A group of history enthusiasts met on Sunday night outside the Mecure hotel in Winchester. This is where, in an earlier building, John Keats stayed two hundred years ago. On Sunday afternoon 19 September he walked out into the countryside before writing his his poem To Autumn. At lunchtime some of us had heard the […]

Two hundred years ago today John Keats wrote his poem called To Autumn. It was written on Sunday 19 September 1819 in Winchester about Winchester which for years has promoted a Keats Walk along the River Itchen from Winchester College to St Cross. New research suggests that his walk was not to the south but […]

The William Blake exhibition opening at Tate Britain today has a reminder of the artist’s interest in the Pilgrims’ Way. He started thinking about Chaucer’s characters in The Canterbury Tales in about 1806. However he was peeved when his friend Thomas Stothard allegedly stole his idea by signing deal with a publisher for a pilgrims’ […]

If passing through Kemsing in Kent between this weekend and St Edith’s Day Monday 16 September you may find flowers next to St Edith’s Well. On Sunday afternoon 8 September there will be devotions by the well at 3:30pm followed by Vespers in the church at 4pm. The Vespers of St Edith will premiere new […]

Next year 2020 is the 850 anniversary of Archbishop Thomas Becket’s murder in Canterbury Cathedral. St Thomas was killed in his cathedral during Christmas week 1170. Just two weeks earlier the Archbishop had visited Southwark Cathedral, then a priory, and spent the night next door at the Bishop of Winchester’s house. Thomas already knew Southwark […]

How has the weather been this month on your walk to Canterbury? St Bartholomew’s Day is Saturday 24 August which is forty days after St Swithun’s Day. An old saying claims that if it rains on 15 July it will rain for 40 days but if it’s fine it will be dry for forty days. […]

St Martha-on-the Hill has a pilgrim stamp. The church, dating from 1100, is on a hill 570 feet above sea level with a view over several counties. It’s the next objective after crossing the River Wey outside Guildford. Afterwards you head for Shere where St James’s Church has the next stamp. St Martha-on-the-Hill is open […]

Lammas Day is on Thursday 1 August. This is the original ‘harvest festival’ dating from Anglo-Saxon times when thanks is given for the first fruits rather than just in the autumn when all is gathered in. “It provides us with time to pause and reflect on our connection with the agricultural world and the source […]

St James’s Day is Thursday 25 July when many pilgrims will be attempting to arrive at Santiago de Compostela in Spain. Some of those pilgrims start out from England on the Pilgrims’ Way to go via Canterbury. St James the Great is the patron of pilgrims and his shell is a universal pilgrim logo seen […]

Just as the Translation of St Thomas at Canterbury earlier this month fell on a weekend so St Swithun’s Day 15 July is a Monday. The focus is now Winchester Cathedral where Saturday 13 July is the annual Friends of Winchester Cathedral Festival. Saturday’s Festival Evensong at 4.30pm is followed by a procession to the […]