Norfolk Pilgrim

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 ...

Broads Brand? Hmmnnnn See Churches Together on the Broads

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...

Going to mid-day prayers with the Carmelite sisters at Quiddenham I encountered a mother and child. The child was grievously ill – all floppy in his mothers arms as she carried him out of the Children’s Hospice. Two nurses accompanying her gave support and carried the oxygen that was keeping the little lamb alive.  It was a heartbreaking! And yet the love and care was beautiful to behold. Such love! Such pain! I was privileged to catch a glimpse of something so precious. After prayers, contemplating the  Stations of the Cross,  I was able to put the experience in context. Such love! Such pain!  As I set out on the next stage of my journey there was plenty to turn over in my heart. By footpath, bridleway and quiet lanes, I was making my way from Eccles, via Quiddenham to Steve and Gill Eggleton’s home in Banham. The route forms part of a project that they and friends are working on.

Imagine a string of beads – precious gems - stretched out across the heart of England and Wales, from Lowestoft Ness in the east to St. David’s in the west. Each bead representing an artwork communicating the Christian Gospel, set up in a place where people can stop and ponder.  The string that joins these way stations  is a pilgrim path – part of which I had walked - by which seeker and pilgrim  can travel either the whole length ,or over shorter sections. They call it the Via Beata. (Way of Blessing) The first artwork has already been set up in a summerhouse/shelter by the front gate of  Steve and Gill’s garden. It is a carved triptych telling the story of the Return of the Prodigal Son.  You are invited to visit. The address is: Rowancroft, Kenninghall Road, Banningham. NR16 2HE . During the summer a small organising group has begun to pioneer some of the paths, talk with people about suitable artworks and places to display them and given s...

Walking around the town I thought I had glimpsed dawning light against the darkness of  warring madness.  As well as the castle, churches and old coaching inns I’d seen the Abbey, the Grammar School and the statue of Thomas Paine, Thetford’s most famous son. The monks who built the, now ruined, Abbey had pioneered the Peace of God movement. It urged barons to use force as a last resort and insisted on protection for non-combatants as a Christian duty. In post-Reformation times their concern for education found expression in the Grammar School that lists Paine among its old boys.  His words inspired the American Constitution and the emancipation of slaves.  The publication of his Rights of Man marked a huge step in the recognition of human rights.   While his creed, “The world is my country, all mankind are my brethren, and to do good is my religion.”  still has the ability to challenge. The birds of war still flew in and out of USAF Mildenhall...

From Britain’s highest medieval castle mound the sea of green forest stretched to the horizon. I had followed the Heritage Trail around Thetford and climbed  the hill to watch and pray. The town has an image of  being an unlovely London overspill and a centre for European immigrants, but  is much more. Since early days it has been the Gateway to Norfolk . The first fortifications were built 500 years before Christ. It was from Thetford Queen Boudicca set out to avenge the rape of her daughters and when the revolt was over the Romans came and burnt it to the ground ! Saxons followed Romans and then came the Vikings, time and again, laying waste and burning. After them the Norman Conquest brought more of the same! To-day, atop the castle mound the Normans built  all is peaceful but in the west I could see planes flying in and out of the USAF Mildenhall and I knew soldiers were training on the Battle Area.  In Iraq and Afghanistan victims...

What brilliant hosts the people of Winningen are! Not only did they take Kemp's Men into their homes and hearts but into their cellars as well! We danced, drank and chatted the festival through - renewing old friendships and making new ones too! Among them Romanetz a Ukrainian Dance group from Canada, a group from Treviso in Italy and others from Sweden, Belgium, Luxembourg, Benin, Columbia, Switzerland and dozens from around Germany. What was it about? I think the words of the Evangelische Kirche's minister at an ecumenical service on Sunday had it about right - God plays the music of life and we all respond to it one way or another - sometimes just tapping a foot, at at othertimes "putting your whole self in!" After the service there was impromptu dancing on the green outside - the Treviso musicians appeared to be playing "She'll be coming round the mountain when she comes." What asked my friend is the significance of that? Here is my considered re...

Well, no! I snapped this Dalmatian Pelican in the Danube Delta last week - where I was with with Honey Guide (www.honeyguide.co.uk) , being guided by Daniel Petrescu of www.ibis-tours.ro ( see also Danny's website www.danielpetrescu.ro ) I had a brilliant time - thanks Danny - and found an almost uncanny similarity with my own Broadland haunts. The birds were amazing and a little different from what I'm used to on the Broads. Not only White and Dalmatian Pelicans, but Squacco Herons, Night Herons, Little Bitterns, Red and Black Necked Grebe. I think I'll start a campaign to twin the Broads with the Danube Delta - please join the campaign if you can! In the meantime you might want to add your protests to those of other bird minded people against the planned errection of 21 wind turbines on the rocky saddle of the Bespeke Hills the only high land that divides the Delta from an adjacent lake. Pelicans and migrating raptors using the hills to gain altitude are likely to...