London to Walsingham Camino - The Pilgrimage Guide

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She was told to build a replica of the house in Walsingham, and did so. The Holy House, initially a simple wooden structure, later richly decorated with gold and precious jewels, became a shrine and attracted pilgrims to Walsingham from all over Europe including numerous kings. 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. 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. Some of you have committed to completing the full pilgrimage, others have opted to dip in and out. At this stage it looks as if about half a dozen of us will walk the full route, with variable numbers joining as for a time.

Identifying the very best walking route at each point, and offering a good alternative route via Bury St Edmunds, will be key to the success of the project. This guide follows a newly-resurrected route devised by the author. Divided into 13 easy to moderately-challenging stages, it’s a truly uplifting walking experience, following footpaths and quiet lanes across the glorious east of England. 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.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.

Not only that: in the whole of 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.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.

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. But when I told the many people we met along the way that this was a pilgrimage I got a fair few blank looks. Yet, if I said this was a Camino, ‘like they have in Spain’, I almost always got nods of recognition. Often they knew of the film, The Way, in which a character played by Martin Sheen walks to the shrine of St James in Santiago, in honour of a son who died on the eve of his own Camino journey. Suggested accommodation: Bridge Hotel (I booked via bookings.com) or Ram Inn, Brandon, also on bookings.comTube to Monument for start of pilgrim route at St Magnus the Martyr, perhaps via Southwark Anglican Cathedral. How to get your pilgrim credencial/pilgrim passport for access to pilgrim accommodation along the routes, and to qualify for the Compostela certificate of completion.