British Pilgrimage Trust

09/06/2026

The Sunday Times newspaper have asked us to find pilgrims currently on the path in Britain, or very recently just finished a British pilgrimage so you can give fresh perspectives on being a pilgrim in this land today!
They want to demonstrate the ‘explosion’ of pilgrimage in Britain, so please oblige by mentioning yourself in the comments and perhaps DM’ing us with your contact details.

28/05/2026

An ode to the land, with feasting, music and movement. An evening to connect us to the seasons and landscape.

This evening is shaped by the ancient devotion to season and shared ritual.
As dusk falls, we’ll gather to beat the bounds of the farm, drinks in hand, guided by Jez Taylor, Head of the Market Garden,
alongside Guy Hayward of the British Pilgrimage Trust, all the while accompanied by the sound of folk music.

Also part of the evening:

Mummers Play while Beating the Bounds by , Molly Pepper Steamson and
Poetry and Grace from .pepper.steemson
Why Wool Matters? - A film commissioned by
‘The Ground Beneath the Flock’ - short talk from Eddie Mondue
Turning Through the Year - Folklore Ritual Exhibition by Photographer
Make your own flower headband with Daylesford florists .garden.growers
Pop-up bookshop by
Live folk music and Ceili dancing

Special pilgrim code: SOIL&SUPPER20

19/05/2026

Last weekend led a unique pilgrimage along the River Nar — Marham to Castle Acre — through what Augustus Jessopp called “Norfolk’s Holy Land”: five medieval priories on one little chalk stream, rarer globally than rainforest.

It was to honour the inspiration behind the comedy singing duo, of which Guy is one half- this is Kit Hesketh-Harvey, also the writer and singer of the song in this video reel, set to the tune of ‘The Swan’, and BPT trustee ‘s brother. Kit was a genius lyricist who brought much joy to those around him. He died a few years ago, and in the last few years of his life he dedicated himself to creating a pilgrimage route in Norfolk, the Merchants and Pilgrims Way, along three Norfolk rivers. For Guy this finally made more sense of the unusual double career he has been living since his twenties, building alongside .

Kit’s spirit animal was the swan, and his family said that a swan appears whenever Kit is in their thoughts. Using a portable speaker, our group, made of Kit’s friends and family, listened to him singing this song (itself appropriate for the plight of clean rivers) when a swan appeared on the River Nar.

We began at Marham’s abbey wall, where Isabel of Arundel founded a Cistercian nunnery in 1249, and we sang the Reading nuns’ round of Sumer is icumen in. We passed the gatehouse of Pentney where and Guy sang Salve Regina (having been choral scholars at Cambridge, like Kit) — where a gravedigger uncovered an Anglo-Saxon hoard in 1978, and the King of the Norfolk Poachers, was born. We walked past a Bone Mill, and beside restored meanders where the river is, after 200 years, coming back to its original course. The Trout Quintet accompanied a trout! We lunched at West Acre’s pub and ended at Castle Acre — a named stage on the London-to-Walsingham Camino — with a church dedicated to St James, the patron saint of pilgrims.

It was during Rogationtide, between Ascension and Pentecost. The hawthorn was in flower. We walked on chalk and felt the crystal clarity of the Nar with its swans. If only all rivers were as clean a

15/05/2026

Pilgrimage may be the oldest sponsored walk there is – medieval pilgrims carried alms for the poor, the sick, and the building of cathedrals.

Through our partnership with Givestar, any pilgrim today can raise money for the British Pilgrimage Trust.
You read that right, a sponsored pilgrimage to supporty our charity in helping others to go on pilgrimage, in all the ways that we do.

• Sponsor a pilgrim walking (such as one of our charity’s trustees, Alice and Simon), who are already raising money on Givestar.
• Turn your own pilgrimage you are doing anyway into a fundraiser for our charity.

Set up your page on Givestar in a few minutes and share it with friends and family before you walk.

It works for any pilgrimage: a day walk, a weekend, or a long route over weeks.
‍
Contact us if you have questions.

https://givestar.io/ev/turn-pilgrimage-into-a-force-for-good

06/05/2026

Beltane @ Glastonbury. May Day Morning. We climbed the Tor at sunrise starting at 4.30am, touching the dew. Then it was through St Michael’s tower to the sound of drums, then hundreds gathered honoured the elements before greeting the sunrise with morris dances and then spiral dances to more song. Then it was down the Tor to Chalice Well for lighting and jumping the fire (Beltane means ‘bright fire’) preceded by many songs. Then it was meditation by the well before our first maypole dance. Next stop: the high street for greeting the green men and their maypole, more morris dancing, and then a grand procession of thousands up the high street back towards Chalice Well lane up to Fairfields for the installation of the maypole in the centre of a circular grove of thorn trees on the lower slopes of the Tor. There were women ‘inviting’ the men and their pole, which performed a few symbolic thrusts before entering the ground, being erected by multi-colored ribbons to the top of the pole. Then the dancing wrapping the ribbons round the pole until total coverage, accompanied by circling dragons and goddesses. The ceremony ended with a hum and a cheer for the maypole.
I could go into the meaning of all this, but I’ll let you work it out.

17/04/2026

All of us at .life .co .foundation .seeds
are excited to be walking the pollinator pilgrimage from Walthamstow to Victoria Park, Hackney, with many other pilgrims gathering together who want to give back the gift of new seeds for new life in our wonderful city, in a beautiful green corridor of several local nature restoration communities.
This is a way to rediscover the natural beauty of even the most urban environment and deepen your relationship with the web of life.
Come one and all to sow some seeds!
Booking via the Pollinator Pilgrimage link in our bio via linktr.ee

31/03/2026

Today, April Fool’s Day, is the start of the pilgrim year because pilgrims are true to the archetype of the fool, open to whatever the journey brings.

“Whan that Aprille with his shoures soote
The droghte of March hath perced to the roote,
… Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages”
Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales

And April is upon, as well as Easter, so maybe the impulse to go on pilgrimage is stirring in you too.

“Pilgrims are driven by a ‘foolish’ inner urge to step into uncertainty and darkness, guided by intuition and a true heart.”
Read more like this in our website article “The Pilgrim, the Fool and the Unknown” in our Guidance section.

Read more about it in our latest email newsletter: http://eepurl.com/jCMJN-/

26/03/2026

Pilgrimage was brought back into the heart of the yesterday.

At the installation of Sarah Mullally in , something subtle but significant happened: the ceremony began not just with liturgy, but with a walk.

She chose to arrive not by car, but on foot - tracing the ancient route that pilgrims have taken for centuries from London towards Canterbury.

And she opened her sermon by mentioning this, and didn’t speak about pilgrimage as a trend or initiative, but as something deeper - something embedded in identity:

“I have walked the ancient pilgrim path from St Paul’s Cathedral in London to Canterbury Cathedral.”

“Thomas Becket… made this same pilgrim journey over 850 years ago.”

“People walk the pilgrim paths of faith each and every day.”

“As a church, we are a pilgrim people.”

“Each and every step of my pilgrim path…”

She spoke of pilgrims, paths, and journeys - not as an event, but as a way of being.

This all suggests a shift from seeing pilgrimage as something occasional or historical, to recognising it as something lived, embodied, and ongoing - in the Church, and far beyond it.

For those of us working to bring pilgrimage back into modern life in Britain, for all faiths and none, it felt like a quiet moment of alignment.

The old paths are not being revived as heritage alone - but as something alive, participatory, and needed.

The power of place was palpable when Sarah entered the cathedral throne for the first time and was visibly moved. And on Lady Day too, 25th March, as the first woman to do so, the power of time too.

I don’t know her very well, but from what I’ve seen she cares about people very much, and will keep things simple and bring the Church of England and Anglican Communion across the world back to the golden rule of loving thy neighbour as thyself.

Photos: Archbishop Sarah in St Augustine’s Throne. Her stone cathedral throne. Preparations before the event. with our BPT patron Dame Emma Bridgewater. The gate into the cathedral precincts.

25/03/2026

Do you think we should submit pilgrimage to the new UNESCO Living Heritage Inventory?

The UK Living Heritage Inventory is the new national platform for identifying and recognising cultural practices, hosted by the UK National Commission for UNESCO.

Why are we submitting pilgrimage?
Pilgrimage is a long-standing cultural practice of journeying on foot to places of spiritual, historical and natural significance. Sustained by diverse communities across the UK, it fosters intergenerational knowledge, local identity, stewardship of landscape and shared wellbeing through traditions of walking, hospitality, storytelling and reflection.

Do you think we should submit pilgrimage to the new UNESCO Living Heritage Inventory? What is the Living Heritage Inventory? The UK Living Heritage Inventory is the new national platform for identifying and recognising the cultural practices, traditions, skills and knowledge that communities across....

21/03/2026

Spring Equinox occurred yesterday at 2.46pm, 20th March. It is a time of perfect solar balance. How balanced do you feel right now? And is balance something to be strived for in every moment or to be flowed with, riding ebbs and flows of life?
Ostara is the poetic name given to this moment, linked to the goddess from which Easter gets it name, which falls on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the equinox. The Druidic name is Alban Eilir or ‘Light of the Earth’.
Eggs, hares, primroses, lesser celandines, seed planting, St Cuthbert, St Herbert are all associated with Spring Equinox.
Read this article to find out more: https://www.britishpilgrimage.org/stories/the-spring-equinox-a-time-of-balance-renewal-and-pilgrimage

Photo taken yesterday in the on one of our guided pilgrimage events in partnership with - we sang an Equinox chant together at 2.46pm overlooking a landscape that Tolkien knew very well.