“Through many dangers, toils and snares, I have already come. ‘Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far and grace will lead me home”

The trains that carried me and The Trout (my bicycle loaded with tent, cooking gear and other stuff) from Twyford to my start point in Portsmouth via Reading and Guildford  ran smooth but slow. Giving plenty of time to fret and worry over what was to come. Would I be up to the challenge? How would the bike fare? Had I planned the route wisely? What if the weather turned bad? Would I find places to stay after my planned accommodation ran out, north of London?

Reaching St John’s cathedral, mother church to our little temple in Twyford, I found a calming space. On the way out of the door, my eye was taken by an information piece about the Venerable Mary Potter, a remarkable lady from the Victorian era with connections both in Portsmouth cathedral (my beginning) and Nottingham cathedral (my planned destination). Surely this was a heaven-sent sign!

That first day, setting out from Portsmouth late in the afternoon was a race against time. It ended more or less in a dead heat where I arrived at a farm campsite on the fringes of the South Downs, 6 miles beyond Arundel, just as the sun was setting. I hastily pitched my tent and cooked supper by the light of my head-torch to a soundtrack of a screech owl patrolling the nearby woods. From this hasty start, things became more orderly. Averaging 62K (about 40 miles) a day, I arrived in Nottingham’s St Barnabas’ Cathedral 8 days after setting out, on the afternoon of Sat 13th Sept.

St Barnabas’ Cathedral is a lovely building, designed by the famous Victorian architect Pugin and sitting near the top of a hill rising from the river Trent. From this vantage point I could look back South, in the direction of far-distant Portsmouth from whence I came and recall that I visited 2 Pilgrimage Shrines (Our Lady of Consolation and Our Lady of Willesden), 3 further Cathedrals (Chichester (CoE), St Georges - Southwark, Our Lady & St Thomas of Canterbury - Northampton), and several Churches both Anglican and Catholic. Among the Catholic Churches 2 stood out, St Saviour in Abbots Langley, birthplace of Nicholas Breakspear has a very striking design from outside (sadly closed at the time of my visit) while Our Lady of Victories, Market Harborough is very calm inside, with beautiful and most harmonious stained glass of any English church I can recall. Tthe Old Church (CofE) in Chelsea was shut firmly, so I had to make do with paying my respects to the dedicatee of our Twyford church, at the very fine statue of him nearby. St Thomas More, guide me, help me find the right ways, on this journey and in life!

My route was mostly on quieter roads and lanes, with good use of the cycle-path by the Grand Union canal in some stretches. Pretty much every day included some sections of bridleway/rough tracks, which are enjoyable but can be technically challenging. The best cycling came near the end – Northampton to Market Harborough is entirely on the Brampton Valley trail and leads into small lanes between the villages and hamlets of rural Leicestershire and then Nottinghamshire which brought many beautiful views, funnily enough often located at the top of some rather steep hills!

I camped for 3 nights, crashed on the floor of my daughter’s flat in London, rented a room in a flat in Milton Keynes and champed (camped in a C of E Church!) on other nights. In Northampton, some friendly people at the Cathedral put me in touch with a lovely parishioner Paul, who kindly hosted me for the night. Meeting him and his family, and experiencing their warm welcome towards a stranger, was a real highlight of the trip.

The way was blessed with fine weather, neither too hot nor too cold, and with a decent southerly wind pushing me and The Trout along most days. On the few occasions where rain appeared I managed to dodge it, or cope with the help of my voluminous cape. Thankfully, my first-aid kit and bike repair kit remained unopened. The Trout is not the best looking, nor the sportiest of bikes, but it carried me safely and comfortably over 515 Km from the South Coast to the Heart of England.

The blessing from Fr Kevin in Twyford that first day, which gave me strength of purpose had covered ‘Eoin and his companions’. But I’d not met ‘his companions’ until right at the end, so they were mysterious characters. My last night on the road was “camping” in the Parish Hall at Keyworth Church just a hop and a skip from Nottingham city. There I finally met the walking Pilgrims, from St John’s Way. The shared experience of life on the road is a great connecting factor. The parish at Keyworth looked after us royally, with a fine meal on arrival and breakfast in the morning. After celebrating Mass, the Pilgrim group, their numbers boosted by about 20 ‘day Pilgrims’ set out on the final walk. I joined them for the first couple of miles, turning back after prayers in a small Anglican church, to retrieve the Trout and head for Nottingham.

The welcome at the end from Nottingham was warm and generous; the St John’s way group and the other 3 groups (from Leeds, Cardiff and Norwich) all arrived at the Cathedral and after various photo ops, tea and cake revived the spirits. Later in the afternoon, there was a Liturgy of welcome and in the evening, a ceilidh (sort-of-Irish dancing!) with a supper and a chance to talk over experiences with the other pilgrims. I slept soundly that night, on the floor of one of the Cathedral meeting rooms! Next morning, a ‘High Mass’, celebrating the Feast of the Veneration of the Cross, presided over by Bishop Patrick McKinney, who had walked part of the pilgrimage route.

The cycling was tough in places, England has a lot of hills, some of which are rather steep!  While I ended some days feeling tired, I never failed to find safe rest and awoke refreshed each day. My spiritual life was not as ordered and multi-faceted as the walking pilgrims - I was very impressed to hear of their group prayers and expression of musical talents when I met them finally at Keyworth. But in my own way, I gave thanks often, both in churches and outside them. In the churches I was able to visit I left a ‘flier’ explaining a bit about the Pilgrimage of Hope and my part as a cycle-pilgrim. It’s a small way to spread the message, but maybe it can be like the mustard-seed from the Bible.

Pilgrim journeys to me are a microcosm of “our earthly pilgrimage” from the Liturgy; we start, go through the journey encountering people and events and reach our destination. Reflecting on this journey, I am filled with hope – yes I was apprehensive, even fearful at the start. But by taking the first step and accepting the challenges of such a journey, I received the practical graces needed -  help, support and companionship along the way. The welcome and celebration at the journey’s end more than compensates for trials and tribulations along the way. This is a hopeful lesson to live by!

That such an ambitious event as ‘Pilgrimage of Hope 2025’ can be conceived and delivered so effectively gives me hope at a more general level –a living sign that our faith across the nation is still vibrant and can be expressed in such creative ways is an empowering thought. By participating as a cyclist to this venture, others may be inspired on similar paths. 
 
Thanks be for the strength of body, mind and spirit to take on and complete this journey. Thanks be for the wonderful invention of the bicycle in general and the gift of the Trout in particular. Thanks be for the fair winds, smooth roads and the kindness of all who supported me.

Eoin Sharkey

Further reading:

1)   Hilaire Belloc, The Path to Rome [1902]. I found this book, serendipitously in a corner of my parent’s house. It’s a short book written in a kind of stream-of-consciousness style, recounting how the author decided to walk to Rome from his birthplace, in eastern France. To me, Belloc may be the first ‘modern day Catholic pilgrim’, his book manages to be hilarious, terrifying, informative and spiritually insightful.

2)   All Kinds of Catholics, Ep 68 : link – beautiful sound picture of the entire Pilgrimage of Hope 2025 project – just over 30 minutes long; the podcast host Theresa Alessandro through interviews before, during and after the pilgrimage gives an overview of the project with walkers from 4 cities creating a sign of the cross over England and Wales as they converge on Nottingham.

3)   Photo album link. This is an album of photos recording the journey. Because of a quirk in the way Apple does shareable photo albums, they are not in strict date order, but if gives a sense of life on the road and records some memorable moments.