About William Parsons
Making pilgrimage in the UK since 2004, on journeys of up to 9 months.
Founder of ‘A Walk Around Britain’, 2006 - 2013 (with Ed, Will & sometimes Ginger).
Creator of ‘The British Pilgrimage Trust’ in 2014 (left in 2020).
Rediscoverer of various British pilgrimage routes, including ‘The Old Way’ from Southampton to Canterbury.
Will has carried the story of pilgrimage in Britain to national and global audiences.
A father, a writer, a singer of traditional songs, and a believer in beautiful futures...
My name is William Parsons.
Born in East Kent, Will spent most of his life in the same valley. Aged 21, Will inherited his father’s walking boots. His father was a radical Rambler, building stiles over fenced fields at midnight, and getting chased by farmers with shotguns and dogs. When Will was a small lad, his dad walked from France to England through the Channel Tunnel.
At university, Will studied English Literature for his BA, and the History of Propaganda for his MA.
Finally leaving school, Will set off on ‘perma-pilgrimage’ with his pal Ed (with visits from Ed’s brother Ginger). In the process, he accidentally became a wandering minstrel, singing for his supper on various very long walking journeys around England and Wales. During this time Will and Ed 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.
After this, Will decided to create a charity (The British Pilgrimage Trust) to establish 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 in shared hope of wholeness. Will called this ‘Open to All’ and ‘Bring Your Own Beliefs’. It was a beautiful vision, and the charity was pretty successful, with illustrious funders, TV and newspaper publicity, and thousands of followers.
During this time Will (re)discovered and pioneered The Old Way, a lost pilgrimage path between Southampton and Canterbury that in 2015 he had noticed on Britain’s oldest ‘road-map’.
Will has 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. He hopes it may in time become a “Canterbury Camino”, and introduce many people to pilgrimage in Britain.
Will left the British Pilgrimage Trust after 5 years, and moved into the wider tradition of Wayfaring - the fundamental human act of travel on foot. This is a tradition with the deepest history imaginable, and with no religious taboos attached. It seemed to Will that Wayfaring represented a path to offer 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, Will felt it was deeply valuable to let people know that such freedom is accessible.
Today Will has returned once more to British pilgrimage. Having seen the path his old charity has taken, Will realised he has a duty to keep the revival of pilgrimage on the best possible track. So that is the plan. He hopes to see you on the footpath…
