Radical Pilgrimage: The Saffron Trail
7 days, 70 miles, Southend to Saffron Walden
15 - 21 June 2023 as part of Essex Book Festival
Artist, writer and wild-crafter Lora Aziz set off on a 7-day 70-mile Radical Pilgrimage along The Saffron Trail as part of our series of In My Steps: Radical Walks in Essex in 2023.
Starting at Southend Pier, The Saffron Trail hugs The Thames until it reaches Hadleigh Country Park. It then turns inland towards Hockley Woods, before pivoting north towards Danbury, Chelmsford and Great Dunmow, and finally arriving at Saffron Walden, the one-time UK capital of saffron.
How did saffron, an exotic spice with its origins in the Middle East, famous for its healing, dyeing and flavouring properties, land in Essex? Legend has it that a pilgrim smuggled a saffron corm into England in his hollow staff. The corm swiftly took root in Essex. So much so, that by the 1500s the village of Chepyn Walden had metamorphosed into Saffron Walden. The rest is history.
Lora ran a series of creative contemplative and ecological workshops along The Saffron Trail as part of the pilgrimage, which culminatesd in a Moroccan Sufi Gnawa concert at Saffron Hall in Saffron Walden.