On Saturday 19th October we welcomed Helen and Ian from the ‘Pommie Pilgrims’ group to Bradford Cathedral, as part of the national pilgrimages they are doing to raise money for the church at the heart of their community, in the Derbyshire village of Youlgrave.
Helen and Ian were following in the recent footsteps of Sandy, Alex, Herfa and Rosa who had walked from Leeds’ Catholic Cathedral to Bradford Cathedral a few days earlier.
Fresh from completing their contributions to the walks and ahead of going for a curry and returning for our concert that evening, we spoke to Helen and Ian to find out more about them and the pilgrimages – covering their family connections to the church; avoiding bulls; and bringing the whole community into the pilgrimages, and began by asking – why is it the Pommie Pilgrimage?
Helen: “Youlgrave is the Village that I grew up in as a child and, somewhere in its history, they started a silver band. The village acquired a nickname from the sound of this village band, and the name Pommie stuck.
Why are you doing the pilgrimages?
Helen: “We’re raising money for the church, for toilets, heating and a kitchen facility.”
Ian: “It’s a wonderful, beautiful church but it doesn’t have any toilets or kitchen facilities to make a welcoming cuppa, [for] when we want to put events on and use it for the community.” All Saints Church in Youlgrave is a Grade 1 Listed Building dating back to 1155, but now lacking in basic amenities, which would enable it to become warm and welcoming to all.
Helen: “It’s also for the school children, as the lack of toilet facilities means that they have to be taken over the road with a key to the reading room…”
Ian: “It’s going to cost hundreds of thousands of pounds – we don’t know yet [how much]. Somebody in the village had the brilliant idea of trying to kickstart some funding and came up with the idea of linking Youlgrave with all of the 42 Anglican Cathedrals.” We have even included the Isle of Man.
Helen: “It’s a lady who loves walking. She’s walked the whole of the coast of England and so her immediate thought was [to do the walk] and tell a story. We’re not getting sponsored: we’re just trying to tell a story and put it out there and hopefully funding will come in!”
We spoke to Helen and Ian after they arrived at Bradford Cathedral, with just three more Cathedrals for the overall team to visit.
Helen: “We’re almost there. The deadline to complete is the 1st November, because we have some events planned in the village to celebrate the ending of our pilgrimages.
Ian: “The first one we did was Youlgrave to Derby over three days, starting on Palm Sunday this year, [with] sixty people from the village. Some people only did a few miles – older people and people with children – but twenty-seven did the whole walk over three days.”
Helen: “An anonymous donor put in £100 per person for the people who completed the three days, [which] was a great start.”
Ian: “We’ve also had 42 pilgrims participating in a final community pilgrimage, from Sheffield to Youlgrave, over three days a few weeks ago.”
Helen: “The bells were rung at both Sheffield Cathedral and then back at our church, denoting the project coming to a conclusion, which was fabulous ”
Ian: “It’s been open to people of faith, or no faith, or any faith, but the church is special to us. Helen was born in Youlgrave , and her parents and grandparents were both married in the church, as were we, and our son and daughter-in-law.”
Looking at this particular leg of the pilgrimage, Helen and Ian had set off from Wakefield Cathedral on the Saturday. We next asked how that journey had been.
Ian: “We had wonderful sunshine yesterday. We planned it all out on OS map as to where to walk. We walked about eleven-and-a-half miles yesterday from Wakefield Cathedral to Drighlington.”
Helen: “There were some green routes, with fields and paths and a few little bits of road as well. Today has been less green, partly because we came to a field with a bull, many cows, and some calves, and I wouldn’t go across – I mean there were big horns involved! We had to do a mile extra in the rain!”
You’ll see in the photo that Helen and Ian are both walking with little flags showing a stone carving – Petra.
Helen: “Petra is our symbol. She’s a carved stone figure that’s just inside the church as you enter the church porch, so we took the image of Petra as our Pilgrim.”
We ended the chat by asking about the importance to them of the pilgrimages.
Helen: “What’s emerged is that people have just loved walking and talking, and it’s really fostered that sort of community spirit, and I think people are now looking into what do we do when this is finished: will we continue to do regular walks as a village community ?”
Ian: “It’s prompted a lot of people in the village to come together and get involved in walking, people who wouldn’t ordinarily have done it. But the big thing for us is that we’d like to see our church used as a community asset, and the thought of actually having toilets in there and a kitchen facility, that will just enable all of that to happen, and will be absolutely wonderful.
“The acoustics, as you’ll know, are wonderful in churches, and we do have concerts in there. But that’s the big thing for us: to see the church used.”
Helen: “I think people have found that actually entering the cathedrals is very moving. Sometimes our pilgrims have attended Evensong, and found that very emotional, and inspiring. A lot has come out of it.”
Ian: “And a lot of people have undertaken pilgrimages to Cathedrals which have some special meaning to them, from areas where they were born, or brought up, or where family members were involved. A lot of people have involved their wider families in doing it. We’ve involved friends from different places to walk with us, and caught up with friends that we haven’t seen for a long time.”
The Pommie Pilgrims have also been supported by those who maybe aren’t able to walk as far.
Helen: “For those in the village who are unable to walk long distances, they’ve acted as our ‘Petra’s Angels’, and have provided lifts between places, and that’s been really helpful.
“We have a lady in her mid-80s, who’s walking to Guilford – she has family there – so she’s walked the last mile up to the Cathedral with friends and her Petra Angel, and she’s used her walking frame to walk the other miles in the village. She’s clocked up forty-one miles by walking a mile a day over the summer. She’s done a brilliant job!”
Collectively, 174 people amassed an amazing 4700+ miles, and over 11.1 million steps have been walked.
You can find out more about the Pommie Pilgrims on their Facebook page; in the Church Times piece from earlier in the year; and you can donate to their cause on their JustGiving page.