The Pilgrims' Way is the route that Pilgrims are meant to have taken between Winchester to Canterbury (although the idea of one route under this name seems to have come about in the Victorian era when surveyor Edward James who was working on the Ordnance Survey map of Surrey published a leaflet in 1871 called Notes on the Pilgrims' Way in West Surrey).
The route follows an ancient track way dated to 500-450BC (although it may have existed in the Stone Ages) and follows the natural causeway east to west on the slopes of the North Downs - a path that was dictated by geography: avoiding the clay and the summits
From 1173-1538 Becket's shrine in Canterbury was the most important Pilgrimage site in England. Winchester was a regional focus, a meeting point for travellers from the south coast seaports and an important ecclesiastical centre and the 'Pilgrims' Way' was the most direct route between the two
The route follows an ancient track way dated to 500-450BC (although it may have existed in the Stone Ages) and follows the natural causeway east to west on the slopes of the North Downs - a path that was dictated by geography: avoiding the clay and the summits
From 1173-1538 Becket's shrine in Canterbury was the most important Pilgrimage site in England. Winchester was a regional focus, a meeting point for travellers from the south coast seaports and an important ecclesiastical centre and the 'Pilgrims' Way' was the most direct route between the two
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