1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933
1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 1941
1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949
1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959
Our Lady's Mirror
Spring 1937
St George's Altar
in the parish church
On Whit Monday at 11.15 a Parish party arrived from Norwich and sang Mass at the Lady Chapel of the
Parish Church and then proceeded to the Shrine for their first visit. In the meantime a Pilgrimage from
Northampton processed through the village to the Holy House; each of these groups followed the usual
programme.
At 5 o’clock charabancs from Bradford and Oakworth drew up before the West Entrance, bearing the
annual Yorkshire Pilgrimage, which stayed until Tuesday afternoon. Scarcely had our goodbyes been said
to our Northern friends when the Society of Mary and the Catholic League bedecked in the blue veils and
other insignia associated with these pilgrims came to the Sanctuary and remained at Walsingham until
Thursday. With the Catholic League came Father Behr and Father Theocretoff, both of the Holy Orthodox
Russian Church; this was their second pilgrimage to Our Lady of Walsingham.
One day’s breathing space and then from S. John’s, Isle of Dogs, came members of that congregation on
an annual visit to the Holy House.
Owing to the rains the Holy Well is unusually full, the water coming within about two feet of the top.
Work is very complicated this year, owing first to our having to clear the Sacristy away for the builders,
and so we are living without one, and secondly, owing to our having only one door available into the
gardens. The outer Church looks somewhat like a storeroom which does not impress the visitors.
On Coronation Day, after the Rosary, a cedar of Lebanon was planted in the courtyard of the Shrine to
commemorate this great National event.
We have again to thank Sir William Milner for a further generous gift of land for the extension of the
Shrine. He has had transferred to the Walsingham College Trust Association, part of the gardens of the
Hospice and S. Augustine’s, together with ten feet of the Pilgrim Refectory.
It will be remembered that it was owing to Sir William’s kindness we were able to build the Shrine on its
present site.
THE EXTENSION
In April work began on the extension of the Shrine and on May 31st the Anniversary of the death of
Nicholas Mileham, who was on that day burnt at the stake in Walsingham for resisting the putting down
of the Shrine, the first bricks were laid of the “North” wall, just beyond the site of the Church Cross. This
was another of the peculiar coincidences connected with the Shrine and only “struck” the writer just as
he was penning this article.
Tons of earth have had to be removed from the site as the ground rises very much from the Shrine to
the Hospice garden, so that we shall look down on the Church from part of the Via Dolorosa.
At the moment you never saw such a hopeless mess of bricks and flints and mortar machines and lorries
on the site, and the dust – well, at times it’s like a small sand-storm!
The Chapel of Our Lady of Sorrows has gone, as, too, the walls dividing S. Augustine and the Hospice
gardens, and the area is enclosed in wire fences to prevent the over-interested from straying and
perhaps getting hurt or, worse still, doing hurt! Ten feet of the Refectory has had to be sacrificed, but the
interior space has been balanced by taking down the dividing wall, which separated the pilgrims’ dining
room from the cart-shed beyond, and so we have gained about 20 feet. As we go to Press nearly all of
the “footings” are in and we hope the next weeks will show a rapid growth in the external walls.
Much interest is evinced by pilgrims and visitors in these building operations and especially in the site of
the Scouts’ Chapel.
REMARKABLE DISCOVERIES IN THE SHRINE GARDEN
In preparation for the foundation of the extension, considerable excavations have been undertaken to
the “East” of the present building, as it was considered essential that we should try to find out what the
old foundations, which partly lie under the existing Shrine, were. We had been of the opinion ever since
1931 that they might have been the remains of the original Holy House.
When, however, we began to open up the garden, we discovered, running parallel with the walls under
the Shrine, a narrow “footing” of flint work, roughly 48 feet long (interior measurement), but, alas, the
interior was only 20 feet wide, whereas our only authority for the dimension of the outer building of the
Shrine, William of Worcester, states that it was 30 feet wide.
As the work went on, the foundation of a small tower or turret at the North-West angle was uncovered,
with the indication of a similar one at the South-West. When these external measurements were taken it
was discovered that from the North wall of the North-West tower to the South wall of the South-West
tower, the distance was just 30 feet. These measurements are remarkable, assuming that they are the
foundations of the original building that covered the Holy House. It seems that, for some reason not at
present clear, it was not possible for William of Worcester to take the interior width, so he paced the
length inside and the width outside. Was it because the Holy House and other things within took up so
much of the interior that he was not able to pace it?
Longitude novi operis de Walsingham continet in toto 16 virgas; latitude continet infra aream 10 virgas.
The expression infra aream has been the subject of much discussion for many years past. Do these
measurements interior and exterior, explain them?
Further, at the East end of these foundations have been discovered fragments of flint work which seem
to indicate very clearly the existence at one time of two other turrets, corresponding to those at the
West end, while, in the centre of the North wall are the remains of what is evidently a North Porch. The
remarkable things is that the little building depicted on the reverse of the 13th Century Seal of the Priory
shows just such a building as could be reconstructed on the foundations uncovered. We are told not to
lay too much stress on the evidence of seals as they were very often unreliable and general in form, but
in our case it does seem a coincidence to say the least.
Further, at the West end about 13 feet away we have uncovered a solid mass of flintwork, 6 feet by 5
feet with a hole in the centre, which seemed without any doubt to have been the base of a Churchyard
Cross.
At the East end again we are opening out a rectangular space enclosed by the outer side of the East wall
of the foundations, the North and South walls of the turrets and closed by a wall to the East, this space
runs the whole width of the East wall.
These foundations and those of the Priory Church in the Abbey grounds are exactly parallel.
Archaeologists have seen these excavations and the opinions are: (a) Decidedly mediæval work; (b)
Clearly Saxon or Norman done by Saxon workmen; (c) Definitely Saxon. So far the consensus of opinion
is that they may be the foundations of the original building of the Shrine.
The distance between these foundations and the Priory Church is quite understandable when we realise
that water is touched within eighteen inches of the floor of this foundation, so that it was obviously
necessary for the Canons when they came and started to set up their Church and domestic buildings to
find more solid ground. It also helps to explain why the Shrine, if this be it, was not either enclosed or
made part of the Canons’ Church.
On all sides we have been told that it would be vandalism to cover up these finds and that it is our duty
to so close them in that they can at any time be inspected and examined, at it seems that for the sake
of future generations we shall have to form a crypt of the very simplest form for this purpose, and for
this we require at least another £200. Is there anyone who is prepared to give this?
illustration: two photographs of the Foundations; Enid Chadwick's drawing of St George's altar in the
parish church [above]