We’ve learned of the death, on 16th December, of Carol Pritchard (née McMahon). Carol moved to Farnham in the early 70s and was involved in several of Bill Haynes’ youth activities before joining our Pilgrims Way Pilgrimage in 1976 and completing 6 consecutive A&B pilgrimage.
Carol was always keen to catch up with pilgrims, and turned up at several reunions, including the 40-year reunion in Farnham. She was a great singer.
Carol’s funeral will be at the RC Forces Cathedral of St Michael and St George in Aldershot on a date yet to be announced. Everyone who knew Carol will be welcome to attend.
Despite the extreme heat in week 1 and some long days in week 2, the 2025 Jubilee Pilgrimage of Hope successfully reached Eastbourne on 22 August, having visited every deanery in the Arundel & Brighton Diocese, plus the Cathedral, marking 50 years since our first pilgrimage.
Our hall planners had found us decent accommodation, albeit sometimes with limited facilities. The day planners had found clever routes through suburbia (both in Surrey and the south coast) and led us safely through some lovely countryside – the heathland south of Farnham and the Seven Sisters being most dramatic. We were well supported by our caterers (Penny, Hazel, Bruce & Imelda), by John in the Van, and by Clare and Fr Paul who met us on the road – so important in the heat with the risk of heatstroke. We had a good number of pilgrims, each of whom contributes something unique, and lots of day pilgrims (some from local churches, some past pilgrims). Many people came out to meet us and provide refreshments at church stops. Overall a very good pilgrimage.
So now our attention turns to next year! Gary collected suggestions for routes / destinations which were put up for voting on the rest days. These are:
Blackburn to Durham
York to Blackburn
Winchester to Ely
Blackburn to Isle of Man
Norwich
Hereford
Southampton to Canterbury
Offa’s Dyke
If you’ve not already voted, you can express your preference (up to 3 choices) by leaving a comment on this post. These will be added to the votes already recorded, and the AGM will consider the 3 front runners.
Talking of the AGM, we’ve had to move the date, so it is now on Sunday 14th September 2025 at 2pm, as a Zoom meeting. The AGM is open to ALL pilgrims, past and present. If you would like to join, and aren’t on the current committee, please let me know (comment on this post, use “contact the pilgrims”, or e-mail me directly if you have my address). I will share the Zoom link nearer the meeting.
The AGM includes looking back at this year’s pilgrimage (what went well, what we could have done better, etc). You can provide written feedback by email (if you were there you’ll have my email from messages about T shirts, diary, etc).
After the wash-up, I hand over to the new coordinator, Gary, for the discussion about next year.
Please do engage in this process it’s YOUR pilgrimage, not just the committee’s!!
To mark the significance of this year’s 50th Anniversary pilgrimage we’ve decided to produce a commemorative T-shirt. We need to move quickly to ensure they are delivered before the pilgrimage, so if you’re interested please order today – final deadline is 20th July.
The logo for the t-shirt has been designed for us by the diocese, based on ideas from the pilgrimage team. It features a cross with the anchor of hope, an allusion to the hills we walk over, and orange arrows.
This logo will be printed front centre on white T-shirts.
The printers offer many choices, but we are proposing 3 options (below). Sizes are taken from the printers’ website, and each product is linked to their product description.
100% organic cotton T-Shirt in the following sizes: XS 30/32″, S 34/36″, M 38/40″, L 42/44″, XL 46/48″, 2XL 50/52″, 3XL 54/56”, 4XL 58/60”, 5XL 62/64”, 6XL 66/68”
Pricing is dependent on the number of orders, but we hope to keep it down to £15 per shirt, including VAT. Definitely not over £18 without consulting those who’ve ordered.
Ordering: If you would like to order one or more t-shirts, please e-mail t2025@thepilgrims.org.uk quoting your name and the type and size of each shirt. Payment on collection when you join the pilgrimage, but as these are made to order you are making a commitment to pay.
Deadline: In order to receive the shirts before the pilgrimage, we need to place the order on 21 July, so ALL ORDERS MUST BE RECEIVED BY 20 JULY.
We heard from Howard’s wife Alison that Howard passed away peacefully on Wednesday 19th March 2025 with the family around him. Howard had been unwell for some time, but kept in touch with several pilgrims.
I think Howard may have been the first pilgrim to join us having found our website, which we started in 2000. Howard was all set to come and walk with us in 2001, and was a bit put out when we had to cancel that year because of the Foot and Mouth outbreak. But he did join us the following year and was a regular pilgrim over the next 20 or so years. Given the distance from NZ to UK, that probably means Howard travelled more miles over the years to join the pilgrimage that anyone else has or ever will.
It didn’t take Howard long to find out how the pilgrimage works!
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Howard – working as usual, 2002
Howard, leading a reflection in 2003
Or standing in as an arrow…
Howard with Bernie, a year later, same t-shirt!
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In 2005, Howard had had enough and collapsed in someone’s front garden outside Caterham!
Approaching Winchester in 2005, with Rev Chris at a kissing gate, the self-styled “Kissing Fr Christmases”
2006, as van-packer-in-chief
And so we might go on… when I have time to trawl through more of the archives.
We send our prayers and condolences to Alison. May Howard rest in peace.
A memorial gathering will be held 11am 12th April 2025 at RSA Birkenhead, Recreation Drive, Birkenhead, Auckland, NZ.
We’ve learnt of the death on 28 February of Cath Grafen, who walked with us between 1979 and 1981 then 1996 to 2002. In 2000 or 2002 Cath and the late Pat Heffernan earned the nickname the “wrinkly rockets” for their pace, especially in the afternoons.
From 1979 Canterbury 2 Pilgrimage
From 2000 St Chad’s Pilgrimage:
In our 2000 diary I found “Cath Grafen gave a wonderful reflection on her involvement with the pilgrimage, starting as the parent of a pilgrim in 1976, with lots of different experiences on the way, and the love and support of all the pilgrims. We concluded with a chorus of Bind Us Together.”
From 2002 Ss Chad & Cedd Pilgrimage
According to the church website, Cath’s funeral will be held at noon on Friday 28th March 2025 at Sacred Heart, Hove.
We send our prayers and condolences to Cath’s family. May she rest in peace.
Having reviewed the successful conclusion of the Heart of England pilgrimage in August, September’s AGM looked forward to our plans for 2025, the 50th anniversary of the first Arundel and Brighton Diocesan Walking Pilgrimage.
Summer Pilgrimage
Our original aspiration had been to repeat 1975’s “beating the bounds” but that proved too long and after a series of iterations we adopted a proposal for a route which visits each of the Moderated Parishes in the A&B diocese. This proved something of a mathematical optimisation challenge, getting to all 11 parishes with our regular constraints of time and distance, but we have a viable route, one which includes a number of places never or rarely visited before by the pilgrims.
Our vision for 2025 is that people from the local communities will join us as day pilgrims in their own areas, for as far as they wish or feel able.
Although the route is based around our Catholic diocese, we have not forgotten our ecumenical credentials and, as we always do, we will be involving and visiting church communities of all denominations as we progress through Surrey and Sussex.
The proposed route (subject to finding suitable accommodation) is shown in the table below. Moderated parish names are shown in square brackets (see https://www.abdiocese.org.uk/diocese/pastoral-plan)
Date
From
To
Sat 9 Aug 25
Horley [Crawley]
Reigate
Sun 10 Aug 25
Reigate [Redhill]
Epsom
Mon 11 Aug 25
Epsom [Epsom]
Weybridge
Tue 12 Aug 25
Weybridge [Weybridge]
Frimley
Wed 13 Aug 25
Frimley [Woking]
Farnham
Thu 14 Aug 25
Rest Day
Farnham
Fri 15 Aug 25
Farnham [Guildford]
Haslemere
Sat 16 Aug 25
Haslemere [Guildford]
Petworth
Sun 17 Aug 25
Petworth [Cathedral]
Arundel
Mon 18 Aug 25
Arundel [Cathedral]
Worthing
Tue 19 Aug 25
Rest Day
Worthing
Wed 20 Aug 25
Worthing [Worthing]
Brighton
Thu 21 Aug 25
Brighton [Brighton & Hove]
Seaford
Fri 22 Aug 25
Seaford [Lewes]
Eastbourne
Sat 23 Aug 25
Celebration Day
Eastbourne
Sun 24 Aug 25
Eastbourne [Eastbourne & St Leonards]
Home
Proposed 2025 Pilgrimage Route
Any plan is a compromise, and we can’t visit every corner of the Diocese; the proposed route is half in Surrey and half in Sussex and includes the far north of the Diocese where we’ve rarely ventured before.
April Reunion
We also decided that there should be an extraordinary reunion (on a date around 31st March, the 50th anniversary of the start of our first pilgrimage). Just a placeholder at present – anyone who could host such a reunion please make contact!
Anne Leggett invites you to this year’s pilgrimage reunion. It will consist of a day walk only (no overnight stay) starting from Anne’s house, 103 Ladbroke Rd Redhill, Surrey, RH1 1JT. This is 0.3mls North of Redhill railway station almost opposite St Joseph’s Catholic church at the highest point of Ladbroke Rd. Parking for the first 4 cars will be in the drive of the house, then others have permission to park in the St Joseph’s Church car park. Please gather at the house at 9.30am for a 10am prompt start (drink and biscuits will be provided).
Here is a map. The PW in the top right hand corner is St Joseph’s and number 103 is just before it on the other side of the road.
The morning walk will be through Gatton Park (normally only open to paying visitors, but Anne is a gardening volunteer authorised to take you through). Then across to Reigate Hill car park where there is a cafe and toilets.
If wanting a main meal, you must order it in advance from the above menu and if you want to eat in inside, book a table. We have not booked a table as a hefty booking fee is required for a table of more than 5 people. Groups of 5 or fewer pilgrims might want to book a table themselves.
Order food on the spot from the bar snack kiosk in the garden.
Eat own sandwiches on the benches outside the pub on the other side of the road.
The walk is expected to finish between 4pm and 5pm, after which pilgrims might want to attend the 5.30pm vigil mass in St Joseph’s.
If you plan to come to the reunion, please email Anne at reunion@thepilgrims.org.uk ASAP to let her know: (We need to know the numbers needed for Gatton Park access). We will put the pilgrims who have booked in touch with each other so they can organise car shares, lunch table reservations, perhaps plans for an evening meal, amongst themselves.
Diocese of Arundel & Brighton Ecumenical Walking Pilgrimage
