There is a rare chance to see inside the surviving tower of Otford Palace over the midsummer weekend Saturday 21 and Sunday 22 June.
The Tudor palace, built for the Archbishop of Canterbury, was the model for Hampton Court Palace.
Open free from 11.30am to 4pm.
Otford is where the Pilgrim paths from Southwark and Winchester meet.
A Jubilee Year Pilgrim Mass was celebrated at St George’s Roman Catholic Cathedral in Southwark on Monday at the start of a week-long walking pilgrimage to Aylesford Priory on the Pilgrims’ Way.
Joining the Roman Catholic pilgrims were several Anglicans from Southwark Cathedral.
‘We have a really special and strong bond between our two cathedrals,’ said Southwark Cathedral sub-Dean Michael Rawson speaking in St George’s. ‘It’s been nurtured over many years and it’s really bearing fruit, good fruit, as we walk together this path of unity in Christ.’
The celebrant was the Dean of St George’s Canon Michael Branch who reflected that Pope Leo’s motto was We are one in one Lord.
Afterwards the congregation walked to Southwark Cathedral by way of The Precious Blood Church which has a stamp for pilgrim passports.
The cathedrals are linked by the one mile Romero Way.
After refreshments in Southwark Cathedral’s library the walkers gathered in the church nave, which had been cleared of chairs, for a pilgrim blessing.
Pilgrim passports can be obtained from Southwark Cathedral Shop.
There is a Pilgrim Mass at Southwark’s Roman Catholic St George’s Cathedral (opposite the Imperial War Museum) on Monday 2 June at 10am.
This marks the start of the Jubilee Year pilgrimage to Aylesford which is on the Pilgrims’ Way to Canterbury.
All starting out tomorrow independently on their way to Canterbury are welcome to start their own pilgrimage at this Pilgrim Mass.
The preacher will be Canon Michael Rawson, sub dean of the nearby Anglican Southwark Cathedral.
Afterwards pilgrims are invited to walk to Southwark Cathedral on a one mile route known as the Romero Way.
Refreshments will be available at the cathedral where passports and guide books can be obtained from the shop.
NOTE: After Southwark Cathedral, Jubilee Year pilgrims to Aylesford will at first be following a route by the river to Greenwich as an alternative to the traditional Old Kent Road exit from London.
The Jubilee Celebration Day is at Aylesford Priory on Saturday 7 June, eve of Pentecost.
Actors dressed as the ‘Saints of Southwark’ have posed for a photograph outside St George’s Roman Catholic Cathedral in Southwark.
They will be appearing again during the Southwark Archdiocese’s Jubilee celebration day at Aylesford Priory on Saturday 7 June.
The saints include many encountered on the Pilgrims’ Way between Southwark and Canterbury.
If you start at St George’s Cathedral you will find the shrine of St Frances Cabrini who worshipped there. Pope Leo XIII sent her to New York where she is famous for helping poor immigrants.
St John Fisher is one of Rochester’s saints.
St Simon Stock’s relics are at Aylesford Priory.
St Dunstan’s church is the last on the PW where you find the head of St Thomas More, John Fisher’s companion.
St Mildred’s is an ancient church in Canterbury.
St Alphege was invoked by Thomas Becket as he faced death by the sword.
Thomas Becket’s shrine in Canterbury Cathedral is of course the climax of the walk.
They are called the ‘Saints of Southwark’ because the Roman Catholic Archdiocese also embraces Kent. The Anglican Southwark Diocese is not as large although it includes parts of Surrey and the branch of the Pilgrims’ Way coming from Winchester.
**As part of the Jubilee Year there will be a Pilgrim Mass at St George’s Cathedral on Monday 2 June at 10am. This will be followed by a walk along the Romero Way to Southwark Cathedral (Anglican) which was visited by Thomas Becket.
Those starting their pilgrimage to Canterbury from London at the beginning of June may be interested to know that there will be a Pilgrim Mass at Southwark’s Roman Catholic St George’s Cathedral on Monday 2 June.
Canon Michael Rawson, Sub Dean of the nearby Anglican Southwark Cathedral, is the preacher.
This will mark the start of a special five day Southwark Jubilee Pilgrimage 2025 to Aylesford which will largely follow the Pilgrims’ Way.
After the 10am Mass participants are invited to follow the one mile Romero Way to the Anglican Southwark Cathedral for refreshments and a pilgrim blessing.
The Aylesford walkers will then be heading for Greenwich and Chislehurst before following the Pilgrims’ Way from Shoreham on day four. Independent pilgrims can follow the traditional way out of Southwark along the Old Kent Road.
Note that there may not be any spare accommodation at Aylesford Priory for those continuing to Canterbury.
A free supply of drinking water is now available in Canterbury’s Longmarket Square.
To find the new Portland stone and stainless steel column, where you can fill a bottle or flask, walk just 80 yards beyond the Mercery Lane turning to the cathedral.
The £150,000 feature is a gift to Canterbury from the city’s Rotary Club to mark its recent centenary.
The twelve foot high column was unveiled by Lady Colgrain, the Lord Lieutenant of Kent before the Lord Mayor Jean Butcher tasted the water.
On the column are the words: ‘Behold ye, how these crystal streams do glide, to comfort pilgrims by the highway-side,’ from John Bunyan’s Pilgrims Progess.
The designer is architect Andrew Clague, the church conservation expert, whose work includes the masterplan for Peters Village on the Pilgrims’ Way.
It is spring and holiday time when pilgrimages start again. But when did Chaucer’s fictional pilgrims set out from Southwark on pilgrimage?
The Prologue to The Canterbury Tales says April:
‘When in April the sweet showers fall/And pierce the drought of March to the root, and all/The veins are bathed in liquor of such power/As brings about the engendering of the flower.’
Several dates have been suggested including 15, 16 and 17 April
The long poem was written during the 1380s.
Close study of the text finds hints of the zodiac and mention of 18 April. In the introduction to The Man of Laws tale there is:
‘He knew quite well it was the eighteenth day/Of April that is messenger to May.’
If the arrival was on 18 April then they all set out around 12 or 14 April.
Is the year 1389 when Easter Day was 19 April -almost like this year 2025? Did Chaucer imagine them riding during Holy Week?
This year’s first pilgrims arriving in Canterbury on Holy Saturday will find the Easter Vigil and First Eucharist of Easter starting at the cathedral in the gathering darkness at 7.3Opm.
Secrets of the Thames: Mudlarking London’s lost treasures opens today at the London Museum Docklands.
This, the first major exhibition on mudlarking, features 350 objects including pilgrim souvenirs.
Becket badges are often found in the mud having been thrown into the water by returning pilgrims keeping it is claimed an old tradition. This exhibition includes a rare pilgrim souvenir as well as a Becket badge.
The souvenir is an image of St Thomas riding on a peacock mounted on a stick. The date is 1300-1500
Secrets of the Thames at the London Museum Docklands continues until 1 March 2026; admission £18. The nearest station is West India Quay DLR.
Today Tuesday 1 April is the 500th anniversary of Lesnes Abbey’s closure.
The occasion has been marked with a visit by the Bishop of Rochester Jonathan Gibbs and the Mayor of Bexley Sue Gower to unveil a plaque remembering Frank Elliston-Erwood (1883-1968).
The historian Frank Elliston-Erwood led the archaeological excavations which revealed the extensive remains of the abbey church and buildings covered by earth and grass.
When he began he had just completed his book on the Pilgrims’ Way called The Pilgrim’s Road. A Practical Guide For The Pedestrian On The Ancient Way From Winchester To Canterbury.
In 1909 he was turning his attention to the major site on the Southwark branch of the Pilgrims’ Way which took many years. This may explain why he never wrote a follow-up guide to walking from London.
The date of Lesnes Abbey’s dissolution is usually given as 13 February 1525 when Abbot William Tysehurst surrendered the property to Cardinal Thomas Wolsey’s secretary William Burbank.
However, the Bishop of Rochester St John Fisher had not been consulted by Cardinal Wolsey and delayed giving his reluctant approval for six weeks.
Today is the 500th anniversary of that confirmation of dissolution made at Rochester. Bishop Fisher’s successor Jonathan Gibbs said today that the transfer of wealth from Lesnes to Oxford may have given Henry VIII the idea for his successful dissolution of all religious houses in the next decade.
Bishop Fisher was later to suffer execution on the orders of the King having been the chief supporter of Katharine of Aragon. He was beatified by Pope Leo XIII on St Thomas Becket’s Day 29 December 1886 and canonised in 1935. He is remembered in the calendar along with fellow martyr Thomas More on 22 June.
Chris Hawkins, Friends of Lesnes Abbey & Woods chair, said that the abbey, dedicated to St Thomas Becket, was a major stop on the Pilgrims’ Way. Pilgrims were able to view Becket relics in the Lady Chapel.
For today’s pilgrims to Canterbury a stamp is available to anyone presenting a passport at the cafe.
On Sunday market days (13 April, 8 June, 13 July, 10 August, 14 September, 12 October and 9 November) pilgrims can also purchase a Lesnes Abbey pilgrim badge (£8.50) from the Abbey Friends stall.
The latest Walking The Pilgrims Way guidebook (£14.95), updated 2024, is available direct from Cicerone Press.
Lesnes Abbey (£11.99) by Chris Hawkins is available by post here or from the Friends stall on Sunday market days.
Franciscans arrived in Canterbury 800 years ago in the wake of St Thomas Becket’s murder. Their hidden garden survives off the main street carrying the Pilgrims’ Way to the Cathedral.
An early supporter of the newly arrived Franciscans was Archdeacon Simon Langton, brother of Archbishop Stephen Langton who negotiated Magna Carta and presided over the translation of Thomas Becket’s body to his permanent shrine in the cathedral.
Herbs known to the friars and used in medicine can be found throughout the gardens where just a visit was thought to be part of achieving recovery.
‘Mentioned in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales’ says a notice below a Medlar tree. The fruit is best enjoyed when ripe and almost mushy.
A more recent addition is a Victorian vinery where its plant is claimed to come from a cutting of Hampton Court’s famous vine. The structure is part of ongoing restoration.
The Franciscan Gardens along with the Greyfriars Chapel are part of the Eastbridge Hospital founded in 1180 with Becket’s nephew Ralph as its first master.
The Hospital provided accommodation for poor pilgrims whilst the Franciscan chapel spanning the water was also a guesthouse.
Today’s pilgrims bearing a pilgrim passport are welcome to enjoy the Gardens free of charge.
Open during the middle of the day from 11am. Admission £4 for other visitors.
