ACT Location Walk, Canterbury, 25th August 2024
Report by Laura, who led the walk.
We were joined by a member of the cast this year! Robin Eyres, who as a child was an extra in the “river battle” scene. Robin told us of his experience on the day - he just happened to be hanging around Chilham Mill so didn’t get a fee. He did more recently get Paul Tritton to sign a copy of his book on the film. Robin also pointed out that he is portrayed as a monk on horseback on the new statue of Chaucer in the high street! The ACT boys get around. These days Robin is a volunteer at Canterbury Cathedral so we got some extra bits of information about the cloister and precincts and his volunteer pass came in very handy as the route between the precincts and Kings School has extra barriers at the moment. We also benefited from an experiment this summer the Cathedral is making by temporarily giving free entry to the precincts, so we got to see everything we usually did and folks could pay extra at the end to go into the church itself.
Also on the walk this year was the widow of another of the boys who was an extra in the film and who lives in Maidstone and knows Paul Tritton - now in his ‘90s and aware that the walks continue! A few copies of A Canterbury Tale : memories of a classic wartime movie were brought on the walk this year, and at least two had been signed.
Some locals on the walk had seen the poster for the walk in the library/Beaney, so promotion via that route is certainly worth doing again.
We started outside Canterbury West station under fine weather. By the time we got to the cathedral, we had 30 pilgrims but I think a few more were there at the start. The fact that a 10-minute downpour started at the Westgate may have chased some folks away. We took shelter in the area on the east side of the gate, and later under the awning of the Marlowe Theatre. It stayed mostly dry after that.
We finished around 3.30 - a little bit early because the rain made us cut out 2 playlets at the beginning. A collection was taken for local homeless charity Porchlight https://www.porchlight.org.uk/i. Folks were very generous, giving £93.35, £116.69 including Gift Aid.
Looking forward to next year in Chilham, Sunday 24 August. We’re planning something a bit extra in 2025.
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