Pilgrims' Way

"Pilgrim's Way" is also the US title of Memory Hold-the-Door by John Buchan

Pilgrims' Way
Pilgrims' Way near Westwell, Kent
Length	192 kilometres (119 mi)
Location	South Eastern England, United Kingdom
Trailheads	Winchester, Hampshire Shrine of Thomas Becket, Canterbury, Kent
Use	Hiking, cycling and byway
Season	All year

The Pilgrims' Way (also Pilgrim's Way or Pilgrims Way^[1]) is the historic route supposed to have been taken by pilgrims from Winchester in Hampshire, England, to the shrine of Thomas Becket at Canterbury in Kent. This name is somewhat misleading, as the route follows closely a pre-existing ancient trackway dated by archaeological finds to 500–450 BC, but probably many centuries older,^[2] which ran from east to west on the southern slopes of the North Downs.

The course was dictated by the natural geography: it took advantage of the contours, avoided the sticky clay of the land below but also the thinner, overlying “clay with flints” of the summits.^[3] In places a coexisting ridgeway and terrace way can be identified, where the route followed would have varied with the season.^[4] The trackway ran the entire length of the North Downs, leading to and from Folkestone: the pilgrims would have had to turn away from it, north along the River Great Stour valley near Chilham, to reach Canterbury.

History

Map of Pilgrims Way near Titsey, Surrey. The upper route, on the brow of the North Downs, is the ancient trackway (note the archaeological finds at the top left); the lower, almost in the valley, is the route surmised by the Ordnance Survey in the 19th century

The prehistoric trackway extended further than the present Way, providing a link from the narrowest part of the English Channel to the important religious complex of Avebury and Stonehenge, in Wiltshire, where it is known as the Harroway.^[5][6] The route was still followed as an artery for through traffic in Roman times, a period of continuous use of more than 3000 years.^[2]

From Thomas Becket's canonization in 1173 until the dissolution of the monasteries in 1538 his shrine at Canterbury became the most important in the country, indeed "after Rome...the chief shrine in Christendom",^[7] and it drew pilgrims from far and wide. Winchester, apart from being an ecclesiastical centre in its own right (the shrine of St Swithin), was an important regional focus and an aggregation point for seaports on the south coast.^[3] Travellers from Winchester to Canterbury would naturally use the ancient way as it was a direct route, but a separate (and better attested) route to Canterbury was by way of Watling Street from London, as followed by the storytellers in The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer.

Indeed, the concept of a single route called the Pilgrims' Way seems to be no older than the Victorian Ordnance Survey map of Surrey, whose surveyor, Edward Renouard James, published a pamphlet in 1871 entitled Notes on the Pilgrims' Way in West Surrey. Here he asserted that the route was 'little studied' and that 'very many persons in the neighbourhood' had not been aware of it. His insertion of the route name on the Ordnance map gave an official sanction to his conjecture; and writers such as Hilaire Belloc were eager to follow it up. In fact, the route as shown on modern maps is not only unsuitable for the mass movement of travellers but has also left few traces of their activity.^[8] The official history of the Ordnance Survey acknowledges the 'enduring archaeological blunder', blaming the enthusiasm for history of the then Director, General Sir Henry James.^[9] Together, romantically inclined authors have succeeded in creating a “a fable of...modern origin” to explain the existence of the Way.^[2]

The Pilgrims' Way is at the centre of the Powell and Pressburger film A Canterbury Tale, with the camera panning along a map of the route at the start of the film.^[10]

Route

In the Middle Ages the pilgrims' route left the ancient trackway to climb St Martha's Hill^[2]

On the Pilgrims' Way near Trottiscliffe, Kent

The ancient main streets of towns along the route — Farnham (where the old trackway converges with the pilgrims’ route^[2]), Guildford, Dorking and Reigate (where a pilgrims' chapel, dedicated to St Thomas, was established^[11]) — align west to east, strongly suggesting that this was the most important route that passed through them. On modern Ordnance Survey maps, part of the route is shown running east from Farnham, passing to the south of Guildford, north of the village of Gomshall, north of Dorking, Reigate, Merstham, Chaldon, Godstone, Limpsfield and Westerham, through Otford, Kemsing and Wrotham, north of Trottiscliffe, towards Cuxton (where it crossed the River Medway). Along some stretches the pilgrims’ route left the ancient trackway to encompass religious sites, an example being at Pewley Down, near Guildford, where the later way passed St Martha’s Hill and The Chantries, some 500 metres to the south.^[2]

South of Rochester, the Pilgrims’ Way travels through the villages of Burham, Boxley, Detling and continuing in a south-east direction to the north of the villages of Harrietsham and Lenham.

The route continues south-east along the top of the Downs past Charing, to Wye and then turns north to follow the River Great Stour’s valley through Chilham and on to Canterbury.

Walk

For much of its length the North Downs Way National Trail parallels the old Pilgrims’ Way between Winchester and Canterbury. Much of the traditional route of the Pilgrims’ Way is now part of the modern road network and the Ramblers’ Association advises walkers wishing to follow it to use the North Downs Way as an alternative.^[12]

Notes and references

External links

• A short history, Countryside Agency

Coordinates: 51°17′N 0°4′E / 51.283°N 0.067°E / 51.283; 0.067