Seb's Pilgrimage
From the city to Deptford
To start our journey goodwife Rose and I, together with my friend Kit and our children, loaded into a small cart with our baggage, set off from home close by St Paul's Cathedral and crossed London bridge to the seedy streets of Southwark and the Pilgrim's meeting place of Tabard's Inn.
The Tabard was established in 1307 and stood on the east side of Borough High Street, at the road's intersection with the ancient Roman Road, Watling Street to Canterbury and Dover. Famous for accommodating people who made the pilgrimage to the Shrine of Thomas Becket in Canterbury Cathedral, and it is mentioned in the 14th-century Canterbury Tales.
Deptford is an area on the south bank of the River Thames some three and a half miles southeast of London Bridge now in the Royal Borough of Greenwich. It is named after the 'Deep' ford of the River Ravensbourne. Deptford and its docks are associated with the knighting of Sir Francis Drake by Elizabeth I aboard the Golden Hind, the legend of Sir Walter Raleigh laying down his cape for her, and the mysterious apparent murder of Christopher Marlowe a century after Seb's visit.
Tabard Inn Southwark mid 19th century
Seb's route from London Bridge to Canterbury
Shooter's Hill
This is the modern view of central London from Shooter's Hill - The Shard stands at the southern end of London Bridge and can be clearly seen, almost 8 miles away. Shooters Hill is in the Royal Borough of Greenwich and lies north of Eltham Palace visited by Seb Foxley on the first day of his Pilgrimage in The Colour of Sin.
At 309.6 metres (1,016 feet) The Shard is the tallest building in England; with a height of 132 metres (433 ft), Shooters Hill is one of the highest points in Greater London. In 1480 the highest structure would have been the spire of old St Paul's Cathedral where Seb sings in the choir, the height of which is estimated as 489 feet (149 m)
Seb admired the view saying "Off to the west, the sun was sinking, casting golden light across the land. In the distance, it glittered on water, turning the Thames into a gilded serpent. It sparked on pinnacles and towers: the churches and fortresses of London. Highest of all was the spire of St Paul’s, picked out in gleaming gold. At home, that spire seemed to touch the heavens but, at this distance, it was but a gleaming spindle point."
Samuel Pepys visited Shooters Hill on 11th April, 1661, he wrote "Mrs. Anne and I rode under the man that hangs upon Shooter's Hill between the eighth and ninth milestones on the Dover road and a filthy sight it was to see how his flesh is shrunk to his bones." It was a notorious haunt of highwaymen, the custom was to leave the bodies of criminals hanging until the bones as a warning to others.
But Celia Fiennes, in 1697, enjoyed the view but had a different name for it: "Shuttershill, on top of which hill you see a vast prospect …some lands clothed with trees, others with grass and flowers, gardens, orchards, with all sorts of herbage and tillage, with severall little towns all by the river, Erith, Leigh, Woolwich etc., quite up to London, Greenwich, Deptford, Black Wall, the Thames twisting and turning it self up and down bearing severall vessells and men of warre on it
Dartford Kent
this is the real St George wall painting, in the real Holy Trinity Church at the bottom of East Hill by the River Darent in Dartford Kent which was really painted in around 1480, and as painted by the fictional limner Miles Paynter and admired by our
Gravesend Kent
this was the Three Choughs public house in Gravesend, Kent, where a poor wife is subjected to a ducking on the ducking stool. Coincidently, the Three Choughs was the coat of arms of Thomas Becket (another name for the bird is a 'Becket') and my characters were on pilgrimage to visit the shrine of Becket in Canterbury.
Today the pub, which was call the Three Choughs in the 15th century, is known as The Three Daws and happens to be where my writing group meet for lunch on alternate Tuesdays. When I discovered it had also been the location of the local ducking stool then Seb Foxley and his band of pilgrims had to visit and witness the cruel custom. Originally five cottages built right on the waterfront of the river Thames, they were knocked through to form a public house very early in its history.
Bluebell Hill betwixt Rochester and Boxley Abbey
you may have been surprised by my complaints about the journey from London being so hilly - the issue is the route we chose follows the line of the North Downs, a ridge of chalk hills running east-west from Dover to London - so this is the view that can still be had from Bluebell Hill, across the Weald of Kent to the South Downs in the distance - on their way to Boxley Abbey and onward to Canterbury.
In the book Seb describes the scene as "a tapestry in shades of green, brown and gold against a pale sky with the River Medway appearing occasionally as a silvery skein glimpsed among the naked willows that marked its path"
Boxley Abbey, nearby Maidstone, Kent
This is Boxley Abbey barn, it's clearly visible as you drive by on the M20 in Kent and, originally, this wasn’t a barn but the hospitium, not a hospital but the building in which visitors were given hospitality, so more like a hotel.
And medieval Boxley Abbey had a very famous 'animated' rood screen, you read all about it in my guest blog at https://englishhistoryauthors.blogspot.com/
This is Eastbridge Hospital, Canterbury. It it sits on a bridge across the river Stour has been offering hospitality to pilgrims since the 12th century so naturally it features in my new novel where it is indeed used as a pilgrim's resting place. Read all about it in my next guest blog here https://thefreelancehistorywriter.com/
