I did the English leg of the Camino de Santiago - starting in Reading

The man hammering a cockade on a finger between an old timber and electrical substation just outside Silchester was in deep concentration. He seemed both happy and dismayed to see me. "You're early! I better get on it! Buen camino!"

It was a chance encounter, but he finds that David Sinclair marked out the route I had decided to follow. I had just pointed it out to the "post".

This new signage is part of a revitalization project for the Saint James Way, a 68½ mile trail along a probable route taken by pilgrims en route to Santiago de Compostela. It stretches from Reading in Berkshire - the seat of veneration for Saint James in medieval England - to Southampton in Hampshire, where pilgrims are said to have set sail for Spain. This historic stretch of the Camino Inglés network is lightly traveled today, but the hope is that clear waymarking – dark blue circles with yellow arrows and the scallop shell of Santiago – will encourage more modern pilgrims.

Those who embarking on this modern-day pilgrimage can also collect stamps at churches and 13 pubs along the way - with a certificate for those with a full "pilgrim's passport". My early departure from Reading meant that the town museum and St. Reading Abbey for me. /p>

Founded in 1121, the abbey once housed the supposed hand of Saint James - although this revered relic has since been carbon dated to the 10th century. The flint ruins are impressive but the...