Today we began our pilgrimage, and we were anxious to get on the road! As a reminder, we are walking the Pilgrims' Way, a medieval route from Winchester to Canterbury to the shrine of St. Thomas Becket. Today, our route started in Winchester and ended in Alresford. In preparation this morning, Harry made us a delicious and hearty “campaign breakfast” of sausages, eggs, and toast. We will need the energy--we are walking close to 12 miles today!
Since there was no early Mass available before we departed Winchester, we listened to the live-streamed 7:30 am Mass from the English Dominicans at Oxford’s Blackfriars College.
What about second campaign breakfast?
Before leaving Winchester, we paused to eavesdrop outside the door of Winchester Cathedral, along with many other interested locals. Inside, the students were participating in a service for the start of the Michaelmass Term.
("Michael-mass" refers to the September 29th Feast of St. Michael the Archangel). As you can hear in the video to the right, the students are singing “All Creatures of Our God and King”, a hymn based on a text written by St. Francis of Assisi in 1225.
(1) Left: First Pilgrim signpost! The green arrow points to "St. Swithun's Way," the first leg of the Pilgrims' Way. (2) Right: Off we go!
A short distance out of the city of Winchester, we walked through Winnall Moors, a delightful nature preserve home to many species of native birds and wild flowers.
(1) Left: Walking through Winnall Moors. The single-file selfie will certainly become a staple. (2) Right: A swan in the preserve.
We walked to the town of Kings Worthy and stopped at St. Mary's Church for our first pilgrimage stamp on the trail. We keep the stamps, which we will collect at various churches along the Pilgrims' Way, in our pilgrimage passports, which we received earlier in Winchester. The Pilgrims' Way website explains the passport practice:
A pilgrim passport identifies a person as a bona fide pilgrim and enables them to benefit from the 1000 year old tradition of pilgrim hospitality. It is a wonderful record of a pilgrim’s journey and the different communities and places they have walked through. The stamps it bears show the rate of progress of the pilgrim and the relatively short distances are an indication that they are travelling without motorised assistance! Their use helps prevent the abuse of pilgrim hospitality.
The oldest part of St. Mary's Church in Kings Worthy -- the tower and doorway --dates to Norman times, and inside the church, the names of the rectors are recorded from 1290.
A quick word about the name of the city: the term "Worthy" originated during Anglo-Saxon times and means an “enclosed land”. So "Kings Worthy" indicates that the land of the village was royal property at one time.
Top row: (1) Left: St. Mary's Church, Kings Worthy, (2) Right: Striking a pose outside of the church.
Bottom row: (1) Interior of St. Mary's Church, (2) List of Rectors of St. Mary's.
More sights along the way:
A quaint thatched cottage in the town of Kings Worthy. Are we in the Shire!?
(1) Left: Which way? (2) Right: Technology to the rescue. The Outdoor Active App with the map from the British Pilgrimage Trust is incredibly accurate and useful.
(1) Left: The Hampshire countryside, (2) Right: Walking!
Our next stop was the town of Martyr Worthy. You may think -- given what was
said above about the meaning of the term "Worthy" -- that "Martyr Worthy" means the town used to be the property of a martyr. Not quite! It was owned instead by Henri le Martre (c.1201), whose last name (Martre --> Martyr) means "the weasel." History remembers this village as "the weasel's land."
In Martyr Worthy, we stopped at the 12th century St. Swithun's Church and received another stamp in our passport book.
(1) Left: Interior of St. Swithun's Church, Martyr Worthy, (2) Right: The stamp. Most of the stamp churches appear to be self-service, but at least they are open!
More sights:
(1) Left: Approaching the town of Itchen Abbas, (2) Right: Lisa tries the elevation technique for traversing a very narrow kissing gate.
Upon arrival in the town of Itchen Abbas, we visited St. John the Baptist Church, with its classic flint and stone construction. This is a 19th century reconstruction of an earlier church, but the rectors have been here since 1280.
From left: (1) St. John the Baptist Church, Itchen Abbas, (2) Exterior and (3) Interior of church
All the walking made us hungry, so we stopped at The Plough in Itchen Abbas for a great lunch.
Left: Lunch stop: hard cider was a great refreshment after walking.
From left: (1) Back on the way after lunch, (2) Vineyards in the distance, (3) We're close to Alresford (pronounced "Alls-ford"), UK's capital of watercress farming.
We finally arrived at our final destination for the day: Alresford. We’re feeling pretty good about our nearly 12 mile walk today. Harry was a superb leg leader and got us here just before 4:00 pm.
From left: (1) Arrival at the Swan Hotel in Alresford, (2) Cheers! A good day just got a little better, (3) Preparing for tomorrow by drying out our clothing. Often UK B&Bs will have a washer but not a dryer. Cold, damp clothes go on tomorrow morning at "Pull Poles"! We are already feeling the penitential aspect of this pilgrimage!
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