To launch the BBC2 TV series “Pilgrimage: the Road through Portugal“, BBC Radio 4 PM’s Anita Anand interviewed British Pilgrimage Trust patrons Emma Bridgewater and Fiona Reynolds, and its director, Guy Hayward. They discussed how modern pilgrimage includes atheists, is about opening your mind, and doesn’t need to be religious. Emma Bridgewater happened to be […]
In addition to making our online resources free in general, we’ve also improved the Old Way Online Guide in particular, which has been overhauled for the first time since its launch two years ago! Pilgrims will now find their Old Way journeys are easier to plan, adaptable to their pace and preferences, putting the pilgrim […]
We are a charity, and so our goal must be to make pilgrimage available for as many people as possible. Since August 2020 our Old Way Online Guide and Old Way Sanctuaries had only been available to paying subscribers. And from May this year, the same ‘paywall’ had also existed for our other Sanctuary routes […]
Here is where we will collate any publicity about the launch of the Sanctuary Network. First up, it’s the Church Times, perhaps the core publication of potential Sanctuary providers, as it is read by local rural community members and churchwardens, vicars etc, and has a readership of 90,000 per week in print and online. Let’s […]
We are excited to announce the launch of Britain’s Sanctuary Network, an AirBnB-style app functionality attached to the pilgrimage routes on our website that promotes low-cost accommodation options in churches, church halls, village halls and, in the future, barns and bothies. Currently, there are three routes in Britain served by Sanctuaries – Old Way to Canterbury; Golden […]
As you go on your contemporary pilgrimages, have a thought for your predecessors. And amongst them, the most famous of them all, Chaucer’s pilgrims! You can now see what they really looked like, because the original woodcut depictions of Chaucer’s Pilgrims published in 1483 by England’s first printer, William Caxton (whose 600th birthday is this […]
Have you watched BBC Two’s latest reality TV series “Pilgrimage: Road to the Scottish Isles”? All three episodes are currently available on iPlayer. The merry band of pilgrims includes thoughtful ‘Pagan’ Laurence Llewellyn-Bowen, wise Christian instagram influencer Scarlet Moffat, kind Sikh cricketer Monty Panesar, serious Muslim comedian Shazia Mirza, loving Jewish actress Louisa Clein and […]
To mark National Walking Day 2022 (first Wed of April), our patron Emma Bridgewater has launched a mug inspired by pilgrimage. And, perhaps even more appropriately, she is currently walking the whole Old Way from Southampton to Canterbury, and is well into her 3-week journey (read more about this here). The messages on the mug […]
THE WALTER HILTON PILGRIMAGE DAY From Thurgarton Priory to Southwell Minster Saturday March 26 Join the group or start when you like Rupert Sheldrake, one of our patrons, whose roots are in Nottinghamshire, plans to go on this one-day pilgrimage, and if you live nearby, he invites you to join him. It’s about five miles. Whether you […]
Thanks Financial Times and their ‘How To Spend It’ team for announcing us as one of ‘five extraordinary walking holidays’ across the world. “Lately, the pilgrimage – those Celtic and early-Christian walking routes-as-rituals of yore, often evolved along ancient pagan pathways – has been experiencing a revival in popularity: slow journeys that take in wilderness, sacred sites, […]