Janus Pilgrimage with Life Coaching

About the Walk

The month of January is named for Janus, the ancient Roman god of beginnings, gates, transitions, time, doorways, passages and endings. He is usually depicted as having two faces, as he looks back to the old year and forward to the new.

Janus presided over the beginning and ending of conflict, and hence war and peace. The gates of the Temple of Janus in Rome were opened in time of war and closed to mark the arrival of peace. As a god of transitions, Janus had functions pertaining to birth, journeys and exchange. He was the gatekeeper of every festival, religious feast, and holy day.

The Romans followed the Pagan Celts and Druids along what is now one of the world’s three most famous Christian pilgrim routes, the Way of St James or Camino de Santiago in Northern Spain, in honour of the god Janus as long ago as 200BC. According to myth, it was Romulus- the founder of Rome- who established the cult of Janus whose Path began at the Temple of Venus in the Pyrenees and ended at the Phoenician sun temple of Ara Solis in Finisterre.

On this special Janus Pilgrimage to welcome in the New Year, you too will have the opportunity to:

* mark your own beginning and ending

* consider the transition, exchange or journey you wish to make in your new year

* end conflict and welcome peace

with the expert encouragement, guidance and powerful techniques of our guest guide, Derbyshire Life Coach Sarah Jane Cooper.

At our own Son Altar in the Lady Chapel of the Cathedral of the Peak, Revd Fiona will guide the group in an act of letting go of the hurts, disappointment, emotional pain and griefs of last year.  Then we shall ceremonially burn the past as we welcome in the new and are blessed by Revd Fiona.  Sarah Jane will then lead a 30-minute taster group coaching session on an aspect of your life you would like to work on in 2026.  You will gain clarity on what that looks like, create a great picture of what your goal is and the steps you intend to take to reach it (your answers are completely confidential, it is up to you whether you choose to share what you are working on).

We shall together consider our intentions- more powerful than resolutions- for 2026 and set our intention for today’s pilgrimage.

Our modern Peak District pilgrimages are a wonderful way for you to discover the hidden history of the area much closer to home. In the inspiring hands of your guide, Faye, you will learn about nature, history, your journey companions and get a chance to experience some powerful pilgrim practices along the way.

On this Janus pilgrimage, we are walking around three of Tideswell’s ‘Daughter’ churches to re-discover their forgotten stories from the buried head of Glossop’s almost-saint to Litton Mill’s cruelly-treated orphan boy who inspired Charles Dickens.

Walk itinerary

We assemble at 10am to begin our pilgrimage at Tideswell church, an inclusive C of E church. Building started in 1320 during the medieval period, but construction of the Gothic Mother church took eighty years due to the Black Death. Tideswell’s minister, Revd Fiona will send us off with an optional pilgrim blessing whenever her duties allow.

Life coach Sarah Jane will walk alongside you as you connect deeply with yourself, nature and the other pilgrims, to help you explore further your goal for the year ahead.

Your pilgrim guide Faye will share stories of the Christianisation of ancient Celtic traditions and the church’s connection with the Elizabethan Padley Martyrs and the tragic treatment of the Litton orphan child millworkers, some of whom are buried in the churchyard.

We make our way through the village and between houses for beautiful views of the church, then across quiet roads to Christ Church, built in the 1920s in the 17th century former lead mining village of Litton which is also famous as the birthplace of prominent Non-Conformist William Bagshaw, The Apostle of the Peak. The post office and community shop is usually open for any forgotten refreshments! Your pilgrim guide will share the terrible tales of the treatment of orphaned workhouse children- ‘young, poor, easily replaced and anonymous’, who were brought from urban centres like London to work at nearby Litton and Cressbrook Mills, a practise described as ‘a shameful stain on British history’. At any given time up to the First World War, there were around twenty water mills working along the Wye Valley between Ashwood Dale and Bakewell

After a look at the picture-postcard village, we journey on to St John the Evangelist Cressbrook, where “a mission church with two bells seating 150” was enlarged in 1902 by Mary Worthington of ‘The Big House’, Cressbrook Hall.

We drop down into beautiful limestone Cressbrook Dale, in spring home to a stunning array of wildflowers, cowslips and orchids. The Dale is a National Nature Reserve where we walk by the river which powered Arkwright’s water wheel-powered frame which revolutionised the cotton spinning industry and earned him the name ‘Father of the Industrial Revolution’. Passing Ravenstor, now a Youth Hostel, we hear about the valley’s connection with great Victorian philanthropist, Alderman J G Graves of nearby Sheffield

Miller’s Dale gets its name from the abundance of water mills that once flourished here, and there was probably a mill here at the time of the Norman Conquest. This beautiful dale was controversially transformed forever in mid-Victorian times by the coming of the railway in 1863 as a very important railway junction, where passengers for Buxton joined or left trains between London and Manchester on the old Midland Railway. Indeed, as Ruskin famously wrote:

“That valley where you might expect to catch sight of Pan, Apollo and the Muses, is now desecrated in order that a Buxton fool may be able to find himself in Bakewell at the end of twelve minutes, and vice-versa”.

This is the perfect moment to rest and eat a lunch we pre-order at the Anglers Rest, still providing a loo, a view, a stew and a brew as it did to weary passengers waiting hopefully for that Buxton train a hundred years ago.

Refreshed in body, mind and spirit, we ascend a green lane back to the peaceful haven of Tideswell once again, where tea and cake await us pilgrims in the church- a Mount Joy moment indeed!

We say farewell to our journey companions and depart revived and restored with some special pilgrim practices to bring peace and comfort into our everyday lives.

Walk Summary

Date: Saturday January 3rd

Description:  One day modern pilgrimage walk with life coaching throughout, starting 10.00 am, concluding around 3.00 pm open to all. There are toilets at the start of the walk and along the way. 

Grade: Easy

Price: £49.50 per person, includes all church donations, badge, Pilgrim journal, hot drink, life coaching and guiding.

*Please bring your preferred drink for the walk.

Walk guide: Faye Smith Life Coach: Sarah Jane Cooper

Payment: Full payment on booking please to secure minimum numbers of 6 persons- no bookings will be taken after 48 hours before the event. All monies will be returned in full should minimum numbers not be reached 48 hours before the event, or should the pilgrimage be cancelled by your guide due to incapacity or dangerous weather conditions. We walk even in the wet!

What’s included:

• Hot drink at start

• Services of pilgrim guide and life coach throughout your walk

• Pilgrim journal and walk guide

• Coaching workbook

• Donations to churches

• Pilgrim badge on completion

What to bring: Please bring water and a packed lunch, snacks to share in the Spirit of Pilgrim Hospitality if you wish. All medications you require for any conditions. Dress for the weather: stout footwear and a warm waterproof is usually essential. Walking poles are recommended. Payment for lunch and cash may be useful for refreshments.

Also, it would be helpful to start reflecting on what aspect of your life you would like to work on in 2026.

Travelling to the route start:

We always recommend the greenest option of public transport where possible.

By train: The nearest train station is Matlock or the TM 65 Travel Bus offers five journeys a day- three on Sundays, departing from Sheffield Interchange opposite the railway station.

By car: Satnav postcode to the church is SK17 8PE. Free parking is available on the roadside. Please park safely and considerately.

Customer review

Highly recommend Hope Walking. I attended the Mills and Martyrs Pilgrimage starting in the village of Tideswell. a thoroughly enjoyable and thought provoking experience. Faye is the perfect guide for these walks which are professional yet warm and welcoming. Wonderful to meet and get to know people or simply to enjoy some time in the privacy of my own thoughts and reflections.

COLIN

Fabulous pilgrimage circuit in the peak district starting and ending at St John's the Baptist at Tideswell.

I knew absolutely no one there at the start of the day, yet finished with some great friends.

Thanks Faye, looking forward to next time

CHRISTINA

Why not start your journey today?