Saturday 5 to Monday 7 July is the Translation of St Thomas of Canterbury weekend. On Saturday there is the Canterbury Medieval Pageant with a parade and many pilgrimage theme activities. On Sunday the focus is on the Cathedral where the First Evensong of the Translation is at 5.30pm. Later that evening, as always on […]

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 […]

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,’ […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]