn and has an easy iron-on backing. The price is £6 but purchased online there is £4.99 postage charge. Rochester Cathedral Shop is open Monday to Saturday 10am to 4pm and Sunday […]

Sunday’s Quality Street Fair at Merstham saw large crowds on a very short stretch of the Pilgrims’ Way. The annual event with stalls is the successor to a horse fair operating under an Edward III charter. The Pilgrims’ Way runs down Quality Street which is named after the 1902 stage play Quality Street. This eventually […]

Soon after the beginning of the Pilgrims’ Way Stage 2 at Alresford the route follows Whitehill Lane to Bishop’s Sutton. The lane is now temporarily closed due to the building of an industrial estate and a realignment of the road. The one mile walk up Whitehall Lane is replaced for now by a 1.5 miles […]

This week Tuesday to Friday there will be haymaking in the paddock, or meadow, on the northern side of Winchester Cathedral. The site is where the Minster stood which preceded the cathedral and where St Swithun was first buried. His grave is marked. This is an experiment started recently to nurture wildflowers and re-establish the […]

‘Of all the tears that St. Swithin does cry, St. Bartholomew will wipe them dry‘, says today’s rhyme. St Bartholomew’s Day, or Bartlemas, being 24 August is forty days after St Swithun’s Day on 15 July when the much quoted lines in Winchester are: St Swithun’s day if thou dost rainFor forty days it will […]

The Ship in Bishop’s Sutton is reopening today at 10am. Kelly Shaw, who grew up in nearby Winchester and worked in its pubs, is the new landlady of the village inn which is mainly late 18th-century but probably dates from the 1600s. The Ship’s wine list is now entirely organic and the menu will follow […]

Today Friday 15 August is The Assumption of Mary. Once the day was known as Our Lady of the Harvest and today it is a holiday in many countries although in England now it is little noticed. Upper Foyle in Hampshire is rare in having its 13th-century church dedicated to St Mary of the Assumption. […]

St Radegun’s Day is Wednesday 13 August which is a good date to visit Canterbury’s Parrot Inn. This is the city’s oldest pub and has a strong claim to having been accommodation for pre-Reformation pilgrims from 1370. The late 14th-century hall house building is the former St Radigund’s Hall belonging to St Radegun’s Abbey (with […]

Canterbury Cathedral now issues an accreditation for the pilgrimage to the shrine of St Thomas Becket. This is the equivalent of the Compostela issued to pilgrims arriving at Santiago de Compostela with a well stamped credential or pilgrim passport. Canterbury’s Pilgrimage Certificate bears the signature of the Dean of Canterbury The Very Revd David Montieth. […]