The village of Harbledown is the last settlement that pilgrims would have passed through before they reached Canterbury whether they had taken the cross country route from Winchester or Watling Street from London. For these pilgrims, the excitement would have been mounting because from the higher points in the road, they would have been able to glimpse the spires of the Cathedral in the centre of Canterbury. The two pictures above are of the old A2 or Watling Street road from or to London which was the only road when I was growing up. It is nowimpossible to imagine the huge amount of traffic that, even a few decades ago, had to negotiate the twists and turns of this narrow road. From the top of the hill in the bottom of he two pictures pilgrims would see a similar view over the tree tops as appears in the picture on the left (minus the cars, road signs and lamp posts!).

For the pilgrims in Chaucer's time, this was the last place to stop and rest after "cantering" down The Pilgrim's Way to Canterbury, to worship at the Tomb of St. Thomas. It was here that pilgrims that had ridden to Canterbury, left their horses to complete the final stretch into the City on foot. Supposedly, at this stop, pilgrims were sprinkled with water which was dispensed from a Holy Relic, being a shoe of St. Thomas. (Must have been a bit smelly!) The shoe had a large crystal on it which was later set in a 14th Century mazer bowl which was one of a set of eight. These bowls were taken from the Chapel of St. Nicholas in the later part of the 20th Century and are now housed at the Victorian and Albert Museum in London.

There are two churches at Harbledown, St. Michael's, which is the Village Church and St. Nicholas' Chapel which is a former leper church. I am not quite sure whether St. Nicholas has any records or they are actually combined with those of St. Michael's. According to my information from the Cathedral Archives there are some Bishop's Transcripts for St. Nicholas' but there are no dates given in my particular reference which leads me to suspect they might be combined.

See also:	St. Nicholas' Chapel, Harbledown.
	The Black Prince's Well