I plan to stay with a pilgrim who lives close to the end point of this stage. They may also have a double room available, let me know if you are interested. To remedy that, the Confraternity is working with Andy Bull, author of Pilgrim Pathways, to identify the old route and develop a modern pilgrim path that is as faithful to it as possible, while also giving a fulfilling walking experience.

The official launch of the London to Walsingham Camino, and the publication of the accompanying guidebook, will take place on Saturday, 3 September 2022. I (Andy) have indicated at each stage where I shall be staying, and given links, where I can, to allow you to do the same, should you wish. You may prefer to book alternative accommodation away from the route and take taxis in and out. That’s entirely up to you. Meeting ties and locations for each day are given below. 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.

London to Walsingham Camino

I shall be staying with Jim Sollars, a member of the British Pilgrimage Trust, who lives in the village. He has two or three additional spaces. Please let me know if you’d like to stay with Jim. In 1061 a Walsingham noblewoman, Lady Richeldis de Faverches, had 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. 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 Foundation, at 2 Butcher Row, London E14 8DS, which has been caring for pilgrims and others since 1174, is the London to Walsingham Camino accommodation partner in London.

A pilgrim path that offers a wonderful long-distance route, on footpaths and quiet lanes, across the glorious east of England. The church (Lower Thames St, London EC3R 6DN), is the official start of the London to Walsingham Camino route, and will be open for us to visit the shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham and stamp our pilgrim passports. Passports are available from the Confraternity of St James (csj.org.uk) Readers are welcome to attend one or more location, and to join author Andy Bull, who has led the revival of the path, on the walk between them, as you wish. Pilgrim welcome from Fr Dominic Robinson, brief talk from Andy Bull about the history, and revival, of the London to Walsingham Camino. Book signing. Venue: Arrupe Hall, Catholic Church of the Immaculate Conception, 114 Mount St, London W1K 3AH 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.

Publications, Badges and Certificates:

She told me that it was all very well to have re-established the pre-Reformation walking route from London to Walsingham, and fine that I had walked each stage four or five times in the course of researching the path... but. To truly bear witness I had to walk the whole thing in one go.

For 400 years, no pilgrims walked to Walsingham. Since the 1930s, when both Catholic and Anglican shrines were re-established here, Walsingham has undergone a revival. It draws around 300,000 pilgrims each year, but hardly any of them walk much more than the final Holy Mile, and only a few church and other groups trace the full route from London. 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.This route via Bury St Edmunds is 144 miles includingall the twists and turns. Starting on Sunday (say 9am Mass at Westminster Cathedral) and walking an average 20 miles a day gets you to Fakenham on Saturday evening. This allows a leisurely 4 mile walk on Sunday to the Catholic Shrine at Houghton St Giles for the mid day pilgrim Mass (a further 1 mile to Little Walsingham gets you to the Anglican Centre where Mary is also venerated and a range ofsmall town amenities, accommodation etc.). Before Henry VIII outlawed pilgrimage and the veneration of saints in 1538, the route from London to the shrine at Walsingham in Norfolk was the most popular pilgrimage in England. 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. Walking each day set up a rhythm in which the awareness of being a pilgrim grew. As day followed day, the ordinary, everyday world and my life in it shrank in significance, and the life of the spirit and the joyful sense of communal endeavour grew ever stronger.

Holy Places listed in Britain’s Pilgrim Places book : Bury St Edmunds; Houghton-on-the-Hill; Norwich Cathedral; Little Walsingham. Walsingham was England’s Nazareth. A fantastical tale brought pilgrims – kings, queens, and commoners alike – to Walsingham in the Middle Ages. The London to Walsingham Caminoguidebook is part of an attempt to change that: to re-establish a walking route which, while being as true to the original way as possible, takes account of the modern realities on the ground. A pilgrim path that offers a wonderful long-distance route, on footpaths and quiet lanes, across the glorious east of England. A truly pleasurable and uplifting walking experience. We were welcomed at many points along the way. Many of the 22 churches in which we have placed pilgrim stamps invited us to join them for Morning or Evening Prayer, for Mass and – on one memorable occasion, in the village of Withersfield – the most enchanting Evensong I have ever experienced. The village choir was accompanied on a homely squeeze-box like organ and afterwards the vicar, Max Drinkwater, joined us for pilgrim supper at the village inn, the White Horse, where we were staying.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.