Pilgrims will be saddened to learn of the death of Bill Ward on Maunday Thursday, 28th March. Geoff Murray gave me the news and told me that Bill had sadly been suffering from Alzheimer’s Disease and he had been in a nursing home for the last 16 months.

Bill was a regular on our pilgrimage from 1991 into the 2010s. He loved our pilgrimages and was a much-loved figure. Many will remember the prayer stops that he led, full of wisdom.

Here are some photos to remind us of Bill. The last one was captured on the 2004 Crawley Reunion that he organised and shows him with his son and future daughter-in-law.

Terry’s funeral will be held on Friday March 15th 11:30am at St Joseph’s Catholic Church, Redhill RH1 1LF.

Pilgrims will be saddened to learn of the death of Terry Dobson on Sunday 18th February.

Terry’s first pilgrimage with us was in 1987 and he was a regular for the next 20 years.

Here are some photos to remind us of Terry:

NEW ON-LINE BOOKING

You will have seen yesterday’s announcment that bookings are open for our 2024 pilgrimage. If you followed the link, you will have learnt that this year we have a new online booking form. This collects all the required information that previously went on the paper forms, but does not include the actual payment. Rather, instructions are given for how to make payment via online banking (preferred) or a good old fashioned cheque. Many thanks to our webmaster Aidan for setting all this up.

Please get your booking in early or else you might be disappointed . We are putting more effort into publicity this year to try and attract new pilgrims. Once capacity is reached, bookings will be closed.

POSTERS

We have also now released our posters for this pilgrimage: the main poster, an inkjet-printer-friendly alternative poster, and an image for social media. Please distribute these to groups you think might be interested in our pilgrimage, electronically or physically.

PUBLICITY

We have come up with the some words as a suggested entry for parish newsletters, walking group newsletters etc. The idea is to make it easy for newsletter editors; they don’t have to come up with their own words but can use the words in the following paragraph:

All are welcome to join the Heart of England Walking Pilgrimage from Worcester to Peterborough, 10th to 25th August 2024.   The route takes in Worcester, Coventry and Peterborough cathedrals, Rutland Water and much splendid countryside.  There are rest days in Warwick and Market Harborough.  The organisers are the Diocese of Arundel and Brighton ecumenical walking group who have run an annual pilgrimage since 1975 in different parts of England and Wales.  Come with us and experience walking as part of our travelling Christian community, whether for a fortnight or just an afternoon!  The cost is £350 to walk with us all the way, or £33 per night to book a shorter spell (£31 per night for 7 days or more, 25% discount for under 21s).  To find out more and book your place, visit www.thepilgrims.org.uk/book

Please send these words out to suitable newsletter editors or webmasters that you know! Feel free to adapt them to suit the particular audience.

WEBSITE CHANGES

We have introduced two categories of posts. Yesterday’s “Bookings are Open” post was a public-facing post and as such it is listed under Announcements on the home page of the website. The post that you are reading now is an internal-facing post and is not listed under Announcements; rather you have to click on Latest News to see it. This has been done to counter feedback received that our website appears to be too introspective, highlighting news that is interesting to past pilgrims but not to prospective new pilgrims. Both categories of posts continue to be emailed to all subscribers when published on the website.

THE HEART OF ENGLAND PILGRIMAGE PLANNING UPDATE

All the halls were recce’d and booked before Christmas. Congratulations and thanks to the team of Bruce, Penny, Richard and Chris. Meanwhile Bruce is claiming a day route planning record . He walked Worcester to Inkberrow in October. Is this the earliest ever? Bruce did this at risk, though, as the day had not been allocated to him yet!

The time of the funeral has been changed to 12 noon when the larger chapel at the crematorium is available. The other details remain the same. I have corrected the details in the previous post.

We have been informed that all are welcome at Joan’s funeral which will take place on Mon 22nd Jan at 12 noon at the Surrey and Sussex Crematorium (Balcombe Road, Crawley, RH10 3NQ) followed by refreshments at Reigate Baptist Church (Sycamore Walk, Woodhatch, Reigate RH2 7LR).

There is a funeral notice here.

Maurice advises that pilgrims arriving by public transport can catch a train to Gatwick Aiport, and then Metrobus number 3 at 1131 which starts from the A23 stop outside Gatwick South Terminal and gets to the Crematorium at 1142 in time for the funeral ceremony.

Pilgrims will be very saddened to learn of the death of Joan Gale. On the 27th of December, Maurice Hickman informed us as follows: “Some very sad news was related to me by a former pilgrim who lives in my parish, Anne O’Donnell.  She told me that Joan died this morning in East Surrey Hospital.  Apparently unbeknown to me she had been unwell for some time.”

There is a funeral notice here.

Joan first came on our pilgrimages in the early 1990s as one of the burgeoning Redhill contingent. She remained a regular into the 2010s and introduced several of her friends to the pilgrimage. She was one of those pilgrims who was the life and soul of the party. In recent years she was no longer walking with us but continued to come and meet the pilgrims, most recently on the final Sunday morning of the Bristol to Arundel pilgrimage 2023, when she joined us for coffee after mass, and she seemed in fine fettle then.

Here are some photos to remind us of the good times Joan shared with us:

Our accommodation team have done sterling work and halls are booked for all of our 2024 pilgrimage from Worcester to Peterborough via Coventry. So it’s time to start planning the walking routes between those halls, for which we need volunteers!

If you would like to plan a day’s walk on the pilgrimage, please let me know as soon as possible. I have a few names already, but don’t assume you are on my list!

The list of days is shown below. The shaded days are already allocated. You can express a preference for day or area, but it’s not guaranteed.

Most days are similar in length (12-15 miles) but the days either side of Market Harborough are likely to be shorter.

If you’ve not planned a pilgrimage day before, you may like to team up with an experienced planner first time around.

If you’re a regular route planner but ant a year off, let me know so I wont hassle you further!

Any questions, do get in touch.

Aidan

Date	From	To
Sun 11th	Worcester	Inkberrow
Mon 12th	Inkberrow	Henley-in-Arden
Tues 13th	Henley-in-Arden	Warwick
Weds 14th or Thurs 15th	Warwick	Coventry
Fri 16th	Coventry	Rugby
Sat 17th	Rugby	Husbands Bosworth
Sun 18th	Husbands Bosworth	Market Harborough
Tues 20th	Market Harborough	Hallaton
Weds 21st	Hallaton	Oakham
Thurs 22nd	Oakham	Stamford
Fri 23rd	Stamford	Peterborough

The invitation / booking form for the reunion is now ready. This is our first 2-night Autumn reunion since 2019. The walk includes Beachy Head and the lunch venue is an old pilgrimage favourite, the Tiger Inn at East Dean. Since the reunion is only 3 weeks away, please respond to the invitation as soon as possible if you are coming. The form is to be filled in by hand and posted, but please email also to say the form is in the post. Also please email if you are planning on going on the walk only. We hope to share the fun and fellowship of the reunion with past, present and future pilgrims.

John (not me!), Gary and Maurice are kindly organising a pilgrimage “reunion”, based in John’s home parish of Christ the King, Eastbourne. This will be the traditional pilgrimage reunion format of 2 nights in a hall, with a walk and evening meal on the Saturday. All are welcome, especially those who have not been on one of our pilgrimages before!

Hold the dates for now and the details and booking form will be available as soon as possible.