My pilgrim companion William Parsons and I did not call our first journey a pilgrimage. Rather, it was a song walk: a walk with a purpose of taking a song, ‘The Hartlake Bridge Tragedy’, back to where it came from. It was also an attempt to reclaim my place in the world, after too much time spent in front of my computer. Stepping out and walking with intention.
It did the trick. When we arrived at the monument that commemorates those who had drowned, we were met by chance by a couple who had three ancestors who had died in the Medway tragedy but did not know the song. Thus we returned the song to its bloodline, not just its place. We also met scenes of beauty along the way, including the chapel at Tudeley, full of Marc Chagall’s stained glass masterpieces dedicated to the river’s victims.
In Pevensey’s porch I witnessed a storm filling the whole sky with lightning bolts
It wasn’t long before I felt the itch to make pilgrimage again.
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