Pilgrims along the 220-mile route from Southampton to Canterbury
Credit: Jeff Gilbert/Alamy
After more than a year of living under the cloud of Covid – when one walk a day was our only officially permitted exercise – this bank holiday weekend, you might understandably decide you are sick of walking. But how about a walk that isn’t just a walk, but a pilgrimage?
In pre-Covid times, there was nothing nicer than to go for a long walk on a bank holiday with the promise of a pint at the end of it. But when lockdown restrictions closed the pubs, necessity gave rise to an alternative reason to stretch our legs, so why not a nice walk with a place of worship at the end of it? Thus, to give purpose and meaning to that daily perambulation, people began inviting friends to pack sandwiches and a hip flask for a stroll to a nearby church or chapel – a pastime that has since been dubbed ‘churchwalking’. If the interiors were out of bounds, at least the building could be admired and