Monthly Archives: February 2020

Day 8 began at Gomshall in the lovely Tillingbourne Valley. However the weather wasn’t quite so lovely with wet snow, or sleety rain to send us on our way. Interestingly there is a Coptic Orthodox church in Gomshall near the station, which is dedicated to St Augustine of Hippo (not the same St Augustine who […]

With heavy rain forecast until early afternoon, we decided to delay our departure and opted for a short day as far as Gomshall. Goodness, what wimps we are becoming! The weather forecast turned out to be accurate and by 1400 the rain started to ease. We set off from Shalford, climbing quickly up onto the […]

With heavy rain forecast until late morning we decided to delay our departure from Farnham and attend the 10am Family Communion Service at the parish church. Jane Austen’s brother was curate here before moving to Bentley. William Corbett; farmer, parliamentary reformist and author of Rural Rides, is buried here. The rector and the congregation made […]

Our fifth day out of Salisbury started from the Holy Rood Church in Holybourne. Happily we found it open, with various bell ringing activities going on. We chatted for a while with the participants including the hand bell ringing instructor, who also plays the organ. Having stamped our Pilgrim Passports, we left Holybourne in springlike […]

Day 4 began where we left off at Bishop’s Sutton near Alresford. Before departing we checked the door of the church (St Nicholas) and this time found it open, with a big welcome for passing pilgrims. As we were stamping our Pilgrim Passports Richard, a regular at the church for many years, arrived and showed […]

Day 3 started at Winchester Cathedral. We were welcomed by a cheery soul at the reception desk who was clearly intrigued and enthused by our venture – plenty of pilgrims to Canterbury, but clearly few committing themselves as far as Rome. There must be a good reason for this. We made our way quietly to […]

What a contrast with the way our fist day ended! We left Beryl and George’s house in Broughton in bright sunshine and a spring in our step. The Wallop Brook was flowing strongly and over its banks in places so we avoided using the ford. Up over Howson Drayton the sound of skylarks rang in […]

DAY 1 It was wonderful to see the 20 or 30 friends gathered at the west door of Salisbury Cathedral this morning to see us off.  Fortunately, the forecast weather held off and although it wasn’t exactly blue skies and sunshine it was at least dry (ish!).  Photographer Spencer had us all completely organised: poses with charity […]

Julie’s recent retirement from the Salisbury District Hospital was celebrated with amongst other things this amazing cake depicting our pilgrimage from Salisbury to Rome. We couldn’t resist putting up a picture of it. Julie looks like she’s raring to go while Tom sits nonchalantly on a stile nearby reading a newspaper, or is it a […]

As February approaches and the days begin to lengthen again, we’ve been busy getting ready for our big walk. We’ve spent much of our spare time since Christmas gathering together the essential equipment. Selection of boots took quite an effort with multiple visits to various outdoor shops across southern England. The technology of boot design […]