View source for Pilgrims' Way

{{Short description|Historic walking route in England}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2017}}
{{Use British English|date=May 2017}}
{{other uses}}

{{Infobox hiking trail
 |name=Pilgrims' Way
 |photo=File:Pilgrims' Way to the South of the White Horse Stone (I).jpg
 |caption=The Pilgrims' Way as it passes the [[White Horse Stone]], [[Kent]]
 |location=South Eastern [[England]], [[United Kingdom]]
 |length_km=192
 |trailheads=[[Winchester, Hampshire|Winchester]], [[Hampshire]]<br />Shrine of [[Thomas Becket]], [[Canterbury]], [[Kent]]
 |use=Hiking, cycling and byway; former [[pilgrim way]]
 |elev_change=
 |highest=
 |lowest=
 |difficulty=
 |season=All year
 |sights=
 |hazards=
}}
The '''Pilgrims' Way''' (also '''Pilgrim's Way''' or '''Pilgrims Way'''){{efn|All three usages are noted on Ordnance Survey maps}} is the historical route supposedly taken by [[pilgrim]]s from [[Winchester, Hampshire|Winchester]] in [[Hampshire]], [[England]], to the shrine of [[Thomas Becket]] at [[Canterbury]] in [[Kent]]. This name, of comparatively recent coinage, is applied to a pre-existing [[ancient trackway]] dated by archaeological finds to 600&ndash;450&nbsp;BC, but probably in existence since the [[Stone Age]].<ref name=Brayley>{{cite book|last=Brayley|first=Edward|authorlink=Edward Wedlake Brayley|title=A topographical history of Surrey|volume=4|year=1850|publisher=G Willis|location=London|page=218|oclc=4601837}}</ref><ref name=Margary>{{cite book
  | last =Margary
  | first =Ivan D
  | authorlink =Ivan Margary
  | title =Roman Ways in the Weald
  | publisher =J M Dent
  | orig-year =1948
  | year = 1965
  | edition= 3rd
  | location =London
  | pages = 260–263
  | url =
  | doi =
  | id =  
  | isbn =0-460-07742-2 }}</ref> The prehistoric route followed the "natural causeway" east to west on the southern slopes of the [[North Downs]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Fagg|first=C. C.|author2=Hutchings, G. E.  |others=Tansley, A. G|title=Great Britain: essays in regional geography |editor=Ogilvie, Alan Grant|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge, England|year=1928|page=29|chapter=Prehistory|oclc=59447377}}</ref> 

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.<ref name=Wright>Wright, Christopher John (1971). ''A Guide to the Pilgrims' Way.'' Constable and Co, London. {{ISBN|0-09-456240-7}}</ref> In places a coexisting [[ridgeway (track)|ridgeway]] and terrace way can be identified; the route followed would have varied with the season, but it would not drop below the upper line of cultivation.<ref>Encyclopædia Britannica (1998) ''Pilgrims' Way''.</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Wooldridge|first1=Sidney|authorlink1=Sidney William Wooldridge|last2=Hutchings|first2=Geoffrey|title=London's Countryside : Geographical field work for students and teachers of geography|url=https://archive.org/details/londonscountrysi0000wool|url-access=registration|year=1957|publisher=Methuen|location=London|page=[https://archive.org/details/londonscountrysi0000wool/page/121 121]|oclc=788928682}}</ref> 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 valley of the  [[River Stour, Kent|Great Stour]] near [[Chilham]], to reach Canterbury.

==History==
[[File:Pilgrims Way Titsey.jpg|thumb|left|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]]
[[File:Pilgrims Way - geograph.org.uk - 621078.jpg|thumb|left|A section of the lower route, eroded into the slope, in Surrey]]The prehistoric trackway extended further than the present Way, providing a link from the narrowest part of the [[English Channel]] to the important religious complexes of [[Avebury]] and [[Stonehenge]], in Wiltshire, where it is known as the [[Harrow Way|Harroway]]. The way then existed as "broad and ill-defined corridors of movement up to half a mile wide" and not as a single, well-defined track.<ref>{{cite book|last=Castleden|first=Rodney|title=The Stonehenge People: An Exploration of Life in Neolithic Britain, 4700-2000 BC|publisher=Routledge|year=1987|page=[https://archive.org/details/stonehengepeople0000cast/page/114 114]|chapter=The High Roads|isbn=0-7102-0968-1|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/stonehengepeople0000cast/page/114}}</ref><ref name="Crawford">{{cite book|last=Crawford|first=Osbert|authorlink=O. G. S. Crawford|title=Archaeology in the Field|publisher=Phoenix House|location=London|year=1953|page=7|oclc=30245154}}</ref> The route was still followed as an artery for through traffic in [[Roman occupation of Britain|Roman]] times, a period of continuous use of more than 3000&nbsp;years.<ref name=Margary/>

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",<ref>Wright (1971: 16)</ref> and it drew pilgrims from far and wide. Winchester, apart from being an ecclesiastical centre in its own right (the shrine of [[Swithun|St Swithin]]), was an important regional focus and an aggregation point for travellers arriving through the seaports on the south coast.<ref name=Wright></ref>  It is "widely accepted" that this was the route taken by [[Henry II of England|Henry II]] on his pilgrimage of atonement for the death of Bishop Thomas, from France to Canterbury in July 1174, although this has been disputed and some evidence points to his having taken a route via London.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Cartwright|first1=Julia|title=The Pilgrims' Way: From Winchester to Canterbury|date=1911|publisher=John Murray|location=London|oclc=559472322|page=5|authorlink=Julia Cartwright Ady}}</ref><ref name="Hooper">{{cite journal |last=Hooper |first=Wilfrid |year=1936 |title=The Pilgrims' Way and its supposed pilgrim use |url=https://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/archiveDS/archiveDownload?t=arch-379-1/dissemination/pdf/vol_44/surreyac044_047-083_hooper.pdf |journal=Surrey Archaeological Collections |location=Guildford |publisher=Surrey Archaeological Society |volume=44 |page=53}} A [[Pipe Roll]] record for the hire of horses for the King's escort to London is extant.{{Doi|10.5284/1068817}}</ref> Travellers from Winchester to Canterbury  naturally used the ancient way, as it was the direct route, and research by local historians has provided much by way of detail—sometimes embellished—of the pilgrims' journeys. The numbers making their way to Canterbury by this route were not recorded, but the estimate by the Kentish historian [[William Coles Finch]] that it carried more than 100,000 pilgrims a year is surely an exaggeration; a more prosaic estimate—extrapolated from the records of pilgrims' offerings at the shrine—contends an annual figure closer to 1,000.<ref>{{cite book|last=Finch|first=William Coles|authorlink=William Coles Finch|title=In Kentish pilgrim land, its ancient roads and shrines|year=1925|publisher=Charles William Daniel|location=London|page=77|oclc=6213389}}</ref><ref name=FCEE>{{cite journal|last1=Elliston-Erwood|first1=F.C.|title=The "Pilgrim's Way" its antiquity and its alleged Mediæval Use|journal=[[Kent Archaeological Society|Archaeologia Cantiana]]|date=1925|volume=37|pages=1–20|url=https://www.kentarchaeology.org.uk/Research/Pub/ArchCant/Vol.037%20-%201925/037-01.pdf}} {{open access}}</ref><ref>Hooper (1936) 44 "In their train have followed the host of guide-books and popular writers who have expanded and embellished ''ad libitum'' as fancy prompted".</ref>  A separate (and more reliably attested) route  to Canterbury from London was by way of [[Watling Street]], as followed by the storytellers in ''[[The Canterbury Tales]]'' by [[Geoffrey Chaucer]].<ref name=FCEE/>

Conversely, the concept of a single route called the Pilgrims' Way could 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''. While acknowledging that the route was "little studied" and that "very many persons in the neighbourhood had not been aware of it", he nonetheless caused the name to be inserted on the Ordnance Survey map, giving official sanction to his conjecture.<ref>{{cite book|last=James|first=Edward Renouard|title=Notes on the Pilgrims Way in West Surrey|year=1871|publisher=Edward Stanford|location=London|page=6|oclc=560914994}}</ref> Romantic writers such as [[Hilaire Belloc]] were eager to follow this up and they succeeded in creating "a fable of...modern origin" to explain the existence of the Way.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Belloc |first1=Hilaire |authorlink1=Hilaire Belloc |title=The Old Road |date=1904 |publisher=John Constable |location=London |oclc=70731922}}</ref><ref name=Margary/>  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.<ref name=FCEE/><ref>{{cite book|last=Parker|first=Eric|title=Surrey|publisher=Hale|location=London|year=1947|chapter=The Pilgrims Way|oclc=4320463}}</ref> 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 (Ordnance Survey)|Henry James]].<ref>{{cite book
  | last =Owen
  | first =Tim
  | authorlink =
  |author2=Pilbeam, Elaine
   | title =Ordnance Survey
  | publisher =Ordnance Survey
  | year =1992
  | location =Southampton, England
  | url =
  | doi =
  | id =  
  | isbn =0-319-00498-8
  | page = 64 }}</ref> However, F. C. Elliston-Erwood, a Kentish historian, notes that [[Tithe#Church collection of religious offerings and taxes|tithe]] records dating from before 1815 use the well established name "Pilgrims' Way" to reference and locate pieces of land.<ref name=FCEE/> Earlier still, surviving thirteenth century documents show a "Pilgrim Road" by the walls of [[Thurnham Castle|Thornham Castle]], Kent, on what is today considered the route.<ref name=Hooper/><ref>{{cite map
 | author =Ordnance Survey
 | year =1957
 | title =172 Chatham & Maidstone
 | scale =1:63360
 | location = Chessington, England
 | section =
 | access-date = }}</ref>

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.<ref>{{cite book|last=Hauser|first=Kitty|title=Shadow Sites: Photography, Archaeology, and the British Landscape, 1927-1955|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Oxford, England|year=2007|pages=256–261|chapter=From Pilgrims' Way to the railway|isbn=978-0-19-920632-2}}</ref>

==Route==
[[File:St Martha Hill.jpg|thumb|In the Middle Ages the pilgrims' route left the ancient trackway to climb [[St Martha's Hill]]<ref name=Margary/>]]
[[File:Pilgrims way trosley.jpg|thumb|On the Pilgrims' Way near [[Trottiscliffe]], Kent]]

Anyone walking the 'Pilgrims Way' from [[Winchester]] would have started along the [[Roman road]] east following the route through [[New Alresford]], [[Four Marks]], [[Alton, Hampshire|Alton]] and [[Bentley, Hampshire|Bentley]] to Farnham. This roughly follows the modern [[A31 road|A31]].

The ancient main streets of towns along the route from [[Farnham]] (where the old trackway converges with the pilgrims' route)<ref name=Margary/> through [[Guildford]], [[Dorking]] and [[Reigate]] 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]] via the heights by [[Guildford Castle]], then north of the village of [[Shere]], 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]]).  South of [[Rochester, Kent|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, Kent|Wye]] and then turns north to follow the valley of the [[River Stour, Kent|Great Stour]] through [[Chilham]] and on to [[Canterbury]].

Along some stretches the pilgrims' route left the ancient trackway to encompass religious sites, examples being Pewley Down, near Guildford, where the later way passed [[St. Martha's Hill|St Martha's Hill]] and [[St Catherine's Hill, Surrey|St Catherine's]] [[Chantry|chantry chapel]], some 500&nbsp;metres to the south.<ref name=Margary/>  At Reigate the thirteenth-century chapel of St Thomas and a hospice were built for the pilgrims' use, although they were not on the route.<ref>Wright (1971: 134)</ref><ref>{{cite book|editor=Malden, Henry Elliot|title=A history of the County of Surrey|volume=3|year=1902|publisher=Constable|location=London|pages=229–245|oclc=2979914}}</ref> [[Boxley Abbey]], with its revered [[Rood of Grace]], was another recognised detour.<ref>Cartwright 1911: pp 147–149</ref>

==National Trail==
The [[North Downs Way]] [[National Trail]] parallels the old Pilgrims' Way between Farnham and Canterbury. Much of the traditional route of the Pilgrims' Way is now part of the modern road network and the [[Ramblers]] have previously advised walkers wishing to follow it to use [[St. Swithun's Way]] between Winchester and Farnham and the [[North Downs Way]] between Farnham and Canterbury as an alternative.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20120728131235/http://www.ramblers.org.uk/info/paths/name/n/northdowns North Downs Way National Trail.] Page archived (as at 2012-07-28) from the Ramblers' Association, accessed 2013-04-29</ref>

The route also links with the [[South Downs Way]] at Winchester.

==Notes==
{{noteslist}}

==References==
{{reflist|2}}

==External links==
* [https://www.nationaltrail.co.uk/north-downs-way North Downs Way],  [[Countryside Agency]]
*[https://www.pilgrimswaycanterbury.org/ Pilgrims Way, by Canterbury-Cathedral.org]

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[[Category:Ancient trackways in England]]
[[Category:History of Kent]]
[[Category:History of Surrey]]
[[Category:History of Ashford, Kent]]
[[Category:City of Canterbury]]
[[Category:Archaeological sites in Hampshire]]
[[Category:Archaeological sites in Kent]]
[[Category:Pilgrimage routes]]