A Pilgrimage of Heritage & Legacy

The Equiano
Way

80 miles from Sheffield to Hull — walking the story
of faith, freedom and the fight to abolish slavery

80 miles  ·  7 or 8 days  ·  Wincobank to Wilberforce House

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Named for a man who walked to freedom

A route woven from stories of faith and resistance

The Equiano Way is not simply a walking trail. It is a pilgrimage — a journey of significance that gives rise to reflection, and not least spiritual contemplation.

The route is named after Olaudah Equiano, born a prince in Nigeria, kidnapped into the transatlantic slave trade, who bought his own freedom and became one of the most important voices in the campaign for abolition. The book he wrote — his own story — is said to be the one John Wesley was reading on his deathbed.

Pilgrimage is far more than making a physical journey. It is being prepared to allow that restlessness, which is in every human soul, to entice us away from our security in search of something deeper.

— Canon Stephen Shipley

Each place the route passes through has earned its position — from Wincobank's abolitionist halls to Austerfield's Pilgrim Fathers, from Wesley's Epworth to Wilberforce's Hull.

80
Miles
Sheffield to Hull, across South Yorkshire, North Lincolnshire, and East Yorkshire
7–8
Days
With a choice of route at Day 6 — via the direct path or Julian's Bower at Alkborough
9
Sections
Each one connected to a place, a person, and a chapter in the story of faith and freedom
1789
Equiano's Narrative
Published and promoted across Britain — the book that changed minds and shaped history

The Journey

Day by Day

Day 1
Wincobank Chapel → Whiston
7.4 miles
Equiano's Sheffield visit; the abolitionist roots of Wincobank Hall
Day 2
Whiston → Roche Abbey
8.2 miles
Emerging from the industrial suburbs into the quiet of a woodland valley
Day 3
Roche Abbey → Austerfield
10.9 miles
The Pilgrim Fathers — where the search for religious freedom began
Day 4
Austerfield → Epworth
13.2 miles
John Wesley's country — along waterways to the home of Methodism
Day 5
Epworth → Scunthorpe
11.1 miles
Wesley's villages and Salim C Wilson — freed slave turned evangelist
Day 6a — Direct
Scunthorpe → South Ferriby
12.5 miles
Through Normanby Hall and along the approach to the vast River Humber
Day 6b — Alternative
Scunthorpe → Alkborough
7.7 miles
North along the River Trent to Julian's Bower — an ancient turf labyrinth
Day 7b
Alkborough → South Ferriby
9.3 miles
Along the Humber bank past the Roman settlement at Eastfield
Day 7 or 8
South Ferriby → Hull
12.1 miles
Across the Humber Bridge to Wilberforce House — journey's end

Olaudah Equiano

c. 1745 — 1797

Born a prince in what is now south-eastern Nigeria, Equiano was kidnapped as a child and sold into the transatlantic slave trade. He endured the Middle Passage and years of servitude before buying his own freedom in 1766.

After settling in Britain, he became a central figure in the abolitionist movement — co-founding the Sons of Africa, working alongside Granville Sharp, and writing the autobiography that would shape public opinion across the country.

Go on, in the name of God and in the power of His might, till even American slavery (the vilest that ever saw the sun) shall vanish away before it.

John Wesley, to William Wilberforce — 24 February 1791

It is said that Wesley was reading Equiano's autobiography on his deathbed. Days later he wrote his final letter — to William Wilberforce. The thread from Equiano's pen to Wilberforce's campaign runs directly through this landscape.

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