WALSINGHAM PILGRIMAGES

I have been away from home for four days and one of them was spent visiting the Norfolk village of Little Walsingham, where there are ruins of an Augustian Priory dating from the 1150's, which thousands of pilgrims visit from all over the world every year. !! Above is the enormous East Window, with the 1930's Church and tower of the Anglican Shrine to our Lady of Walsingham in the background (red roof/tower)... and an image of another aspect of the ruined priory on the left. It must have been a collosal building.

The village is full of historic buildings including timber framed and lots of delightful coffee shops. We found this one, where we sat by the fire in large cushioned leather chairs and ate fruit cake with filtered coffees before our explorations.

Then we had the glorious walks through the woodlands, by tranquil rivers and over bridges among the snowdrop thronged natural woods and parkland - all on a wonderful sunny day. Looks like snow but I can assure you it was stunningly carpeted with snowdrops.

We then visited the Anglican Shrine , stopped for tea and then walked down hill through the village to the wonderful Saint Mary and All Saints church with a 14th century tower and lead covered spire. The third snowdrop image above is of the East Window of the Priory from the church graveyard wall. The great interest here is the east window designed by John Hayward in the 1960, when the church was renovated after a great fire. The window has over 15 sections, all depicting the area's history and celebrating a number of saints. Rather a lot of lead so that the whole window from a distance appears quite dark. ... but what interested me most were the STATIONS OF THE CROSS created in carved different coloured woods, but on speaking to a member of the church they had no history of them. Here's one (isn't it marvelous and all the otheres are as creative)

A wonderful day in company of my friend Anne from Cromer. We went to church in the evening and then sat up chatting till late. We took her dogs for long walks Sunday morning before I left for home.