We advance British pilgrimage as a form of cultural heritage that promotes holistic wellbeing, for the public benefit
‘Holistic wellbeing’ includes physical, mental, emotional, social, community, environmental and spiritual health, and we aim to make these benefits accessible to wide new audiences.
We are a registered charity formed in 2014 that aims to promote pilgrimage in Britain by helping to develop and publicise new and old paths as well as the practice of pilgrimage itself by suggesting people say ‘bring your own beliefs’.
We offer a unique network of hundreds of pilgrim routes and places of pilgrimage.
Our achievements so far in numbers
At the time we formed our charity, few people were talking about pilgrimage in Britain.
We started gathering pilgrimage routes across Britain and re-opening the concept in new ways to new audiences, both through the press and off-line communities along the routes. Since then we have:
Meet the team behind your journeys
Dr. Guy Hayward
Director & Co-Founder
Guy co-founded the British Pilgrimage Trust, after completing a PhD at Cambridge on how singing forms community. Guy also runs the website choralevensong.org and is one half of musical comedy duo Bounder & Cad.
Dawn Champion
Head of Community Engagement
Dawn has had a career with English Heritage, working on several award-winning projects at some of the most significant places across the South East, before moving to Kent Wildlife Trust to lead delivery of the volunteering and visitor experience programmes. She also volunteers for charities that connect children with the magic of nature.
Simon Guild
Chair of Trustees
Simon has 15 years’ experience as a non-executive director helping founders build online businesses. These include Babbel, a language learning business, 8Fit, an online fitness company, Spreadshirt, which customises apparel, Picfair, a photographer platform & Get Licensed, a security training business. He has been a trustee of Blood Cancer UK for 8 years and a fellow of the RSA for 20 years and was previously CEO of MTV Networks Europe. He is currently engaged in a pilgrimage connecting the greatest cathedrals of Britain.
Abigail Rowe
Trustee
Abigail works professionally with three charities, primarily in a fundraising capacity. She is currently walking the bounds of England, in a bid to keep learning more about our amazing heritage.
William de Winton
Trustee
William is a retired member of Lansdowne Partners and a former Managing Director of Morgan Stanley. He spent much of his career following the financial sector. He sits on a number of charity boards and is a founding Trustee of Unlocking Potential. He is also a founding Trustee of the SpringBoard Bursary Foundation which is the UK’s largest boarding school bursary charity.
Simon Hillson
Trustee
Simon spent most of his career as a solicitor at leading City law firm Macfarlanes, where he trained and was a partner for over 20 years, latterly as head of the real estate practice. Simon is excited to be combining his legal skill with his love for walking.
Alice Lankester
Trustee
Alice has spent the past three decades in marketing and product roles in Silicon Valley and London, working in leadership roles for technology startups and early growth stage companies. Alice led marketing at one of Europe's leading venture capital firms, Balderton Capital. She has been a Co-founder and C-team member of startups funded by Kleiner Perkins, NEA, and Sequoia Capital, and CMO at business and consumer startups.
Our Patrons
Janet Astor
Psychotherapist + Mythologist
A life-long enthusiast of myths and ancient history, as well as a psychotherapist, the Duchess of Richmond is helping the BPT to fundraise and network in order to establish the Old Way route which passes near the Goodwood Estate, Chichester.
Emma Bridgewater
Ceramicist + Rural Campaigner
Emma runs the British ceramics manufacturer 'Emma Bridgewater', based in Stoke on Trent. In 2016, she was made President of the Campaign to Protect Rural England, a charity that was formed in 1926 to limit urban sprawl and ribbon development. She is also a keen supporter of church heritage conservation.
Dr. Rupert Sheldrake
Biologist + Scientist of Spiritual Practices
Rupert is a biologist and author of many popular books on modern science. He is known for asking the questions other scientists prefer to ignore, such as in his book The Science Delusion. Rupert’s latest pilgrimage experiments have focussed on the potential role of pilgrimage in the relationship between god-parents and god-children.
Robin Bridgeman
Life Peer
Robin is one of 90 elected hereditary Peers in the House of Lords, and a keen and regular pilgrim to Lourdes.
Sir Simon Jenkins
Author + Newspaper Columnist + Editor
Simon served as editor of the Evening Standard from 1976 to 1978 and of The Times from 1990 to 1992, and chaired the National Trust from 2008 to 2014. He currently writes columns for both The Guardian and Evening Standard, and sits on the committee of the Churches Conservation Trust and English Churches and Cathedrals Sustainability Commission Review.
Dame Fiona Reynolds
Academic + Conservationist
A former Director of the National Trust, Dame Fiona Reynolds is the Master of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, and the Chair of the Cathedrals Commission. A noted campaigner and media figure, her recent book, The Fight For Beauty, traces the historical precedents for conservation by policymakers and poets alike - alongside ger own lifelong dedication to beautiful landscapes. During her tenure at the National Trust, Dame Fiona raised the charity's profile from 2.7 million to 5 million members.
Dr Merlin Sheldrake
Mychorrizal Scientist & Author
Merlin’s recent work has focused on the symbiotic relationship between mycorrhizal fungi and plants, and how fungal networks may connect different plants together underground, culminating in the best-selling book Entangled Life. During his time working in tropical forests in Panama, he made many pilgrimages to find rare plants that connect to these fungal networks in unusual ways. He is also an accomplished accordionist, pianist and folk singer.
Satish Kumar
Activist + Editor + Earth Pilgrim
Satish has been a Jain monk, nuclear disarmament advocate, pacifist, and editor of Resurgence & Ecologist magazine. He is founder and Director of Programmes of the Schumacher College international centre for ecological studies, and of The Small School. He is known for a peace walk with a companion to the capitals of four of the nuclear-armed countries – Washington, London, Paris and Moscow – a pilgrimage of over 8,000 miles.
Lord Richard Chartres
Patron
Former Bishop of London, Richard was made a life peer of the House of Lords, having formerly served as a Lord Spiritual.