Walsingham Priory & Slipper Chapel, Eastern England

The medieval shrine of Our Lady in Walsingham attracted pilgrims from throughout medieval Europe. For much of the medieval period, the Virgin Mary was one of the more popular saints in England, so much so that she was considered to be a special patron of England. The Shrine at Walsingham was where pilgrims would come to petition the Virgin, and ask her to intercede on their behalf.  

The shrine at Walsingham began with one woman’s vision, quite literally. In the 11th Century, a woman named Richeldis de Faverches, who was the Lady of the Manor of Walsingham, had a dream of the Virgin Mary. In this dream, she was told to build a Holy House.  It was to be a replica of the house, in Nazareth, where the Annunciation occurred.  Richeldis started to build a wooden copy of the house she had seen in her vision, which was to be near two wells.  She must not have had the correct location though, because legend tells us that the foundations were miraculously moved during the night to a site further to the west, so it was decided to complete the building there.  That’s what I love about legends, they are not constrained in any way by logic or reason. 

The original shrine at Walsingham is thought to date from 1061, when Richeldis’s vision was realised.  It was Richeldis’s son, Geoffrey, who left instructions to build a Priory in Walsingham. In 1153, the Priory came into the care of the Augustinian Canons, who established the Augustinian Priory to the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, adjacent to the Holy House that was built by Richeldis.  As popular as the shrine was, we know little about the Priory that was established here.   In the grounds of the Priory, the east wall of the church still stands, now almost isolated in the landscape. 

The shrine at Walsingham grew to become one of the most popular pilgrimage destinations in Europe. It was also a popular Royal destination, being visited by Henry III in 1226, Edward I visited 11 times during his reign (but he had a lot to be forgiven for), Edward II visited in 1315, Edward III in 1361, Richard II in 1383, Edward IV in 1469, Henry VI in 1487 (he also visited many times), and finally Henry VIII in 1511, before he closed it completely in 1538.

The village of Little Walsingham appears to be nearly as old as the Priory.  The little Pump House, on the Common Place, is in the centre of town and dates from the 16th Century. It was, as the name suggests, a public water supply.  The medieval village of Walsingham grew as a tourist town, which it still is today. It originally developed to cater for the increasing number of pilgrims and to meet their needs.  By 1252, a Charter had been granted to hold a weekly market and an annual fair.  The medieval buildings in the village have changed little over the centuries, and would have originally been hostelries and shops for the visiting pilgrims. Many are still used as such today as well.

The Shrine that was once at the Priory in Walsingham was recreated, in 1934, in the medieval Slipper Chapel, which is one mile south of Walsingham.  The Slipper Chapel was built in 1325, and was a wayside chapel which pilgrims would stop at on their way to Walsingham.  It is known as the Slipper Chapel, because it was here that they would slip off their shoes, so that they could walk barefoot the final Holy Mile to the shrine at Walsingham.

The Slipper Chapel is dedicated to St. Catherine, who was the patron saint of pilgrims. After the reformation the chapel fell into disrepair. It became a poor house for a while, then a forge, and finally was even used as a cow byre until, in 1894, Miss Charlotte Pearson Boyd restored it and gave it back to the Roman Catholic Church. 

The Shrine of Our Lady in Walsingham, in the middle ages, was rivalled only by Canterbury as a popular English pilgrimage destination. To understand the desire of medieval pilgrims to visit these places, perhaps we need only to speak to the modern pilgrims who visit them today, and still walk the final mile from the Slipper Chapel.