Thanks to Chaucer and his Canterbury Tales, the path along the North Downs to Thomas Becket’s shrine in Canterbury Cathedral is the most famous pilgrim route in the world. Yet there is another Canterbury pilgrim path that is 600 years older, now revived as the Augustine Camino, which runs from Rochester via Canterbury to Ramsgate. It venerates St Augustine, who brought Christianity to Kent in AD 597, and leads to a new shrine in Ramsgate, dedicated to him in 2012. There are many other Kent pilgrim paths, including the recently rediscovered Old Way, which approaches Canterbury from the south west, and takes in the lovely pilgrim churches of Romney Marsh. Another, the Royal Saxon Way, features the shrine of the seventh-century St Eanswythe, in Folkestone’s parish church. In this book Andy Bull, who has been researching Britain’s pilgrim paths for many years, explores these and other pilgrim routes in Kent and the historic places and people associated with them.Kent’s Pilgrim Routes: A History of Paths, Places and People will appeal to all those who enjoy walking and exploring Britain’s heritage. Through this book readers and walkers today can explore the full breadth of Kent’s rich pilgrim history and the fascinating history to be discovered en route.
