Frome Market Day Pilgrimage

Join BPT’s Guy Hayward and your fellow pilgrims for a many-layered 4-mile day pilgrimage through beautiful and storied landscapes on Frome's market day.

There will be a chance to visit Sherlock & Pages, owned by British Pilgrimage Trust patron Luke Sherlock, also known as @englishpilgrim. Unsurprisingly the shelves of the bookshop are full of pilgrim literature and all things nature, landscape, history and heritage. We are also partnering with Advaya for this particular event (see below for more detail).

We begin amidst the colour, craft and bustle of Frome Independent Market, one of the most vibrant and aesthetically-pleasing markets in the country.

Discover Sherlock & Pages bookshop with its proud owner Luke, a treasure-trove of pilgrim literature, where you may find a book to accompany your onward journey. Explore the market stalls, eat some delicious food from one of the many stalls, and then gather in St John’s Church with its holy well before eventually setting off on our water pilgrimage.

Leaving the town, we climb out via St Catherine’s Hill, an evocative threshold out of Frome, before joining the East Mendip Way. From here, the landscape opens into rolling countryside and the highly regenerative Vallis Farm, before descending into the temperate rainforest of the Egford Brook with its wooded valleys as we make our way towards Great Elm, pausing at its sweet village church, and then following the course of the Mells Stream in the mossy air of trees covered in green.

We finish at the ancient church of St Andrew’s Church, Mells, with its ancient yew trees, Siegfried Sassoon's grave, Lutyens' war memorial and Burne-Jones' tapestry – a place of deep creativity and quiet gravity in which to close the day. And then to the gorgeous Talbot Inn.

Along the way, there will be moments of silence, story, song, reflection and group discussion, blending landscape, history, spirituality and community into a single flowing journey.

A pilgrimage with many layers: market crowds, celebration of craft, landscape books, regenerative farming, wild valleys, birdsong, WWI poets, artists, architects and socialites, industrial relics, and inner stillness.



This Pilgrimage will include: 

• New ways of meeting old pilgrim places (bring your own beliefs...)
• Songs on the path
• Opportunities for silence.

Partnership with Advaya

We’re delighted to be partnering with Advaya, a global platform for transformative learning that shares our values of connection, ecology and inner growth. Like pilgrimage, Advaya’s work is about re-weaving our relationship with the living world, and creating spaces that go hand in hand with personal transformation. Their courses and gatherings bring together leading voices in ecology, spirituality and culture, making them a natural companion to the British Pilgrimage Trust.

As part of this partnership, they are offering our community an exclusive 25% discount on Advaya+ Annual Membership – bringing the cost down to £180 for a full year of access (the same as a single course). Membership opens up an extraordinary library of courses, talks and practices that complement and deepen the pilgrimage path. Use this code at checkout on their website (separate to this event): BPTxADVAYA-25

Travel logistics (for this linear route from Frome to Mells): 

Train to Frome, then you can share a taxi back from Mells to Frome at the end, which we can help organise.

The Home of our Delight

There’s something about Mells. Once before I’d visited to explore the medieval “new street”, have a quick pint at the Talbot Inn, and rootle about the church. It’s a village that whispers to you: a quiet place with colossal stories to tell.
Luke Sherlock in "The Home of our Delight"

Read Luke Sherlock's essay "The Home of our Delight"

Luke Sherlock : An English Village in the Great War

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FAQ’s

Who can come? Anyone over 18 (or under 18 with parental guidance, bearing in mind the walking distance).

Is this religious? All and no-faiths are equally welcome. We operate a “Bring Your Own Beliefs” policy. We ask that all participating pilgrims tolerate one another, whatever their beliefs.

Can I come if I can't afford it? We offer a number of free or subsidised places to those in need, on a case-by-case basis, please contact hello@britishpilgrimage.org.

If I'm a school teacher, can I come for free? Yes, we offer free places to teachers, particularly if they are interested in introducing pilgrimage to their students.

Are there fitness limitations? Pilgrimage is moderately intense. If you struggle to walk all day, this type of pilgrimage may be an unsuitable activity for you right now. There are always plenty of escape points en route. But we will walk slowly, and start early, and 4 miles is a manageable distance for the majority of people, although it is not nothing. Unfortunately this pilgrimage is not suited for mobility-impaired people or those requiring wheelchair access.

Can I bring my dog? Sadly not - we can’t accommodate dogs on our guided pilgrimages. However, if you have a registered assistance dog, they are welcome.

What does my money go towards? The British Pilgrimage Trust is a charity, and profits raised from this limited space event will enable our team to make it possible for everyone, of all means, to make pilgrimage themselves. We will also distribute some of the ticket price to local organisations from whom we have benefitted along the path. For more details about our charitable activities, please check here.

We hope to see you on the path.
If you would like to make a donation in addition to, or in place of, a ticket, click here.
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