"A West Country Pilgrimage" by Eden Phillpotts is a heartwarming tale of the English countryside. Written with the eloquence and drama Phillpotts is known for, this book narrates a journey through the west country, starting at the Exe River. Describing nature, the fauna, and how the world finds peace away from the bustle of civilization, this book is a relaxing read that will make audiences of all kinds fall in love with this part of the country.
A guidebook to walking the Pilgrims’ Way, a 230 km (138 mile) historic pilgrimage route to Canterbury Cathedral in Kent, home of the shrine of the martyred archbishop, St Thomas Becket. With relatively easy walking on ancient pathways, it can be comfortably completed in under a fortnight. The route is presented in 15 stages ranging between 7 and 22 kms (5-14 miles) and is described from both Winchester in Hampshire (138 miles) and London’s Southwark Cathedral (90 miles), with an optional link to Rochester. 1:50,000 OS mapping for each stage Detailed information on accommodation, public transport, and refreshments for each stage Information on the historical background of the pilgrimage, historical figures, and local points of interest GPX files available to download Facilities table to help you plan your itinerary
The English West Country is a land of exceptional landscapes: many miles of wild, unspoilt coastline and vast expanses of wild moorland; great cities such as Exeter, Plymouth, Bath and Bristol; and market towns, villages and hamlets. Farming, mining, quarrying, fishing and trade are the traditional industries of the counties of Wiltshire, Somerset, Dorset, Devon and Cornwall. On one level, the West Country is the most English of all English regions, home of clotted cream, thatch, church spires, folksong, hobby horses and Cecil Sharp. Yet the area was trading with Mediterranean Europe before the Romans. For many years Bristol was the centre of the slave trade, and many of its great mansions were built on the proceeds of slavery. Great swathes of land in Dorset, Wiltshire and Devon are still used by the military and are off-bounds to visitors. And within the West Country is the special case of Celtic Cornwall, and the even more remote Isles of Scilly. People lived in the West Country long before Britain, or England, were invented. From the great stone circles of Avebury and Stonehenge in Wiltshire to the menhirs of Cornwall, and the wealth of prehistoric remains on the Isles of Scilly, this has always been an inhabited landscape, crafted by men and women working closely with nature and natural forces. John Payne explores this culturally rich and varied region, revealing many facets of its distinctive and much-loved identity.
Here is a unique guide book that takes us on a journey across the rural and urban landscapes of Britain, and helps us to discover and explore a multitude of sacred sites: ancient stone circles and tombs, Christian and pre-Christian shrines, medieval synagogues, small country churches and much more.
Pilgrimage was an integral part not only of medieval religion but medieval life, and from its origins in the 4th-century Meditteranean world rapidly spread to northern Europe as a pan-European devotional phenomenon. Drawing upon original source materials, this text seeks to uncover the motives of pilgrims and the details of their preparation, maintenance, hazards on the route, and their ideas about pilgrimage sites - especially Jerusalem, Compostela and Rome - and gives an account of the multiplicity of interest which grew up around the many shrines along the way. The period covered is from about 1000 AD to 1500 AD - before the first crusade and the beginning of the great growth in pilgrimage in the Orthodox church, Byzantine of Russia. The bibliography includes printed sources and a listing of secondary works.
