About William Parsons
I’ve been making pilgrimage in the UK since 2004, on journeys of up to 9 months.
Founder of ‘A Walk Around Britain’ in 2006 (with Ed, Will & sometimes Ginger).
Creator of ‘The British Pilgrimage Trust’ in 2014.
Rediscoverer of various British pilgrimage routes, including ‘The Old Way’ from Southampton to Canterbury.
I’ve carried the story of pilgrimage in Britain to new audiences, in national and global media.
I am a father, a singer of traditional songs, and a believer in a beautiful human future.
My name is William Parsons.
Born in East Kent, I spent most of my life in the same valley. When I was 21, I inherited my father’s walking boots. He was a radical Rambler, building stiles over fenced fields at midnight, and getting chased by farmers with shotguns and dogs. When I was a small lad, my dad walked from France to England through the Channel Tunnel.
After university, where I studied English Literature and the History of Propaganda, I created a project called ‘A Walk Around Britain’. With my pal Ed (and sometimes his brother Ginger) we set off on ‘perma-pilgrimage’, and accidentally became wandering minstrels, singing for our supper on various very long journeys around England and Wales. During this time we recorded an album, got in Vogue magazine and BBC TV, and had a contract offer from Decca Records. You can read all about it in this book.
Having made a lot of exhibition pilgrimage, I decided to create a charity (The British Pilgrimage Trust) to renew the UK’s tradition of pilgrimage. I hoped to create a neutral centre for British pilgrimage, without religious or non-religious ownership, where everyone would feel welcome but no-one could claim control - a wandering spiritual commons for people of any faith & none to walk together in shared hope of wholeness. I called this ‘Open to All’ and ‘Bring Your Own Beliefs’. It was a beautiful vision, and for a while, the charity was successful, with illustrious funders, TV and newspaper publicity, and thousands of followers.
During this time I (re)discovered and pioneered The Old Way, a lost pilgrimage path between Southampton and Canterbury that in 2015 I noticed on Britain’s oldest ‘road-map’.
I’ve since walked the Old Way five times in full (+ lots more in parts). It is a wonderfully diverse, beautiful and many-storied path to Canterbury. I hope it may in time become a “Canterbury Camino”, and introduce many people to pilgrimage in Britain.
My time at the British Pilgrimage Trust ended after 5 years. I was cut out the charity in an episode of slander and deceit. The lesson learnt was this: sometimes people in a spiritual charity have taken such a position in order to compensate for bleaker inner-truths.
So I moved into the wider tradition of Wayfaring - fundamental human transport on foot. This is a tradition with the deepest history imaginable, and with no religious taboos attached. It seemed to me that Wayfaring represents a path to escape the more insidious of our modern entrapments, providing a refuge in movement and nature for anyone caught off guard by the perils of free-market capitalism. A simpler, healthier and less expensive way of life, for those who need it, on the footpaths of Britain. Even if we never need claim this right of passage, I believe it is deeply valuable to know that such freedom is accessible.
Today I have licked my wounds and returned to the path of British pilgrimage. The tradition is too important to be left in the wrong hands.
I hope to see you on the path. Walk well!
William Parsons.
