The Shrine of our Lady of Walsingham and St Mary's Stamford
On Saturday 7th June 2009 St Mary's visited the Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham in Norfolk. Visits have been to Walsingham for many years and another trip is planned for 2010.
History ( kindly provided by The Late Norman Haxell)
In 1921 Fr Alfred Hope Patten was instituted as Vicar of Walsingham. In the following year he placed a copy of the medieval statue of Our Lady of Walsingham in the parish church.
It soon became a focus of prayer and meditation and a little later, the first of many pilgrimages began. Nine years later in 1931 the statue was moved into the restored Holy House, as described in Fr Colins Stephenson's "Walsingham Way".
Gradually the numbers of pilgrims grew and the devotional life of the shrine increased.
There is no evidence from the St Mary's parish magazines that in Fr Bailey's time as Rector (1916-1939) he or members of the St Mary's congregation wnt to Walsingham. However it may be thought highly probable that siome did, if not by road, then by the railway, a comparatively easy journey from Stamford, via Kings Lynn and Hunstanton. The restoration of the shrine would have commended itself to Fr Bailey's Catholic connections and such devout ladies as Miss Erskine and Miss Lowe.
Much of Fr Hoskin's incumbency (1940-1958) was during the difficult days of the war and its aftermath. Parish visits to the shrine did not begin until well into the 1950's, when a party of Mother's Union members attended.
Fr Roland Taylor (Rector 1959-1962) developed St Mary's knowledge and love of the shrine, and there were two or three visits to Walsingham made by members of the congregation, and it does occur to me that alamp was lit in Fr Taylors time as rector.
In Fr David Davies time (1962-1990) contact with the shrine was developed further. A small party went by coach in the autumn of 1962, and thereafter for many years, parties went on the National Pilgrimages and the Assumption of Our Lady. Pilgrimages continued in November when a number went to remember before God those who had died and had loved Walsingham.
It is good that devotion to Walsingham is still strong, and that a lamp, the cost sustained by the St Mary's congregation, still burns in the Holy House.
Through the courtesy of Fr Nigel (1991-) and the PCC a replica of the statue of Our Lady of Walsingham has recently been placed on the ledge of the North wall adjacent to the Prayer Board.