Bored to Death

A reflection on sermons from Mike Handley

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St.James, Bawsey

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Streams of cars speed down Kings Lynn’s Queen Elizabeth Way everyday. High above the traffic a ruined church has paid witness for a thousand years and more. For decades it has been drawing me like a magnet. So on a sunny Spring day I finally found my way up the hill. Church Farm, Bawsey is managed under a Higher Level Stewardship scheme and provides parking and permissive footpaths.  You can approach the farm from the Gayton Road turning left into Church Lane just beyond the crematorium. Maps showing the paths and parking are available online on the Natural England website ( cwr.naturalengland.org.uk ). They are also displayed at strategic places around the farm .  I had intended to walk from Norfolk Wildlife Trust’s Roydon Common, via the Grimston Warren reserve but that was closed as the work there continues. They are converting it from commercial forestry back to its original lowland heath. I followed a path to the edge of the warren through recently restored pasture...
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First Day of the Rest of My Life

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 I have not posted much of late. I have been struggling. Between completing the pioneering work on a possible Withburga Way between Holkham and Dereham in the summer of 2022 and today my health has gone downhill in alarming way. I'll never walk the route in a couple of days, nor yet in 3.  I'll never walk it.  The rapid onset Pulmonary Fibrosis has left me struggling for breath putting my boots on let alone walking.  Yesterday, I went to St. Benet's Abbey , ate my picnic lunch in the car park and set myself the challenge of walking from the car park to the Abbey ruins. It is 0.35 miles and uphill all the way from from the Gate House to the old rugged cross that marks the site of the high altar at the summit. The hill looked quite daunting -  "Who can ascend the hill of the Lord?" I sang under by breath. Stopping often to catch my breath, slowly one foot in front of the other, I got closer to the summit. There before the cross, wind in my hair, it felt as i...
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Shelton, St. Mary

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Once upon a Tudor time, the name of Shelton was well known. The family’s manor house, at Shelton, now a parish in the Hempnall Team Ministry, was  a great palace.  The Sheltons were kinsmen of the Boleyn’s.  Ann, Henry VIIIs queen and mother of the Princess Elizabeth, had been named after her Shelton aunt. At one stage Ann Shelton had charge over Elizabeth and her  half-sister the Princess, soon to be Queen, Mary. For a cracking read in which the Shelton’s play a supporting role try Hilary Mantel’s books on Henry’s VIII Wolf Hall and Bring up the Bodies ! As a fan of Hilary Mantel,  I was already romantically attached to the parish of Shelton even though the once lavish Tudor Palace is no more.  Inquisitively, I decided to follow a newly published circular route that began and ended at the parish church.  I hope to add links to the walk here as soon as possible. For the time being pick up leaflets of all the Hem...
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