Follow the Mayflower & Pilgrims story back to its beginnings

The Mayflower story slows down and gets quite real here. Worcestershire is where the trail feels intimate — rooted in everyday places rather than grand events — allowing you to understand the lives that came before the voyage. This is the landscape that shaped key figures in their formative years, long before the story became national, and then transatlantic.

You will go through market towns, along rivers, roads, and see parish churches that still feel like part of the story rather than curated. You will go from cathedral capitals to little market towns. Here, history isn't kept behind glass; it's built into the streets, buildings, and everyday places that make you want to learn more. Worcestershire gives you time to stop, think, and connect the dots. It's a grounding part of the voyage that helps you see the Pilgrims as people shaped by their surroundings, their communities, and their beliefs, not just as symbols.

Learning about Edward Winslow in Worcestershire brings the Mayflower story firmly back to the individual. Before he became a key leader of the Plymouth Colony in America, Winslow was shaped by the people, education and places of his home county. Visiting Worcestershire allows you to trace his story from its beginnings — not as a historic figure crossing the Atlantic, but as a young man growing up in a cathedral city, absorbing ideas, faith and opportunity that would later influence his role in shaping a new society.

In Droitwich Spa and Worcester, Winslow’s story feels especially tangible. From his baptism church to his schooling at the King’s School, Worcester Cathedral, these are places that still carry the atmosphere of the late 16th and early 17th centuries. Standing in the cathedral or walking the streets he once knew gives context to his later leadership, diplomacy and resilience. It becomes clear that the Mayflower voyage did not produce leaders by chance — it was the culmination of education, belief and lived experience rooted in places like Worcestershire, where ideas quietly took shape long before history turned outward to the wider world.

This is where the journey becomes more personal and quietly strong. The trail travels via Babworth, Scrooby, Austerfield, and Gainsborough, which are all places where the narrative of the Pilgrims was told long before ships and sea routes were employed. These are villages that have parish churches, manor houses, and locations where people may congregate to talk about their ideas, establish friends, and make choices without being loud.

This part of the route is about getting things going. You can discover more about the Pilgrims before they formed a movement by going visiting All Saints' Church in Babworth, the manor at Scrooby, and Gainsborough Old Hall. Being there helps the story feel more real, more human, and more related to actual life than works that are set in the past.

This part of the route carries a feeling of tension and uncertainty. It follows the story through Boston (read more on Boston here), the creeks and marshes of The Wash, and onward to ports like Immingham and Harwich, where plans were made, broken, and tried again. These eastern places reveal how close the story came to ending before it truly began.

Here, the Pilgrims’ experience becomes tangible. Standing near Scotia Creek, walking Boston’s medieval lanes, or tracing the harbour edges of Harwich brings home the reality of failed departures, arrests, and last-minute escapes. It’s a stretch of the journey filled with decisive moments — places where history very nearly took a different turn.

Along the south coast, the story shifts from planning to action. In Southampton, the Mayflower was prepared for its journey, gathering supplies and passengers while waiting to sail alongside the Speedwell. The harbour still carries a sense of anticipation and uncertainty.

Further west in Dartmouth, repeated problems with the Speedwell caused delays and difficult decisions, grounding the travellers for weeks. Finally, in Plymouth, the narrative reaches its defining moment. Standing at the Mayflower Steps, you’re at the last English shoreline the Pilgrims saw — a place of final farewells, resolve, and the point where intention became history.

The Mayflower Steps in Plymouth mark the final departure point of the Pilgrims in September 1620 and are the most symbolic place on the entire route. Standing here, it’s easy to imagine the weight of that moment — a small group stepping onto a ship that would carry them away from everything familiar.

Nearby, a number of Mayflower monuments and historic buildings help anchor the story in place, including the Elizabethan House, Island House and the surrounding Barbican streets, which would have been busy with sailors, traders and passengers at the time. Together, they turn Plymouth into a powerful closing chapter of the English story before the Atlantic crossing begins.

One of the best things about this trail is that you don’t have to do all the interpreting alone. The official app effectively turns your phone into a GPS tour guide, with:

- guided walking and driving tours (including places like Plymouth)

- maps for routes and walking trails

- GPS alerts as you approach points of interest

- offline guides for the tours