Norfolk Pilgrim

In a small and crowded island rural tranquillity and the remaining wild places require protection. Protection from any developments that compromise their status and change their character.  In the Mediterranean and Canary Islands we label such developments as costa-isation but it happens elsewhere too.  Arguably, it has already happened in parts of Norfolk and the Broads   In the Ascent of Mount Carmel Book 3, Chapter 36, section 3 St.John of the Cross makes these observations. It is good to  "........withdraw ourselves from noise and from people when we pray, even as did the Lord. Wherefore he that makes a pilgrimage does well if he makes it at a time when no others are doing so, even though the time be unusual. I should never advise him to make a pilgrimage when a great multitude is doing so; for, as a rule, on these occasions, people return in a state of greater distraction than when they went. And many set out on these pilgrima...

It was a long overdue visit for this Norfolk Pilgrim. Seeing a re-creation of the informal shrine - with flowers, candles and messages -  outside Kensington Palace, on the 20th Anniversary of Princess Diana's death reminded me. to make the journey. In the 20 years that separate us from the events of that autumn, informal shrines have become the norm. The last I had visited was beneath the fire blackened Grenfell Tower at the other end of the Kensington . This week I finally got round to visiting Kensington Gardens. The Google Map shows the relative positions of the palace, the Memorial Playground and Memorial Fountain. Seen as a whole, it could be one big Princess Diana Pilgrimage destination. Not the only one, of course, her grave is on an island at the Althorp Estate is another . My visit to the Memorial Fountain gave me most to think about. Like other pilgrim destinations,  the  fountain is :-  1) Elemental  - made from Cornish granite, with...

(Forgot to post this in March ! Better late than never !) At Whissonsett there is a Saxon cross half as old as the Christian faith.   At Mileham a striking new east window.  I wanted to see both so I decided to walk. I'd take in the Coke family memorials at Tittleshall and the deserted village of Godwick on the way and make it a way of the cross.  In as much as the walk went to plan it was good. The memorials and Godwick village acted as momento mori – reminders of my mortality. The cross and the window (did what all good sacred art does) linked particular times and places to the eternal realities. I particularly like it that Pippa Blackall's stained glass Baptism of Jesus has, in the background , the Lamb of God pastured with Richard Butler-Stoney's Guernsey cows! For all the beauty and meaning of these works of art it was the unplanned elements of the walk that made it a way of the cross. It was such tough going! I had allowed 3 hours to walk t...

I parked opposite Pentney church and walked back towards Narborough.  At the first opportunity I turned right and followed a road and then bridle paths down to the river, where I joined the Nar Valley Way and  headed west towards Pentney Abbey.   The abbey used to sit on an island surrounded by the waters of a tidal creek, where the Nar flowed into the Fens. Today the Fens have been drained, the river embanked and the only thing that’s left of the priory is its gatehouse! But, if you were looking for Norfolk’s version of St. Michael’s Mount, or Holy Island,  Pentney Abbey could have been it! At one time the Nar was called God’s Holy River on account of all the religious houses on its banks. It’s still a holy, wild and lonely place. In a strong wind birds kept their heads down.  But several brave Skylarks and Yellow Hammers sung out their songs and Swifts, Swallows and Sand Martins swooped and dived.  From the water meadows along the valley nesting Cur...

Norfolk Hawker copyright Ben Revell used with his permission One day last summer...... High summer with big blue skies, a warm sun and butterflies and dragon flies on the wing. On such a day I went to Strumpshaw Fen. My intention was  to “consider the flowers of the field”.  You can go there at anytime of year “to consider the birds” . June is the month for flowers! Strumpshaw Fen’s wildflower meadow is a remnant of, once common,  flower rich pasture. Plantlife UK estimate that 97% of the habitat was lost between 1930 and 1980! The names of the flowers are poetry in themselves : - Ragged Robin,  Yellow Rattle, Marsh Orchid, Marsh Cinquefoil, Yellow Flag.  They were a joy to behold! Soon  my attention was taken by the Swallow Tailed Butterflies – what beauty !  Next it was the turn of dragonflies……. A chance meeting with a wildlife photographer led to a master class in dragonfly identification. It was difficult not to share his enthusiasm. At t...

To the west of the B1113 is the source of the Little Ouse on the east the source of the river Waveney. When it rains Norfolk is an island!  Holy Island?   Holy Land When rain falls hard on Lopham Fen Flooding marsh and filling drains Norfolk is an island then And in my mind it still remains Down the river line the Ouse Traces the bounds to fenland drains Round wash and coast to Yarmouth strand Then up the Waveney home again Walsingham a Nazareth Broadland lakes a Galilee Where fishermen are called to faith And Christ comes walking by the sea Into a boat to the other side. One lies sleeping in the stern. While sandwiches on picnic rugs Are taken, blessed and shared in turn. A green hill outside a city wall A place of punishment provides. When viewed from it’s own Olivet The city’s temple seems to thrive. Blind, halt and lame, the deaf and Dumb, addicted, prisoner, stranger, ill Christ’s presence in his little ones Challenges his followers still An...

  I went to take pics of St. Mary's Wroxham yesterday for tourist websites. Its part of what I do for Churches Together on the Broads. I've been in and out of the magnificent doorway at St. Mary's for decades and never stopped to look before! There next to the carvings of foul fiends is this immodest lady showing her parts!   What is called a sheila na gig from the Irish Gallic What's it all about, then?  Rude ladies represented on church doorways?  I imagine sheila na gigs are not primarily a warning against lust etc.. but more likely to be a reminder that "man born of woman has but a short time to live!" All those born of woman will die!  Just inside the door  is the original site of the font. What I think is being communicated is something like:- When you enter the Church and become one of the baptised  you are no longer subject to the powers of evil and death.  You have been born again - given new life! Hmmnnnnn.......

Love it or loath it, there’s more to Walsingham than the shrine! Never mind summer’s  high church high jinks! I recommend Walsingham’s wet winter woods in February. The Presentation of Christ in the Temple, some call it the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary or Candlemas falls on 2nd. Forty days after Jesus’ birth Mary, Joseph had taken their new baby on pilgrimage. At the temple in Jerusalem the infant Christ was recognised by the elderly Simeon and Anna who spoke to his parents about their child and his destiny. One misty February morning found me on pilgrimage in Walsingham.  I had parked at the Slipper Chapel,  then walked the Holy Mile to the Abbey - avoiding the traffic on the main road by following the new path along the old railway line. Paying my entrance fee, I passed into the Abbey grounds and made straight to the pack-horse bridge.  Wow! Snowdrops, Candlemas Bells some call them, bejewelled with dew, bowed their heads beneath the skeletal spind...

2nd October was the annual Fursey Pilgrimage at Burgh Castle Lovely day! Well done everyone!   http://churchestogetheronthebroads.org.uk/2010/10/04/annual-st-fursey-pilgrimage/ Fursey celebration at St Matthews, Norwich on 15th Jan More info ......

In 1630 the Rev’d Brisley preached at the rededication of St. Andrew’s, Flixton.  He called his sermon,  'The Glory of the Latter Temple greater than the Former' .    When published in London in 1631 it carried a sub-title 'A Sermon preached at the Consecration or Restitution of the Church of Flixton , in Lovingland, Suffolk , being sometimes the Mother Church of the East Angles.'.  The Glory has passed!  All that is left are ivy clad ruins I was following my St. Felix obsession. Was the farm, the ton,   that bore his name – Flixton - once part of  the saint’s estates?  Had Felix’s feet walked these paths? and had he and his fellow monks worshipped on this hill? Other visitors had noted Roman tiles in the crumbling walls. Were the tiles from Burgh Castle, the near by  Roman fort,  where Felix’s fellow missionary St. Fursey had his base?  Now there’s a thought!  . Fursey  and Felix neighbours on what in...

There was a settlement at Haddiscoe  long before fishermen began to dry their nets on the sandbanks at the mouth of the estuary -   sandbanks that were to become Great Yarmouth! Parking my car beneath the church, with its 11 th century Anglo-Norman round tower, I walked in the Beccles direction, on a footpath that crossed a bridge over the Landspring Beck . The first right turn took me, via quiet lanes, past Haddiscoe Hall and, at a junction a mile on, another right turn took me to the bottom of the valley.  A final right turn put me on an indistinct path along a ditch and field edge leading back to the St. Mary’s church.  The path was rich with flowers.   Butterflies flitted from flower to flower and dragonflies darted about my head as I made my way through waist high grass and masses of Lady’s Bedstraw! As I got near the church a Buzzard flew out of the trees and the path plunged into a wooded glade known Devil’s Hole.   This is where the ...

I’d come to North Elmham pursuing a mystery. Did the Bishops of Elmham from Bedwinus in the 7th century to Herfast in the 11th have their cathedral in Norfolk or  Suffolk?  North or South Elmham? I’d followed a circular walk I’d found in the  Norfolk Health Heritage and Conservations Walks  leaflet (You can get hold of one from Norfolk County Council or on-line at www.countrysideaccess.norfolk.gov.uk .)  It took me through parkland,  along quiet lanes and ended up at the parish church  (Well worth a visit in its own right!) My final destination was indicated by a brown tourist sign. Uncompromisingly it asserts “Saxon Cathedral”! But when you get to the ruins and read English Heritage’s helpful interpretation boards there’s no certainty at all.  What you see are earthworks and  ruins of a castle built by Henry Despencer,  the fighting Bishop of Norwich. He was famous for putting down the Peasants’ Revolt in 1381. A man not witho...

Within their own earthworks the stubbs of flint walls delineate where once a proud building stood.  Not the Saxon Minster promised by the Ordinance Survey map but a rather later build, like churches in Great Yarmouth and Kings Lynn and the cathedral in Norwich, the work of Herbert de Losinga. But Herbert built where a church had stood from the earliest days of  Christianity in East Anglia.  Beneath ancient Hornbeams the all pervading green is relieved by flowers -  patches of Red Campion and  the white filigree of Queen Ann’s Lace. And from tree top stalls Blackbirds sing antiphonally where once choirs sung their Creators praise. This is South Elmham. I had walked to the glade on way marked paths from a car park at South Elmham Hall where I’d called into the café to pick up a leaflet. The  parishes of the Ferding of Elmham form a block of land which might have been given to St. Felix by King Sigbert in the 7th Century. “Of Elmham”  Bishops were d...

I   walked down the lane at the height of spring enjoying the sun . The air was as heady as chilled champagne and  I was following my nose. There was a new whiff of pig on the air.  I set off to investigate passing  down Horstead’s Primrose Lane but for all my searching I couldn’t find even one!  Stitchwort and early Bluebells? Yes.  Primroses? No.  Yet there must have been lots of them once upon a time. Did thieves plunder them ?   There are lots of wild Primroses in local gardens, but my guess is that  a change of maintenance of the verges will have played  largest part.  In days gone by they made as much hay as they could.  Now the verges are cut and left.  Un-raked grass soon becomes rank and humpy and  can strangle plants. Primroses are especially vulnerable. Saddened by the loss of Primroses I found two places where rubbish had been dumped by the roadside.  Doesn’t fly tipping  make you cr...

Reducing your carbon foot print?  Travel by bus! The X1 starts at Lowestoft and passes through Yarmouth, Norwich and Kings Lynn. At Peterborough it connects with the number 37 (Spalding)  which will take you to Crowland and its famous abbey church. It was a boat that brought St. Guthlac to Crowland on St. Batholomew’s Day 699 AD!  On what was then a marshy island he established a hermitage in the ruins of a plundered grave mound. Struggling with demons, marsh ague and strict asceticism Guthlac followed in the footsteps of St. Anthony of Egypt and the desert fathers.  As his reputation for holiness grew many found their way through the watery Fenland wilderness to seek his counsel. Among them was the future King Ethelbald  of Mercia. After Guthlac’s death in 714 AD  Ethelbald founded an abbey on the site.  The abbey endured through several re-foundings and re-buildings until the dissolution of the monasteries in 1539. Thereafter the cloisters and m...

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...

On 17th April join Journeying for a Walk on the Fringe from St. Andrew Eaton to St. Walstan's Well and Shrine at Bawburgh. I travelled the path a couple of years ago here's my notes: You might describe it as, “a walk on the edge .” From start to finish the sound of traffic and distant sirens provided background noise. I chose to begin my walk from the car park next to St. Mary’s, Earlham, by the bridge on the B1108. You could choose to make the walk longer by starting by the old bridge at Eaton or even at Marston Lane. The path follows a crystal clear River Wensum as it skirts the south of Norwich’s built environment. It goes through Eaton, by the University, then past Earlham and Bowthorpe housing estates. I was on my way to pay respects to St.Walstan at his shrine and holy well at Bawburgh. Born to wealth and royalty, the saint lived a life of prayer and poverty, choosing to support himself a farm worker. (You could describe him as a Franciscan before St. Francis...

  A ruined church, winter bare trees in the deserted churchyard and the jackdaws’ cry. All are reminders of mortality - a fitting backdrop for the Lenten fast!  The reused bricks and conglomerate stone incorporated by the 11th century the builders recall “the glories that were Rome”. Once this building housed a miraculous wonder-working  image of St. Theobald to which pilgrims flocked. Often when I come here to pray , there’s just me and some friendly horses. That’s fine for someone who seeks solitude but do these deserted and neglected ruins point towards the Church of England future?” Ah! I have left out the most amazing thing that one day totally transformed a dismal scene! “A host of ….daffodils !”   On a March day back in 2009,  like William Wordsworth’s Lake District flowers, these were abundant and “danced and fluttered in the breeze.”  I think I know what the poet meant when he wrote: For oft, when on my couch I lie In vacant or in ...

Above the steamy warmth of the café, in the still prayerfulness of high arched church, a steady stream of people quietly come and go and light floods in through clerestory windows.  Here the shop-weary can find sanctuary from retails restless rat race and allow themselves time to respond to Wisdom’s bumper bargain. Mancroft is not alone in offering such space. There are two cathedrals  and St.John, at the top of Timberhill ( between John Lewis and the entrance to the Castle Mall),  is always open.  But best of all, and a short walk away, is St. Julian’s Church just of Rouen Road In the 14th century this was the commercial centre.  In the midst of the teeming city  Mother/Lady Julian lived out a solitary life of prayer and reflection the very embodiment of Wisdom in the Marketplace. Her book, still in print after all this time, sums up The Reason for the Season in four short words, “Love was his meaning!”

Christmas shopping and the January sales will bring many into Norwich this winter. In a time of financial crisis people will be looking for value for money while trying to stay within budget. It can be quite trying! For Christian shoppers there are other considerations, not least The Reason for the Season.  How can we celebrate the Christ in Christmas with the cards and presents we give? The Norwich Christian Resources Centre, in St. Michael at Plea Church on the corner of Redwell Street and Queen Street,   is one  place where you might find that special gift.  While there take advantage of the in-house café. It’s an oasis where a shopper can relax  and re-fuel.  There are similar Christian cafes dotted around the city: at the Kings Church in King Street, the Salvation Army in St.Giles, the All Saints Centre in Westlegate (opposite John Lewis) and the ever popular Octagon at St. Peter Mancroft. Wisdom  in the Market Place is a striking picture...