London to Walsingham Camino - The Pilgrimage Guide

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I hope to be able to offer some pilgrimage-related activities in Bury, and am discussing this with the Cathedral team. It all depends on how many we will be.

The London to Walsingham Camino Pilgrimage Guide is exceptional in its presentation, highlighting the historical context of the ancient Pilgrim Routes, alongside the spiritual reasons as to why people have made pilgrimage to Walsingham over so many centuries. It eloquently speaks to us of the often unknown spiritual heritage of England. Perhaps lost jewel to be rediscovered! The book is fascinating on myriads of levels with insights from some of the great British authors which have the capacity to open us to the depths of our great literary heritage along side the spiritual one. Andy said: ‘It would be wonderful to see what is arguably England’s most important pilgrim route re-established, with a comprehensive guidebook, pilgrim stamps in churches along the way, and perhaps ultimately a waymarked route. The trail leads from London to pass through Waltham Abbey, Ware, Stansted, Mountfitchet, Saffron Walden, Withersfield, Stansfield, Bury St Edmunds, Thetford, Brandon, Great Cressingham, Castle Acre, Fakenham, and it ends in Walsingham. The first section routes east along the Thames heading north at Limehouse in the Lea Valley to reach Waltham Forest and includes much waterside walking. The London to Walsingham Camino is a modern re-creation by Andy Bull of what was reputedly the most popular pilgrimage in England from London to the shrine at Walsingham in Norfolk until Henry VIII outlawed pilgrimage and the veneration of saints in 1538. From London's Church of St Magnus the Martyr next to London Bridge, with its shrine to Our Lady of Walsingham, it leads to the Anglican and Catholic shrines at Walsingham in Norfolk, following footpaths and quiet lanes across the countryside east of England while visiting many towns on the way. Walsingham was England's Nazareth, where in 1061 a Walsingham noblewoman, Lady Richeldis de Faverches, claimed a vision in which the Virgin Mary transported her soul to Nazareth and showed her the house where the Holy Family once lived, and in which the Annunciation of Archangel Gabriel, foretelling Jesus's birth, occurred. She was told to build a replica of the house in Walsingham, and it became a shrine attracting pilgrims to Walsingham from Europe including numerous kings. In the Christian world it was eclipsed by just three other places: Jerusalem, Rome, and Santiago de Compostela. Walking the whole route in 13 days (plus a rest-day at Bury St Edmunds, the half-way point) was a revelation.

Suggested accommodation: Old Canon Brewery, Bury St Edmunds. I am staying here. I booked via bookings.com St Mary’s, Houghton on the Hill (pilgrim stamp) This church, with its 1,000-year-old wall paintings, will be specially opened for us. Norwich to Walsingham – 36 miles, 3 days (Google Map Blue Line). Starting at Norwich Cathedral you soon have the Shrine of St Julian, a female mystic of great literary influence, embedded within a city of thirty medieval churches. Perhaps unsurprisingly in the county of Walsingham, there is evidence of a powerful female spirituality not only related to Mary but also St Anne, St Margaret, St Catherine, St Birgitte of Sweden and the writer Margery Kempe. Much of the route to Walsingham passes through the valley of the River Wensum, an region of unassuming beauty. Around the Snoring villages are stretches of high, grain-growing plateau with huge skies, and then you have the wooded valley of the Stiffkey. There are vistas of unenclosed valleys which have changed little since earlier times. The route from Reading Abbey to Southampton, likely used by medieval British pilgrims to Santiago, and designated part of the Camino Inglés in the UK. Highlighted holy place: Walsingham Abbey Shrine– There are two modern shrines in the village of Little Walsingham – the Anglican and Catholic shrines. However, in the footprint of the abbey ruins is where the true shrine remains. Here the young noblewoman Richeldis de Faverches had three visions of the Virgin Mary and consequently desired to replicate the Holy House of Nazareth, where Mary herself had had her most famous vision, the annunciation – at the spot in the photo. Construction was difficult but, in the end, it was built miraculously (not by humans). Walsingham eventually became one of the greatest pilgrimage shrines in medieval Europe before it was destroyed by dastardly Henry. The poem Pynson Ballad remains to tell of its greatness.

Walsingham was by far the most important pilgrim shrine in England until Henry VIII outlawed pilgrimage and the veneration of saints in 1538. It was much more popular than Canterbury. Suggested accommodation: Bridge Hotel (I booked via bookings.com) or Ram Inn, Brandon, also on bookings.com Max has very kindly arranged with his congregation to move their usual evensong to coincide with our time in the village. One of the great joys for me, a Catholic, was to discovered the beauty of Anglican Morning and Evening Prayer. They read like meditations, and we started and ended most of our days with them.We became three when Sarah, an Anglican deacon, also signed up for the full slog. We were joined along the way by others, a couple for a week, others for a day or three, and became a generally merry band, even in the face of rain, storm, hail, blisters and creaking knees. That is largely due to the fact there is no waymarked route, as there are with many other significant pilgrim paths, and no comprehensive guidebook. London to Walsingham Camino guidebook is a full colour guide to walking the re-established pilgrimage route from the Church of St Magnus the Martyr, with its shrine to Our Lady of Walsingham to the Anglican and Catholic shrines at Walsingham in Norfolk.