Natural Heritage
Guardians: Pilgrimages
The Weald Pilgrimages
The Weald is an area of South East England between the parallel chalk escarpments of the North and the South Downs. It crosses the counties of Hampshire, Surrey, West Sussex, East Sussex and Kent.
The name "Weald" is derived from the Old English weald, meaning "forest" coined at a time when Southern England was covered in woodland.
An important aspect of the work of building guardian communities, is strengthening a sense of the natural world as sacred. We at Guardians believe that sacredness elevates the natural world to a position of utmost respect. Whilst many so-called 'traditional' or 'indigenous' cultures defend a sense of nature as sacred, modern society has, on the whole, lost that connection with the sacred world. Once natural world is allowed to be bought or sold, it can no longer be sacred. The need to regenerate practices that value the sacred is vital to establish deep relations of respect and reciprocity between people and the land. Pilgrimages are an important way of valuing local heritage. Pilgrimages are both an inner journey and a physical movement through ancestral, spiritual, and cultural landscapes.
Pilgrims Way
Welcome to the Pilgrims Way, the oldest track in Britain.
Guardians pilgrimage in 2022
The Pilgrims' Way is the historical route taken by pilgrims from Winchester to the shrine of Thomas Becket at Canterbury in Kent. The route is much older than that, though, and archaeological evidence shows that this particular way was used by Neanderthal humans, even before the arrival of sapiens in the British Isles. The actual trackway itself was dated by archaeological finds to 600–450 BC, but it was probably in existence since the Stone Age. The prehistoric route followed the natural causeway east to west on the southern slopes of the North Downs. The course is dictated by the natural geography as it takes advantage of the contours of the land, avoiding the sticky clay of the land below. The Pilgrim's Way has been the subject of literature and poetry for centuries, going back of course to Chaucer's Canterbury Tales from circa 1387.
Cuckmere Pilgrim Path
The Cuckmere Pilgrim's path was established in 2018 in recognition of the ancient tracks connecting market villages in the Weald with the East Sussex coastal area via the River Cuckmere. The official pilgrimage connects several old churches and chapels found along this route such as St Andrew's in Alfriston The walk includes several non-Christian sites such as the Long Man of Wilmington and the Littlington Horse, both of which are iconic chalk carvings on the hillsides along the South Downs. These carvings were created in relatively recent times to honour pre-Christian roots in the region. The Cuckmere River crosses the Low Weald in East Sussex, along the South Downs National Park and across several areas designated as Sites of Special Scientific Interest. The Cuckmere is unique for many reasons. She enjoys the only undeveloped river mouth on the Sussex coast. She is the most meandering river in the Southeast. She holds many spiritual sites and places of pilgrimage. The Cuckmere is highly vulnerable to coastal flooding, rising sea levels and climate change, which is why the fauna, flora and human communities that this river system supports are in present danger. The Cuckmere River is an ideal way to appreciate the life-giving force of rivers-- a cycle to connect with the lore, memory and future of the ancient Weald.
Storytelling by the Long Man of Wilmington with Emma Beard, and a talk on the ecology of the Cuckmere River with National Trust ranger Lee Walther