Pauline
Forums Admin
The British Pilgrimage Trust is re-opening this ancient British pilgrimage route from Southampton on the south coast to Canterbury. They have used the Gough map from c1360 to plot the best possible modern pilgrimage route.
Their guiding criteria for re-creating this route have been:
More information on their website: http://britishpilgrimage.org/
I learned from their websites that pilgrimages were popular during the middle ages until King Henry VIII outlawed them. From the website: "In 1538, King Henry VIII and Thomas Cromwell BANNED “wandering to pilgrimages”. It was a dark day for British freedom. The tradition was deemed undesirable because King Henry preferred people to stay at home making mental pilgrimages reading the printed words of the Bible, rather than taking “holyday” leave in order to make a physical pilgrimage, which would reduce their economic productivity."
That Henry VIII! Because of him and his Dissolution of the Monasteries we have only ruins of Cistercian abbeys, unlike in France where many are still in use today. We lost all the information that monks collected in those monasteries. And now I find out our ancient pilgrimage trails were left to grow over! He probably didn't believe in Climate Change either!
Their guiding criteria for re-creating this route have been:
- the Gough map waypoints,
- footpaths not roads,
- heritage and holy places,
- nature and beauty.
More information on their website: http://britishpilgrimage.org/
I learned from their websites that pilgrimages were popular during the middle ages until King Henry VIII outlawed them. From the website: "In 1538, King Henry VIII and Thomas Cromwell BANNED “wandering to pilgrimages”. It was a dark day for British freedom. The tradition was deemed undesirable because King Henry preferred people to stay at home making mental pilgrimages reading the printed words of the Bible, rather than taking “holyday” leave in order to make a physical pilgrimage, which would reduce their economic productivity."
That Henry VIII! Because of him and his Dissolution of the Monasteries we have only ruins of Cistercian abbeys, unlike in France where many are still in use today. We lost all the information that monks collected in those monasteries. And now I find out our ancient pilgrimage trails were left to grow over! He probably didn't believe in Climate Change either!
