there is not much time left so PLEASE BOOK IN NOW

Dear Pilgrims,

Following Covid, many pubs have had last minute cancellations and no-shows and have imposed stricter requirements for groups visiting.  The pubs that are hosting our lunch breaks on the Mini Pilgrimage all require pre-orders for food.  When you have booked to join the Mini Pilgrimage, the pub menus will be circulated to you to make food choices.  The lists of pre-ordered food will then be sent to the pubs on the no-later-than dates below (note as pubs will be busy any last minute orders will go to the bottom of their list and will not be prepared until all pub bookings have been catered for). 
Whilst it is not essential to buy pub food, please note that your own food should be eaten off the pub premises. Pubs are usually flexible if pilgrims just want drinks.

George & Dragon at Houghton, Sat 30th April  Your pre-ordered food is required by the pub no later than Sat 16th April. Our meals will be served altogether at the set time of 12.45pm in the Function Room which has been reserved for us.   Please indicate any dietary intolerances of food allergies when ordering.

Noah’s Ark at Lurgashall, Sun 1st May Your pre-ordered food is required by the pub no later than Tues 26th April. Our meals will be served at a reserved table in the Beer Garden Tent.   Please indicate any dietary intolerances or food allergies when ordering.  There is a nearby village green and church for those who wish to consume their own sandwiches.

Wheatsheaf at Bramley, Mon 2nd May Your pre-ordered food is required by the pub no later than Mon 25th April. The pub is hosting a special lunch time celebration BBQ for us (1hour 30mins).  They especially have asked for pre-orders for vegetarian meals and from those with dietary intolerances or food allergies.

Some years ago we started pulling together information on our past pilgrimages and sharing it online. Part of this was to answer a question about where we had visited most often (Arundel Cathedral was the obvious answer). That gave us a list of all the “waypoints” with their grid references, so why not display them on a map?

We created a mapping page, adding the historic pilgrimages to it and then adding each new pilgrimages after the event, but technology moved on and our solution recently stopped working. Rather than try another sticking plaster on the old code I decided to look at a whole new way of managing the data and generating the maps.

You don’t need to know all the gory technical details (but I’ll add them add the end for the geeks), but you can see the results at http://thepilgrims.org.uk/newmapping/index.html

When the page opens you should see England and Wales with a lot of black dots (places we’ve visited) and coloured lines (the routes we’ve walked). As you zoom in the black dots will split , ultimately into individual locations, and as you zoom out they merge again.

At the top left of the map there are buttons to zoom in and out and a measuring tool (though you can zoom with the mouse wheel or your fingers, depending on your device). Top right there’s a button: it might look like a sandwich but it represents layers and allows you to choose what you see on the map. By default all pilgrimages are shown with the stops (black dots) on top.

Clicking on a black dot should display information on the location and the year(s) we visited it. Clicking on a route line should show the name of the pilgrimage and a link to its diary (and maybe which day it was). However, we’ve found clicking to get info a bit hit-and-miss – it probably works best if you deselect most of the pilgrimages and concentrate on those that are relevant..

You’ll notice the early pilgrimages (1975 to 2006) join the dots with straight lines, but from 2007 we’ve used the detailed routes. A good example is the penultimate day of the two St David’s Pilgrimages between Nolton Haven and Solva: the 2010 route follows the coast but the 1992 route walks on water across the bay!

We’ve also found that some of the grid references (often done by eye from a paper map) are a bit off (Some aren’t even on the detailed route!). I’m fixing some of them in slow time. If you find any real howlers let me know and I’ll prioritise those.

Finally, I found an interesting use for the maps this weekend: I’d been out for a cycle ride on the south side of the South Downs, stopping (as is my habit) at churches I passed. Comparing with the pilgrimage maps I found that 4 of these we’d visited on the pilgrimage: Chalton (1982), Blendworth (1982 and 1989), Up Marden (1989) and East Marden (1989) and could compare the photos in our diaries with the current day, but mostly feel a connection to the pilgrimage.

Hope some of you find this of interest.

The technical stuff:

• Data managed in QGIS
• Published to web using qgis2web plugin
• Routes manipulated in Anquet’s Outdoor Map Navigator
• http://gpx.studio/ used to iron out inconsistencies in GPX files
• GPSUtility used to divide long tracks into individual days
• Original waypoint list in Excel, lat/lon added in PHP and saved to MySQL (the old solution), then exported back to Excel again

Bookings are open for 2022 Ecumenical Pilgrimages

We are inviting you to join one or both of our Ecumenical pilgrimages for this year, as we begin the return to the familiar residential status and walks with overnight sleeping and meals. You will again be welcome to join us for the whole pilgrimage, or maybe several days or just for the day?

Arundel to Guildford UK
‘An Invitation to Pilgrimage’
3-Day Mini Pilgrimage
29th April – 2nd May 2022

St Thomas Way Pilgrimage
‘Walking in a Spirit of thankfulness’
Swansea to Hereford UK
13th-28th August 2022

Booking Forms will be found on our Home page. Places are limited so please book early.

Further details will be found here on Pilgrims Live! and soon also on the Diocesan website Catholic Diocese of Arundel & Brighton. Look out for posters in parishes too.

Last August we managed the Old Way Pilgrimage 2021 Southampton-Rye with non-residential day walks. We met many old friends for the first time since The St Hilda’s Pilgrimage 2019, and made new friends too along the Old Way.

We hope to welcome you all again soon.

David

David Fletcher
DABEWP Coordinator

Pat’s funeral Mass will be at St Joseph’s Redhill at 10am on Wednesday 15th December.

Pilgrims will be saddened to learn of the passing of one of our former pilgrim walkers from the Redhill area. Pat was an active pilgrim between 1991 and 1996, and until the stiles got too high for her.

Pat died on Thursday 25th November. Sarah, her daughter, writes: “I was hoping that you could let any of the pilgrims she walked with know. She truly loved going on the A&B Pilgrimages. We thought she was mad! It gave her such strength and focus after my dad died though. She was always so uplifted when she came home.

Her funeral mass will be in St Joseph’s Redhill, date TBA, hopefully before Christmas.”

If you knew Pat and would like to share memories or a photo, please reply to his posting with a comment. Like some of you I did not know Pat. In looking for something to share in these times, in the Middle Ages it was believed that if a pilgrim died whilst on pilgrimage, they would by-pass purgatory and go straight to heaven. It is a comforting thought to us all on life’s pilgrim journey …

and may Pat rest in eternal peace. Amen

Best wishes

David

Pilgrimage Coordinator

We’ve tracked down a couple of photos of Pat from the 1992 St David’s Pilgrimage.

The web diary for the reunion day is here

Further to the previous post with the reunion invitation, there is now a booking form. Please download it, fill it in, and attach it to the email that you send to  reunion21@thepilgrims.org.uk along with the details requested in the previous post.

Following the “pilgrimage of day walks” this year, we are celebrating with a one-day reunion in Caterham on Saturday 30th October 2021.

Please join us for the A&B Ecumenical Walking Pilgrimage Reunion Walk. We will start at the Church of the Sacred Heart, Essendene Road, Caterham CR3 5PA where there is a car park. Please gather at 9.30 am for a 10 am prompt start. We will follow a circular walk around the outside of Caterham including the London Loop, the Downlands Circular Walk and the North Downs Way. We will stop for a pub lunch between 12 and 1 pm at The Harrow Inn, 235 Stanstead Road Chaldon CR3 6AJ. We will return to the Church of the Sacred Heart for a Reunion Service at 5 pm. We will go for a meal afterwards at The New Caterham Arms, 83A Coulsdon Road, Caterham CR3 5NF at 6 pm 

If you plan to come to the reunion, please e-mail organiser John Doyle on reunion21@thepilgrims.org.uk and let him know:

• That you’re coming
• What you’d like to order for lunch at the Harrow from this menu
• Whether you intend to stay for the evening meal at The New Caterham Arms

The deadline for food orders at The Harrow is Tuesday 26th October.

Also please download this booking form, fill it in, and attach it to the email that you send to John.

Fittingly for a pilgrimage of day walks, the reunion will also be a day walk. Hold the date of Saturday 30th October 2021. Details will follow when they are ready.

Since the completion of the pilgrimage, Aidan and I have tidied up the web diary so it is worth another look:

http://www.thepilgrims.org.uk/2021/home.php

All traces of my fingers have been removed from the photos!

Thanks go to Aidan, Danny, Clare, Jim, Veronique, Louise, Fred and Simon for contributing words and pictures.