Little Walsingham, Norfolk
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Notes in italics from North-West and South Norfolk by Nikolaus Pevsner (1962) Penguin Books, now published by Yale University Press |
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PRIORY. The Priory of Our Lady of Walsingham
developed into one of the most famous pilgrimage places in England. It seems to
have originated in a chapel built by Richelde of Fervaques about 1150, 'ad
instar' of the house in Nazareth where the Annunciation took place. Her son
Geoffrey had visited the Holy Land and added to the chapel a priory for
Augustinian canons. That was about 1153, and a little later the priory became a
centre for pilgrimages, thanks, it appears, to the interest taken in it by Henry
III and Edward I, who visited Walsingham often and gave presents. ... |
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| Click on photos below too enlarge | ||||
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| SHRINE OF OUR LADY OF WALSINGHAM. The new Anglican shrine was built in 1931-7. Design by Miller & Craze. It is a disappointing building, of brick, partly whitewashed, and looking for all its ambitions like a minor suburban church. Italianate brick portico. Campanile by the (ritual) E end. There is not sufficient evidence to justify the claim that the new shrine stands where the Holy House had been ... Within the Shrine Church is the new Holy House, a supposed recreation of the house of the Annunciation in Nazareth. | ||||
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| The grounds of the church | ||||
| The story
goes that Lady Richeldis had a vision in which she was taken by Mary and
shown the house in Nazareth where Gabriel had announced the news of the
birth of Jesus (the Annunciation). Mary asked
her to build a replica of the house in Walsingham. It was a simple wooden
structure and some years later, a priory was built around the house. This
became a place of pilgrimage, even drawing Kings from Henry III to Henry
VIII (who then had it destroyed in 1538).
There are conflicting accounts of the dates of the Lady Richeld/ Richelde/ Richeldis. Some say she was a Saxon noblewoman and had the vision in 1061, five years before the Norman Conquest. Others say she was Norman and had the vision in 1100 or later. |
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