June 2015
Doug Chapman, a chartered surveyor who had worked
at Canterbury Cathedral, spoke to the Society on 19th June on
the Pilgrims Way in Kent. Named for its use by medieval pilgrims
from Winchester to Canterbury, the Pilgrims Way is in fact much
older, dating from prehistoric times (ancient monument nearby
include the Coldrum Stones and Kit's Coty House). It follows a
route along the North Down skirting between the wooded hillsides
and the boggy lower ground. As Chaucer wrote in the Canterbury
Tales, April is the ideal month for pilgrimages - the ground firm,
the path not yet overrun by brambles - but this was not the track
used by Chaucer's pilgrims, who would have come from Southwark
by way of Watling Street.
Passing quickly by the familiar stretches from Chevening
and Otford to Kemsing and Wrotham we come to the lost village
of Dode and its small Norman Church, deconsecrated and once falling
into ruin. Chapman purchased the church in 1990 and set about
saving it, a long and dedicated project of restoration, so that
today it can be used for civil marriages and other civil services.
Next the pilgrims had to cross the Medway exactly
where is uncertain, but one possibility is the causeway still
surviving just beneath the water near Snodland. Then we come to
the lovely Burham Old Church, redundant but restored, and then
to Boxley where the monks of Boxley Abbey charged the pilgrims
to venerate the famous Rood of Grace. At the Reformation Thomas
Cromwell had the Rood taken down and burned at Paul's Cross in
London. Passing through Detling and Thurnham we come to Charing
with its Archbishop's palace, and then to Wye and Chilham and
the valley of the Stour. Now the Pilgrims Way veers northwards
to Harblesdown, where pilgrims could pay to see a buckle from
Becket's shoe (the pilgrimage was becoming expensive). Finally
the pilgrims reach their destination, Canterbury Cathedral and
Becket's shrine in the Trinity Chapel with its radiant Miracle
Windows.
Chapman's description and photos of the church he had restored
at Dode were so interesting that we made Dode the Society's September
outing.
