Scallop shell pilgrim’s badge

To be a pilgrim in medieval times signified devotion and piety but also it meant a break from repetitive, and often hard, daily toil. In short it was a holiday, the mood vividly captured in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales written in the 14th century.

The principal shrines of medieval England were Canterbury and Walsingham though Winchester, with important relics like those of Sts. Swithun, Birinus, Grimbald and Judoc, was a pilgrim centre with more than local appeal.

Pilgrim badges, often worn on the hat, marked the wearer as worthy of receiving alms, protection and hospitality. The scallop shell, excavated in Winchester, was the cherished memento of a pilgrim who had been to the shrine of St James at Compostela, Spain. This involved a long, arduous and often dangerous journey and the scallop of St James was the best known and most respected of all pilgrim souvenirs.

Often, on completion of a successful pilgrimage, pilgrims would toss their badges into a river at a particular place as thank-offerings: dredging in the river mud at Salisbury has produced numerous pilgrim signs. As yet, though, only four pilgrim badges have been found in Winchester, which suggests the site of this ritual in Winchester has yet to be located.

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