extracts from
Walsingham Review Number 4 March 1962
Walsingham Review 4
Walsingham Notes
Mr James Barwell, JP, who is well known in the Birmingham Diocese, where he has been one of the most
prominent laymen in the struggle to keep the Faith alive during the persecutions of Bishop Barnes, has
been elected as a Lay-Guardian.
It is now almost certain that Parcevall Hall, the estate entrusted by Sir William Milner to the Walsingham
Yorkshire Properties Co, will be run by the Bradford Diocese as a Retreat and Conference house. We have
had great difficulties in deciding how best to fulfil the terms of the Trust, but we are glad to think that it
will be doing a valuable service for the Church in the North. It has been pointed out before, but perhaps
needs underlining, that although the Guardians form a Walsingham Yorkshire Properties Co, it is a separate
company and the Shrine does not benefit financially in any way. Many people, encouraged by the press,
still think that we inherited this considerable property and that all our financial difficulties must be over.
Would God that that were so!
Fr Derek Hooper has been looking after the parish of Exminster in his native county of Devon for two
months while the vicar, Fr Judd, a Priest Associate, has been to South Africa to help another Priest
Associate, Fr Maurice Brunsden, who has had a very hard time in that sad country. We have been looking
after the parish of Burnham Thorpe, near here, for over a year now since Fr Wright died but our work at
Stiffkey has ended as the parish has been united to Blakeney. These works have given us many valuable
local contacts and made us some firm friends.
Mr Green, who was in charge of the digging this summer at the “Abbey”, lectured on February 17th to the
Norwich Archeological Society, on the findings, but it will be some time before the full report is in print.
There can be little doubt that the Chapel uncovered on the north side of the Priory Church was the one
described by William of Worcester and Erasmus which was having a porch added to it at the very eve of
reformation. There are no traces of an earlier building and it seems to have been “new work” when William
of Worcester recorded his impressions in 1479. Either the Holy House was left without a covering chapel
until that time or it was moved alongside the church already built, in which case the Saxon foundations on
which our Shrine is built might possible be its original site. There is no evidence except the foundation and
the well for this, but then there is little evidence of its earlier history and like many puzzles of this kind, I
suppose one’s final judgement is bound to be influenced by what one wishes to believe. There can be no
doubt that Mr Green has done a very valuable and scholarly piece of work, but several puzzles will have to
go into what he calls “the suspense account”.
Plans for the restoration of St Mary’s, the Parish Church, are going ahead and it is hoped that the
rebuilding will begin in May. There has been a good response to the Appeal, but it is not until the plan is
completed that Fr Roe will know exactly how much money will be needed beyond what is already in hand.
He is most grateful to those who have already been so generous.
“Our Faith”
by Enid Chadwick
(CLA 2/-)
This is a twenty page booklet, written for children, in which the authoress explains Catholic teaching about
each phrase of the Apostles’ Creed. She illustrates every page in a style reminiscent of that which her
many paintings in the Shrine Church has made charmingly familiar to thousands of pilgrims each year. The
text, with its visual aids and appropriate quotations, should prove this booklet a valuable acquisition to
many Catholic homes.