The Canterbury Tales
55.5 miles 8 milestones 75 day goal The Tabard Inn, Southwark → Canterbury Cathedral
Milestones
- The Watering of St Thomas2 mi leg2 mi
- Deptford2.3 mi leg4.3 mi
- Greenwich1 mi leg5.3 mi
- Rochester23.8 mi leg29 mi
- Sittingbourne11 mi leg40 mi
- Boughton under Blean9 mi leg49 mi
- Harbledown5 mi leg54 mi
- Canterbury Cathedral1.5 mi leg55.5 mi
The road.
In the spring of 1387 or thereabouts, a party of pilgrims left the Tabard Inn in Southwark and rode for Canterbury, telling stories to pass the road. Chaucer never finished the tales, but he left the itinerary: every milestone on this route is a place he names in the poem, laid over the old Watling Street road at its historic mileages.