Pilgrims, Merchants and the Making of a Medieval Marketplace

This episode traces how devotion to Saint Thomas Becket sparked a thriving pilgrimage economy in Kent from the twelfth to fourteenth centuries, looking at inns, badges, legal tolls and local commerce while weighing contemporary sources against later mythologised accounts. We examine what survives in charters, court rolls and material artefacts, and what remains uncertain about the scale and social impact of the movement. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices