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About Walsingham

In 1061 a Norfolk noble woman called Richeldis de Faverches had a series of three dreams in which she was taken to Nazareth by the Virgin Mary and saw the Holy House in which The Annunciation took place. Mary asked Richeldis to build a replica of the house on a specific site in Walsingham and gave her the exact dimensions. Richeldis did so.

The house quickly became a place of pilgrimage and in 1150 The Augustinian Canons built The Augustinian Priory to the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary next to the Holy House. during the following two hundred years so many pilgrims came that the priory was enlarged and the original wooden house was encased in a larger stone structure to prevent its decay.

The flow of pilgrims continued until 1538 and the Dissolution of the Monasteries, when the house was torn down, the Augustinian Priory and nearby Franciscan Friary dismantled and the famous statue of Our Lady of Walsingham was taken to London and publicly burnt.

Walsingham's religious legacy lay dormant for three hundred years until the 19th century when an Anglican woman, Charlotte Boyd, became interested in the Slipper Chapel, a waypoint on the pilgrimage route to Walsingham where pentitents would remove their shoes to walk the last mile barefoot. Miss Boyd converted to Catholicism, bought the Slipper Chapel and turned its use over as a place of prayer. The first modern-day pilgrimage was made to the Slipper Chapel in 1897.

in 1921 the local Anglican priest also became interested in the spiritual heritage of Walsingham and he decided to try to reinstate the customs of devotion and pilgrimage for the Anglican community. His efforts were widely successful and Walsingham now boasts both Catholic and Anglican shrines as well as a Russian Orthodox church and a Methodist Chapel.

The site of the Holy House, although obliterated above ground, was finally conclusively located by archeological excavations in 1961. It was located within the grounds of the Abbey and can still be visited today.

Bibliography

• A Walsingham Prayer Book: A Meditative Companion and Guide - Elizabeth Ruth Obbard (1997)
• History and Spirituality of Walsingham - Elizabeth Ruth Obbard

If you'd like to submit an idea, book review, link or correction
please get in touch.

Locations

The main locations in Walsingham

 

Links

Walsingham Churches

• The Roman Catholic Shrine
• The Annunciation
  Roman Catholic parish church
  Friday Market
  [can you supply a link?]
• The Anglican Shrine
• St Mary and All Saints
  Anglican parish church
  [can you supply a link?]
• Chapel of St Seraphim
  Orthodox chapel, Walsingham
• The Transiguration
  Orthodox church, Great Walsingham

Pilgrim & Tourist Information

• Walsingham Abbey
  Tourist info on information-britain.co.uk
• The Wells-Walsingham Light Railway
• Guided tours of Walsingham
• The town of Walsingham
• Walsingham tourist site from Norfolkcost.co.uk

Other Information

Christian Businesses in Walsingham

• The Eikon Shop
  11 High Street
  +44(0)1328 820741
• The Guild Shop
  +44(0)1328 820387
• Pilgrim's Progress Bookshop
  63 High Street
  +44(0)1328 820399
• The Shrine Shop
  2 Common Place
  +44(0) 1328 824201

Sr. Elizabeth Ruth Obbard