In September Roger Mechan will drag his 64 year old bones 500 miles over the Pyrenees and along the historic pilgrim way to the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Spain, in aid of the Help for Heroes charity. In the first of a two part series he outlines the history behind the first long distance walk to be designated a European Cultural Heritage route.
A Walk for Heroes by Roger Mechan
Looking out over St Jean-Pied-de-Port towards the Pyrenees. Roger will cross these on the first day.
As a young policeman walking the beat on Plymouth’s Barbican in the 1960s if I had a pound note for every time someone asked, ‘Where can I find HMS Victory, officer?’, I’d be a rich man.
A look of disbelief would be rapidly
followed by one of disappointment when I told the enquiring tourist it was a three hour drive east. At least I was able to point them toward the less grandiose, yet no less historically important, Mayflower steps and Pilgrim house, where America’s Founding Fathers stayed prior to setting sail on the 6th September 1620. What I didn’t know at the time was that these were not the first pilgrims to set off from the Barbican, and that three hundred years before others were setting sail from Plymouth in support of their religious beliefs.
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A reminder of this event can be found on the wall of Lambhay Hill car park, near to Phoenix Wharf. A large golden plaque in the form of a scallop shell commemorates the fact that, from 1390 onwards, a law had been enacted making Plymouth and Dover the only ports from which medieval pilgrims could sail to the northern Spanish port of Corunna, and from there journey 60 miles on foot to pay homage at the shrine of St James, in the cathedral at Santiago de Compostela.
The pilgrimage to Santiago, in what is now Galicia in northern Spain, owes
its existence to the 9th century discovery of remains, alleged to be those of the Saint James. The story goes that while watching his flock a shepherd followed a bright star to a previously undiscovered tomb. Without too much detailed enquiry the local bishop immediately declared that it contained the bones of the apostle. In those times DNA was not a test to determine the origins of remains but stood for Do Not Argue, and indeed it is easy to see why the Catholic Church desperately needed something to ensure they were not pushed off the northern fringes of the Iberian Peninsula by the ever advancing Moors. And the population at large, most of which lived in abject poverty, didn’t take much persuading either. They were keen to grasp at any icon that proved their so called life was only the start of a journey to a better place. King Alfonso II when told authorised
the building of a cathedral that soon took its place in the Premier league of pilgrimages that had to be done, alongside Rome and Jerusalem. Indeed, so great was the influx of pilgrims from all over Europe that a series of hostels grew up along the various routes to house them, and they remain to this day to offer shelter.
The routes came from many directions. The one the English contingent walked from Corunna
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