Category: South East TV
Date: 06.09.2005
Printable version
Inside Out, Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ ONE South East, Monday 12 September, 7.30pm
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Kaddy Lee-Preston sets off on a journey back through time to tell an amazing story.
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It's a tale of murder that shocked the entire Western world and the mystery over Thomas Becket's missing skeleton... it is the story of the Pilgrims' Way.
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The M25 and M20 follow a route that's changed little since migrating mammoths and cave men used it.
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In the Middle Ages pilgrims used it to travel from Winchester to Canterbury, which is why it's known as the Pilgrims' Way.
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But with so many modern roads and footpaths, how much of that ancient road still remains?
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Kaddy sets off to find the real Pilgrims' Way and to see if she can follow the path of those who passed this way hundreds, even thousands, of years ago, or if modern man has put the route under threat.
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After walking across the River Medway with the help of the Kent Fire and Rescue Service's Water Safety Unit, Kaddy finds out why the pilgrims travelled to Canterbury and travels into the city through the West Gate on horse back just like the medieval pilgrims would have done.
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The word 'canter' is actually short for 'Canterbury gallop', the gentle pace at which the pilgrims approached their destination - Canterbury Cathedral.
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In 1170 Thomas Becket was Archbishop of Canterbury but after an argument with King Henry II, the King's knights burst into Canterbury Cathedral and killed him. He was struck so hard on the head that it broke the knight's sword.
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Becket was made a saint and stories spread that those who touched his grave were cured of any illness.
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In 1538 at the time of the reformation Henry VIII ordered that Becket's bones should be burnt.
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But were the bones really disposed of? Or did the monks who had guarded them for hundreds of years hide them?
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Canterbury historian, Professor John Butler, has unearthed startling facts in his hunt for Becket's bones.
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He tells how in 1888 workmen made an amazing discovery just a few feet from where Becket had originally been buried.
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In a stone coffin they found bones laid out in exactly the same way as Becket's had been and the skull showed evidence of a sword wound.
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The mysterious remains were reburied and remain in the crypt to this day.
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Canterbury Cathedral says these are not the bones of Becket, but if they're not, then whose are they?
