Day 6 dawned sunny and bright – but it didn’t last long! What did endure, however, was the generous welcome given to pilgrims by the parish of Our Lady and St Joseph, Matlock…
Tea and coffee flowed freely and packed lunches were distributed before Deacon Richard celebrated a Service of the Word and Holy Communion: double ‘food for the journey’ which would quite literally keep body and soul together on another 15-plus mile hike through the Peak District.
Having now entered the Nottingham Diocese, the mainly Leeds and Hallam ‘Perpetual Pilgrims’ were now sojourners in a foreign land and reliant on the kindness of relative strangers. Yet, angels truly do walk amongst us unawares! Parishioner Helen transported the heavy rucksacks (including the one containing the laptop which enables this blog to be written!) to the day’s destination of Ripley and the Diocesan Pastoral and Youth Centre at Crich where pilgrims were accommodated as guests of the Diocese of Nottingham.
Leaving the thriving Matlock parish, the pilgrims set off Southwards…
At first, this stage of the journey seemed to consist mainly of walking on hard pavements beside the busy roads through Matlock and then Matlock Bath … but at last nearing Cromford, the environment paradoxically turned greener and more pleasant the nearer we grew to the cradle of the Industrial Revolution which had later given Britain’s mills their ‘dark, satanic’ reputation…
Entrepreneur and industrialist Sir Richard Arkwright’s water-powered mills in the Derwent Valley and his manufacturing innovations were the genesis of the factory system and are now a World Heritage Site …
The elegant C18th Willersley Castle, chapel and estate which Arkwright built for his own family but never saw completed, are in stark contrast to the nearby sacred site where the St Mark’s Way pilgrims next paused for prayer.
Unlike the Chantry on Wakefield Bridge, the C15th Cromford Bridge Chapel has never undergone restoration and now lies in ruins. It is said that a monk would guide travellers across the ford and the chapel was where they gave thanks to God for that safe passage… These days, only anglers frequent the site; not ‘fishers of men’, only fishers of fish!
The River Derwent is not the only body of water here to be traversed with care. The late C18th trade route of the Cromford Canal, once a hive of industry, is now a site of Special Scientific Interest. Rare and precious flora and fauna are protected by its weed-strewn banks and murky waters; including the pilgrims who sought shelter under its bridges and tunnels when fine weather increasingly gave way to persistent precipitation!
Occasionally, the clouds would part and let the sun shine on the pilgrims long enough to have a break, greet others walking, running, cycling or boating – and pass the time of day with past (and possibly future!) pilgrims at a canal-side cafe…
No opportunity for cheerful, even cheeky, ‘soft’ evangelisation has been passed up! Polite enquirers are told our story and seem delighted with the St Mark’s Way prayer cards thrust upon them; neither have ‘innocent bystanders’ been spared the sight of pilgrims publicly praying the Angelus wherever we happen to be at noon … 
So much of St Mark’s Way involves walking the canal and former railway lines which follow direct routes that encourage those coming from the opposite direction to greet one another face to face. The ‘rolling English road’ can take many directions where our feet and minds may wander – but on the towpath there is little room to deviate or side-step from the straight and narrow pilgrim way which leads to Jesus!
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