Author Archives: Tom and Julie

Today is our 45th day under lockdown. According to our schedule we should have finished the first tranche of our pilgrimage, at Bar sur Aube in southern Champagne, last week and attended Tom’s Godson’s wedding in Sussex at the weekend. Sadly, neither happened because of lockdown restrictions. So what have these pilgrims been up to […]

The answer is that they turn their energies into the garden, of course! What else would you do in this wonderful weather, so perfect for walking in? We’ve been busy clearing the beds of weeds. Julie is particularly good at that. She loves to take out her frustration on them, nettles especially. We’ve pruned the […]

Sadly, Coronavirus has resulted in a temporary curtailment of our pilgrimage to Rome. We were due to have left Canterbury yesterday, and to cross to Calais on the ferry tomorrow. However, continuation at this time would be impossible, since France went into lockdown ten days ago and now the UK too. We’d got as far […]

The sun was shining brightly as we departed Halling. From the church we headed down to the riverbank and the old ferry steps. Formerly this would have been the place where we crossed the Medway. The tide was out and we could clearly see the redundant steps rising up the far bank. From here our […]

Day 11 began where we left off, in the village of Otford, north of Sevenoaks. We paid a visit to the Church of St Bartholomew, which we found not only the church open, but also the church office and a magnificent timbered church hall, where we chatted to one of the congregation, and stamped our […]

With a significantly better weather forecast; windy but plenty of sunshine and little rain, we set off from Tyler’s Green, near Godstone. The morning’s sunshine however had made little impact on the surface water lying on the Gault Clay soils, which were as muddy as ever! After crossing the M25 and heading up onto the […]

Our ninth day was probably best summed up in two three-letter words – MUD and M25! With Storm Jorge bringing high winds and rain pretty well all night, conditions were not the most pleasant as we set of from Betchworth. As we made our way across the Gault Clay, with mud and standing water everywhere, […]

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 […]