Two Pilgrimages

Pilgrimage is the most essential of medieval studies - that's a conclusion which Tim Porter has drawn from years of reading research and exploration. Religion politics economics travel industry art architecture - pilgrimage opens into all these fields and many more! And it cuts across classes and genders like nothing else because nobody could be denied the vocation if it was held to be genuine.Scores of places had some kind of pilgrimage attached to them: but the Gloucestershire/Worcestershire region was especially rich with a host of saints and shrines reflecting every aspect of the ethos. Hailes and Winchcombe in particular offer in a nutshell so much of what we need to know.