A man, dressed in medieval attire, has been paddling the River Wye, from source to sea, in a coracle that he had built, in an effort to raise awareness for the difficulties that homeless people face during the harsh winter.

Steven Payne, who comes from West Sussex, began his journey on Tuesday, December 20th, and completed it on Sunday, January 1st. On Boxing Day, he travelled from Mordiford to Ross-on-Wye, and he slept against Wilton Wall that night.

He told the Ross Gazette: “I have fallen into a pattern of doing authentic medieval pilgrimages each Christmas, because I find that the holiday is so focused on eating and drinking to excess, and rampant commercialism, that I needed to get away from that and take the chance to re-examine the previous year and think about my expectations for the next one.

“I also try to raise awareness of the plight of homeless people as I walk, because they also have to sleep outdoors throughout the Christmas period.”

On December 20th, Steven began his journey from the top of Plinlimon mountain, the highest mountain in the Cambrian range, having hiked up there with his boat on his back, whilst dressed as a 6th century Irish priest, St Brendan of Clonfert, who Steven had based his pilgrimage on.

Steven said:?“My pilgrimages are a chance for me to get some exercise, evaluate my life, do something for the historical re-enactment community which I belong to, investigate local history, push myself and find new limits and help the homeless all at the same time.”

While Steven does not raise funds for homeless people in a formal sense, he encourages other people to give directly to people who are sleeping rough, whether that is to donate food, clothes, or money.

He said: “During the journey I was actively seeking out any homeless people who, like me, will be sleeping outdoors in midwinter, helping them if I could.”

Steven’s motivation to help homeless people came during a previous medieval journey, which he did last year, during Christmas. “A homeless man came up to me in Winchester, with a pasty he had bought me. We sat down in the street and shared it, and he told me he’d seen a write up of what I was doing in the Independent newspaper.

“It turned out he had only £3.60 in all the world, and he had spent £2.80 of that on me!”

To read the full story, see this week’s edition of the Ross Gazette.