“A wonderful Christmas gift from Gavin Wakefield,” says Ros Brewer, Lay Dean of Scarborough and a Lay Member of the Church of England's General Synod representing the Diocese of York.
What a delight to read Gavin’s book especially as my mobility is poor, the opportunity to journey through this wonderful county of Yorkshire as a pilgrim certainly lifted the spirit.
Each chapter offers an historic insight into the lives of ordinary people with the depth of spirituality and suffering that has shaped the Christian heritage of God’s Own County and offers great encouragement to the reader to reflect on their own journey.
As you journey across the county resting at Whitby, travelling across the moors and down the coast visiting Bridlington, Beverley and Hull you will meet with some people that are well known to you but others that am sure will be known locally but to others a fresh insight into the lives of these saints of their time. Across the Wolds to Pocklington and Howden and on the York such a richness of history and inspiration. The suffering and death of Margaret Clitherow reminds us of the personal devotion and commitment to the Roman Catholic religion; the Shrine to Margaret Clitherow can be found in the Shambles in York.
Throughout the centuries there is a great history of monastic life across the county including Whitby Abbey founded by Hilda, Rievaulx Abbey built by the Cistercian monks and Abbot Aelred and Fountains Abbey. All three are now in ruins, but to stand on the ground of these places gives one a sense of the history and the presence of the Holy Spirit in the lives of those who lived and prayed there, and those who still do today.