Andy Bull

Thanks to Chaucer and his Canterbury Tales, the path along the North Downs to Thomas Becket’s shrine in Canterbury Cathedral is the most famous pilgrim route in the world. Yet there is another Canterbury pilgrim path that is 600 years older - the Augustine Camino that runs from Rochester via Canterbury to Ramsgate. It venerates St Augustine, who brought Christianity to Kent in 597AD, and takes in the place he landed as well as the two cities where he built cathedrals. In recent years St Augustine’s central place in England’s religious and cultural history has been marked formally by a new shrine dedicated in 2012 to him in St Augustine’s church in Ramsgate. Another pilgrim path is recently re-discovered Old Way, which runs to Canterbury from the south and takes in the lovely pilgrim churches of the Romney Marsh. In this book Andy Bull, who has been researching Britain’s pilgrim paths for many years explores these and many other pilgrim routes in Kent and the historic places and people associated with them.Kent''s Pilgrim Routes: A History of Paths, Places and People will appeal to all those who enjoy walking and exploring Britain’s heritage. Through this book readers and walkers today can explore the full breadth of Kent’s rich pilgrim history and the fascinating history to be discovered en route.

In the late Middle Ages, Walsingham in Norfolk was the most important pilgrim destination in England. Pilgrims travelled here to the shrine to the Virgin Mary from all over the British Isles and Europe, often via Norfolk’s two other great pilgrim places, Norwich and King’s Lynn. Other routes ran within the county, linking other significant pilgrim points including Bromholm Priory, St Benet’s Abbey and Binham Priory. There were also paths from pilgrim ports such as Great Yarmouth, Cromer, Wells and Hunstanton. Along these routes were numerous hermitages, wayside crosses and hostelries catering to pilgrims. When Henry VIII banned pilgrimage and outlawed the veneration of saints, the pilgrims stopped coming and the paths they used were forgotten. Now those paths are being re-established, the pilgrim places rediscovered, and increasing numbers of pilgrims are walking those routes.This book describes those pilgrim paths and places, including the main feeder routes that pilgrims would have taken across the country to reach Norfolk. It features priories and abbeys, pilgrim churches, hostelries and crosses, holy wells, chapels and hermitages as well as stories of historic figures such as the mystics Margery Kempe and Julian of Norwich. Norfolk’s Pilgrim Routes: A History of Paths, Places and People will appeal to all those who enjoy walking and exploring Britain’s heritage. Through this book readers and walkers today can explore the full breadth of Norfolk’s rich pilgrim history and the fascinating history to be discovered en route.

Kew and Brentford are not so much separated by the River Thames as connected through it. The ford here was the first point on the tidal stretch of the great river that could easily be crossed on foot – meaning many travellers have passed through down the centuries, perhaps the most famous being Julius Caesar. Kew has strong royal links and in 1759 Princess Augusta founded Kew Gardens, now known officially as the Royal Botanical Gardens. Today Kew is also famous for the National Archives. Kew and Brentford also have a rich industrial history, from pharmaceutical giants Beechams (and today GlaxoSmithKline) to aircraft manufacturers Sopwith and Handley Page and motor vehicle manufacturers Dodge and Chrysler. In A–Z of Kew and Brentford author Andy Bull reveals the history behind these towns, their streets and buildings, industries and the people connected with them. Alongside the famous historical connections are included some unusual characters, tucked-away places and unique events that are less well-known. Readers will discover tales of painters drawn to this area, the manufacture of Brompton folding bicycles in a railway arch and a notorious Victorian murderer among many other fascinating facts in this A–Z tour of Kew and Brentford’s history. Fully illustrated throughout, this book will appeal to all those with an interest in these historic West London towns.

For centuries, Whitechapel has been at the centre of multicultural Britain. It has offered sanctuary to successive waves of immigrants fleeing religious intolerance, pogroms and poverty: Huguenots from France, Irish, Jews from Eastern Europe and Bangladeshis, each overlaying their own vibrant culture on the area. Whitechapel has been associated with notorious crimes in the past, not least Jack the Ripper, nineteenth-century body snatchers, the Kray twins and other gangsters. Social reformers such as George Peabody and William Booth, who founded the Salvation Army in Whitechapel, have left their legacy on the area.In A–Z of Whitechapel author Andy Bull reveals the history behind the area’s streets, buildings, industries and the people connected with this part of East London. Alongside the famous historical connections, he includes some unusual characters, tucked-away places and unique events that are less well known. Readers will discover tales of Elizabethan theatres and Victorian freak shows, artists and writers, Whitechapel’s connection with Joseph Stalin and the area’s brewing and bell-founding heritage, among many other fascinating facts in this A–Z tour of Whitechapel’s history. Fully illustrated throughout, this book will appeal to all those with an interest in this historic East London district.