Last week (June 3), in a steady drizzle and with the bracing wind sweeping off the estuary, Lizzie and I arrived in Southampton, UK. at the end of our six day pilgrimage along the 110km St James Way. Despite the wet ending, we thoroughly enjoyed it and would definitely recommend it to anyone. It was a great challenge and a pleasant and varied walk through the English countryside.
This is a short account of our walk as first-time pilgrims. I’m thinking that it may be particularly interesting for anyone planning to complete the St James Way, or, in fact, any long distance walk for the first time – and, maybe, if you weren’t planning it, it might encourage you to do so.
Background to the St James’ Way
The English St James’ Way is part of the European network of pilgrimage routes that ultimately converge on Santiago de Compostela in North-West Spain.
In the last few years, in the UK, the Confraternity of St James, have established the St James Way route from Reading (the medieval centre of the cult of St James) to Southampton (a port historically used by pilgrims to reach the Continent in order to complete their journey to Santiago). It is a substantial walk in its own right, but it also accredited as the “first leg” of the Camino Inglรฉs. Modern ‘pilgrims’ can then travel to Spain to complete the second part of the camino to Santiago de Compostela, typically from A Corลซna.
The tomb of St James in Santiago was one of the main pilgrimage destinations in the Middle Ages, attracting pilgrims from all around Europe, including England. The Camino de Santiago pilgrimage concept was rebooted in the 1980s and now, each year, hundreds of thousands of ‘pilgrims’ follow a number of Camino routes across Europe to reach Santiago de Compostela.
We really liked the idea of completing a walk with all the associated history of the Camino. However, not having done anything like this before, we thought it would be wise to do this first leg to Southampton and then see how it goes. We do plan to complete the journey to Santiago de Compostela at a later date, but in any case, the St James Way was well worth completing in its own right. At 110km, we found it quite manageable over six days.
The Pilgrim Guide to St James’ Way
The Confraternity of St James provide a Pilgrim Guide to St James Way, which we found really helpful, both while walking and also with our preparation beforehand. The guide breaks the route down into six days of walking. We are reasonably fit and healthy, and walk regularly, although not used to walking 10+ miles per day on a regular basis, so we thought six days was about right for us . However, we did change the daily distances from those suggested in the guide to fit the accommodation we’d chosen.
The guide provides a detailed description of the route, which was more than sufficient to follow without a map. (The route was also liberally signposted with the blue “Camino Inglรฉs to Santiago” stickers). I don’t propose to repeat that detail here, so if you want to do the walk it’s worth buying the official Pilgrim Guide (and contributing to the work of the CSJ at the same time).
Day 0 Reading
Our pilgrimage actually started a day before setting off. We drove to Reading the afternoon before because we wanted to visit Reading Museum. The official start of the St James’ Way is at the St James Church in Reading, but it is the museum that keeps a list of all the pilgrims heading off. As it doesn’t open until 10am, we decided to sign in the day before (and have a quick look around the museum), so we could head off earlier the next day.
We also received our first camino stamp in our ‘pilgrim passport’ from the museum.
One feature of the Camino de Santiago is that you can collect stamps from various outlets/churches along the route on a pilgrim passport (bought from the museum or, as we did, ordered online from the CSJ). These stamps provide a bit of a fun way to mark your progress (and encourage you to engage with the locals). Also, if you wish to receive a certificate of completion or Compostela, at Southampton and/or Santiago, then you need to show your completed pilgrim passport as evidence of completing the camino..
We stayed in the Ibis Reading Central, which was not only a functional and affordable stay, but also in a perfect location for the start of the walk. A short stroll from the museum along Friar Street. There were plenty of food options in Reading and we had an exceptional meal at Madras Flavours South Indian vegetarian restaurant.
Day 1 Reading to Burghfield Common (9.5 miles)
The next day, we grabbed some snacks from the local supermarket as soon as it opened at 7am and set off for Southampton. It was the tail end of the Whitsun heatwave, so we were expecting the temperatures to be in the high twenties (as they were). The original plan was to start early and take breaks as needed. In the end, we took few breaks, deciding to plough on to get to our next stop before the heat of the afternoon really hit.
The start did take a while to get going. We wound through the centre of Reading, with the obligatory photo of the unassuming official starting notice at St James Church and a browse around the Abbey ruins. Then we hit the River Kennet, which led us through the Oracle riverside retail and leisure area and out into the Berkshire countryside.
It was an easy and pleasant stroll following the river for most of the morning and we were soon emerging at Sheffield Bottom, 2/3 of our day complete. We dropped into the Fox and Hounds to receive our second camino stamp and a spot of lunch. It is a nice pub and just about the only option for food since Reading (handy for them and us).
The last few miles of the day meandered through the countryside. Some on quiet roads, but I liked the way the route preferred various local footpaths, across a nature reserve and fields, to gradually bring us in to Burghfield Common.
We’d booked The Loft (a self-contained annexe on a house in a quiet cul-de-sac) in Burghfield Common and were delighted to find it was just off the route. Having not walked 10 miles in a day for a while (and certainly not with rucksacks on our backs), our legs were feeling it by then, especially with the early afternoon heat.
We had enough energy to pop to the Tesco Express to stock up on supplies for dinner and breakfast (The Loft has a well equipped kitchenette for cooking) and then were very happy to just relax in the cool of the apartment for the rest of the day.
Day 2 Burghfield Common to Pamber End (10 miles)
Taking advantage of having a stove at The Loft, we decided to treat ourselves to a cooked breakfast before setting off on the second day. After breakfast and a short stroll through some woodland later, we arrived in Mortimer for our first checkpoint at the friendly Baobob gift/tea shop.
We picked up another pilgrim stamp and stopped for a quick drink, before heading off, mostly over a series of fields. An hour later, we arrived in Silchester and spent a little time looking at the Roman city remains and information boards
We also located our first church pilgrim stamp at St Mary the Virgin Church. The guidebook handily points out churches (like St Mary’s) that are usually open and have a stamp you can use yourself, and also those churches that are usually shut and require you to arrange in advance to get a stamp. We didn’t bother with the latter. We didn’t see much need to make special arrangements, when there are plenty of other places to get stamps.
It’s not necessary to get a stamp at every location of course. If you intend to get the Compostela certificate in Santiago, you only need two stamps per day but only for the last 100km (so from Winchester if you intend to walk from A Corลซna in Spain). It is interesting to see the variety of stamps though and to see your progress at the end. We got pretty much all of the ones that were available.
The St James church stamp at Bramley, our next stop, was particularly unusual – in that it filled a whole page of the Pilgrim Passport. We also met another St James Way pilgrim there. We didn’t see any others on the walk, but the visitors book showed a few had gone through recently. Visitors books in the churches en route were another nice feature, where other pilgrims often added brief comments.
With the afternoon heat rising, we were grateful for some shadier wooded sections in the final part to the day’s walk to Pamber End. At Pamber End, we emerged onto the main road, and easily found a bus stop, as the guide had indicated. We assumed that the nearby town of Basingstoke would offer more variety for food and cheaper accommodation, so we took a detour from the route to get a bus in. Buses went regularly along this road, so it is easy to bus in to Basingstoke and back to Pamber End to continue the walk.
We checked in to The Red Lion hotel at Basingstoke and grabbed another excellent meal at Chennai Express,
Day 3 Pamber End to Preston Candover (14 miles)
The Red Lion was a decent hotel, but possibly not the best on a Saturday night in what is apparently the area to be in Basingstoke, especially with the nearby karaoke bar going on until 2am in the morning. After a couple of day’s walking too, it was a sluggish start to our Sunday morning, although another cooked breakfast from the hotel’s buffet helped motivate us!
Once back walking, we soon got into our stride and before long were at Worting, where we picked up a few snacks to keep us going from a local supermarket. The next section was mostly long straight bridle/cycle routes, through some housing and over the odd railway/road bridge. It wasn’t too long before we arrived at Dummer, where we stopped in at the Queen Inn for a drink and stamp.
Sitting in the beer garden at the Queen Inn on another sunny afternoon, we were very tempted to stop for their Sunday lunch, but decided to keep going rather than get complacent (plus we had our snacks anyway).
An hour or so later, after various cross field paths, we arrived at that day’s destination of Preston Candover. There are many pretty country churches along the Way, but the remains of the old church of St Mary the Virgin at Preston Candover was rightly described as “a treasure” by the guide. After a quick look at that, we walked up into the village, passing the new pub, The Candover opened just three days before.
Our accommodation at Hectors House was just a bit further up opposite the community store. Hectors House provides either camping or a double room in the house (our option) and belongs to Carolyn, who is an enthusiastic supporter of the Camino. She was also a friendly and engaging host. She cooked us a wonderful vegan evening meal, which we shared with her. It was definitely the best accommodation experience of the week.
Day 4 Preston Candover to Itchen Abbas (13.5 miles)
The next day, Carolyn provided us with breakfast and showed us the village store, where we stocked up on snacks for the day. As the guide pointed out, it was the last shop for 8 miles, as the next stretch was particularly rural, with a wonderful variety of paths through wheat fields, tree-lined tracks and a long straight section of the Oxdrove Way.
At Old Alresford, we gate-crashed a coffee morning at the Church of St Mary the Virgin and were welcomed warmly with a cup of tea, and the obligatory camino stamp.
Then it was down into the UK’s watercress capital (apparently). A bit of a photo stop at the Watercress Line railway station and out of New Alresford alongside various watercress beds.
Eventually we picked up the River Itchen, which would guide us south on and off for the next few days. To finish the day a slight detour took us away from the river, albeit directly up and over a small hill, to arrive in Itchen Abbas and our next night’s stop at the Plough pub.
By the end of our day’s walk (3pm), we were tired, but I think the slightly shorter days on the first two days was a good strategy. After four days walking, our legs were far less tired even after walking the 14 mile stretches. We were happy not to have to trek out in search of food though, and had a delicious meal in the Plough’s restaurant.
Day 5 Itchen Abbas to Eastleigh (14 miles)
We had a damp start to Day 5, but the temperature had also dropped to something more comfortable, which we appreciated. The route from Itchen Abbas went through some pretty tree-lined paths, across some fields and even alongside the motorway for a period.
We also picked up the River Itchen (in it’s multiple streams) again. The riverside paths were fairly dry but often overgrown with vegetation. Nothing that couldn’t be waded through, but we did appreciate having our waterproofs on as we brushed through the nettles.
By mid-morning, we left the river and headed down into the city of Winchester. We treated ourselves to brunch in a cafe and then popped into the cathedral to collect a stamp. The cathedral staff are very pro-pilgrim and were keen for us to view the inside of the cathedral briefly(especially the shrine of St Swithun). It is an impressive structure inside and out and well worth a look, particularly as Pilgrim Passport holders are allowed in without charge.
The Way takes you through Winchester and the guide provides an interesting commentary on various sites of interest along the way. Eventually we were back out to the Itchen and hacking our way through the undergrowth once again.
We diverted out from the river once slightly to pick up a stamp and a vegan sorbet at Platform 1 , at Shawford railway station. Otherwise it was just a case of following the river south. At Bishopstoke bridge, it is a simple 1/2 mile walk along the road to the handy Eastleigh Central Travelodge, where we spent our last night of the walk.
Day 6 Eastleigh to Southampton Quay (7.5 miles)
With only 71/2 miles to go, we got up early on our last day, grabbed some cereal bars from the Sainsbury’s next to the Travelodge and headed off to Southampton, with the intention of getting there in time for brunch.
After the short walk to Bishopstoke, we were back to following the river as it’s various channels meandered through the countryside until it widened out into something more substantial on the outskirts of Southampton.
The Way brought us through the outskirts of the city and almost to the doorstep of Cafe Thrive, a plant-based cafe we wanted to try out. We stopped in for a celebratory Full Thrive Breakfast, which was great anyway, but all the better for being at the end of our 68 mile pilgrimage!
Brunch over, we dragged on our soaked waterproofs once again and strolled down the High St to formally complete our pilgrimage at the quay.
The guide (2024 edition) records God’s House Tower as the endpoint of the St James Way (and the end of the first leg of the Camino Inglรฉs, to Santiago). However, when we reached there, it was shut. A sign did say it was still open during renovations, but we couldn’t rouse anybody, which was a little anti-climatic.
The guide does list a few other places in Southampton though, and we trekked on around to the Tudor House and Garden, who congratulated us enthusiastically. We did have the option to get our St James Way certificate there, but we don’t really have anywhere to keep such things (not having a permanent house). Instead we bought a camino badge each as a commemoration of the trip, and then had a final celebratory drink in the Tudor House cafe.
Reflections on Pligrimage
So, did we complete a long-distance walk or engage in a pilgrimage? Mostly the former, I would say, but I do like the idea of being part of a pilgrimage tradition that has centuries of history behind it. We deliberately chose to walk the St James Way, rather than any other path because there is that extra element to it, and now we’ve completed the “first leg” we are keen to head over to Spain, to complete our journey to Santiago de Compostela.
I am curious to visit the site that has attracted so many medieval and modern day pilgrims, even though my non-conformist worldview flinches at some of the religiosity surrounding the veneration of relics etc. However, even if it’s implausible that the body of the first-century apostle James was magically transported to Santiago and ‘discovered’ 800+ years after his death, I get that it does provide meaning for others, both religious and not.
I do respect the notion of pilgrimage. As I see it anyway. The idea of walking meaningfully, to put the everyday material world aside for a time and focus on nourishing our spiritual life, seems a positive and productive use of time to me.
Lizzie and I did use the time to specifically reflect on things other than the usual day-to-day. Walking all day is a great opportunity to reflect and to chat about anything and everything. We selected broad daily topics to drive that reflection. I also took a break from social media for the week to help focus.
All in all, I can’t say that the walk substantially transformed my life, and I don’t expect the final pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela to do so either, but I would say that on the whole I feel healthier, both spiritually and physically, for having completed it. It has certainly inspired me to do more in future. Buen camino!
4 responses to “Pilgrims For The First Time – Walking The St James’ Way”
Hi Pete,
I’ve enjoyed reading Lizzie’s Facebook reflections of your walk. And now to read yours. I only wish my feet would let me cover the route on foot, but I think I am going to collect my stamps by driving. At least I will know where my guests have been before they get to Preston Candover
Hi Carolyn, sounds a good plan ๐
Thanks again for your hospitality en route.
Thank you for your interesting account. I was wondering if you left your car in Reading or did you you travel to Reading by train?
Hi Janet, we were fortunate that a friend offered a space on her drive to park our van in Reading. We left it there and got the train back at the end.