A Visit to England's Nazareth

 

Today has been a busy day, managing to fit a visit into the English National Shrine to Our Lady at Walsingham with a short trip to Wells Next the Sea and then down to Attleborough to visit old friends of ours before travelling to Norwich for dinner for the four of us. We were out for 10 hours an unusually long day for us on holiday, but each part of it was delightful.

 

Here is the map of the route:

 

I woke at 3.30am but decided to read my Kindle (the advantage of a back lit Kindle is the light is enough to read by without disturbing others) [Co-pilot's note: I think dear readers, we had several "teachable moments" prior to the arrival of the backlit Kindle. ] for an hour then dozed back off until 6am when I got up and had breakfast. Edited yesterday’s photos and wrote the blog post.

 

After showering, shaving etc we headed off at 10am on the road to Little Walsingham for my first ever visit to the village.

 

In Wales at least, with our National Shrine to Our Lady ofCardigan and the local Shrine of Our Lady of Penrhys, there isn’t a lot on links between the Catholic parishes and Walsingham. However, among the High Church Anglicans in both England and Wales Walsingham seems to be a spiritual home. As someone who grew up with friends who were from a middle of the road Anglican tradition I’d not heard of Walsingham until I met some High Anglicans in Port Talbot, where St. Theodore’s Church was much higher in ‘bells and smells’ and theological tradition than any Catholic Church to which I had been.

 

In the Parish of St. Teilo’s, Whitchurch where I live, the last Parish Priest, Canon William Isaac, who died in March, had a great devoting to Our Lady of Walsingham having visited there often as an Anglican Clergyman before becoming a Catholic Priest. It was rare for a year to go by without a visit to Walsingham, indeed he and Fr. David Lewis were booked to go for a fortnight this coming October. So, travelling to Walsingham was a memorial to Canon Isaac as well as a part of the holiday for us.

 

Just before arriving at Walsingham, we stopped to take photos of the Anglican Church at Houghton St Giles which is just before the Ford that was on the old Pilgrim way to Walsingham. The Church, though locked due to Covid, is a large Church for the size of village it is in but looks very impressive on the top of the hill.

 

On leaving Houghton St. Giles it is only a short distance to turn into the road that leads to the Catholic National Shrine to Our Lady. So, I made my first visit to the shrine and prayed for the repose of Canon William Isaac’s soul and for all those who I know and love who need the support of Mary, the Mother of the Lord, in their daily life.

 

The Modern Church at the Shrine is well designed for participation both within and without the building. I felt I knew this space in a way as I had prayed before the Blessed Sacrament on the altar here, via the webcam, during lockdown.

 

The Catholic Shrine is based in the Slipper Chapel of the original Medieval Shrine. The slipper chapel, as the name implies, was where pilgrims would leave their shoes and other footwear to take the last mile of the pilgrimage on foot. This tradition of taking footwear off before entering holy places is now often seen as an Islamic tradition, but it is a tradition that was rooted in Christian practice throughout the middle-ages.

 Knowing that we were only a mile away from the original shrine we walked the distance from the Catholic Shrine to the Anglican one, stopping on the way at the small Russian Orthodox Church which occupies the space of the old Walsingham Railway Station.

 

From the Orthodox shrine we made our way down to the Catholic Parish Church, which is a modern but well-designed Church in the centre of the village. It is extremely well laid out and filled with an air of prayer. Thankfully open all day for prayer it was a nice place to sit and reflect (while Drew took the photos, most of which will be up on Flickr later today).

 

We went from here to the Anglican Shrine which, I’m sure, would be shocking to many of my low Church and chapel friends as, in the tradition of Anglican High Churchmen is more Roman than the Catholics. A Daily Mass Chapel for the Holy Souls, devotion to the Blessed Sacrament, and chapels to multiple saints, including some not canonised until years after the Church of England’s spilt from the Catholic Church, like St. Philip Neri and St. John Marie Vianney, would make the protestant reformers squirm at what idolatry had returned to England’s national church.

The replica of the ‘Little House of Nazareth’ which was the heart of the original Medieval shrine here was a lovely prayerful silent place which though gaudily decorated reminded me at least of Our Lady’s ordinary daily life before and after she said Yes to God’s message, delivered by an angel, that she was invited to be the Mother of God’s Son – Theotokos – God Bearer. As the scriptures remind us – ‘Mary Said: May it be done to me, just as you have said’ – in a life when I’ve said wholehearted Yes to God at time, and at other times said, No, sorry time for me and my needs now, before remembering that his love seeks me out however many times I say no, until I say Yes again, it is often remembering Mary’s words that gives me the strength to renew may faith to so. Yes, Lord, may it be as you will not me. So here in this place blessed by the prayers and hopes of generations of Kings and commoners I renew my Yes to the Lord. Thank you, Lord Jesus, for being patient with me! Help me to make the same call as your Mother each time you invite me to do your will.

 

After the time of prayer and reflection we went across the street and stopped in the centre of the village for some tea.

 

Drew opted for a pot of Nelson’s Gunpowder Tea and I opted for Lapsang Souchong – I love the smokiness of this tea, which always tastes mellow in the afternoon. We shared the daily special sandwich which was Stilton, apple, onion and rocket. Very tasty. Before walking back to the Slipper Chapel and the car.

Many friends who have visited Walsingham have mentioned how pretty the coast it as Wells-Next-the-Sea, so we headed in that direction. It may be pretty, but it was so busy that we didn’t stop, given that social distancing, even though it is now optional in England, was impressive given the crush of people all heading to Wells at the same time.

 

From Wells we set Google Maps to take us to Robin Croft’s home in Attleborough. Robin used to work with me for many years at the University of Glamorgan. Indeed, when he started in the Marketing subject team with us, he was commuting from his home in Rise, near Hull, for two days a week and stayed with me on the evenings he was in South Wales.

 

Roblin and Liz greeted us and showed us the amazing house they had built for their son Rich. We had seen this house develop at every step on Robin’s Flickr feed. It really looks amazing at every stage of the process.

 

We stopped and chatted, while using Robin and Liz’s wifi to upload some of the larger photo files from the last few days while enjoying a cup of tea and various scones and cake that they provided.  

 

We head off for our planned dinner together just after 6.30 and arrived in Norwich at Namaste Village at 7pm. 

Robin and Liz are vegetarian and this was a vegetarian Indian restaurant. When I remember how much trouble vegetarians had finding reasonable food a few decades ago – Sarah Lodwick’s experiences in Spain and Croatia always comes to mind – this was a delight.

We started with pappadam and pickles while we choose the rest of the menu. Having eaten with Robin at the Thai House in Cardiff we were aware that what we consider lightly flavoured with chilli is for Robin hot, hot, hot. Seeing Robin change colour and begin to sweat profusely on one occasion meant we made sure we were eating different food, with Robin and Liz opting for mild flavours and me and Drew choosing food with more of a heat.

 

We shared two starter platters as they were all mild. Each with a distinctive flavour:

 

Dahi Puri - Puris filled with potatoes, chickpeas, onions & bell pepper, dressed in chutneys, and crunchy masala with yoghurt on top.

Peanut Chat - A mix of crunchy peanuts, chopped onions, boiled chickpeas, crunchy noodles which was a real star dish for all of us.

 

Then there were Hara Bhara Kebab - Delicious and healthy kebabs made using potatoes, spinach and peas. This was shaped like a small burger.

Aloo Bonda - Spice infused boiled potato fritters, made with chickpea flour – this was my favourite of the starters

Samosa - made with potatoes, green peas, infused with spices in a crisp pastry.

Onion Bhaji – which I suspect everyone has tasted at some time or another, but which is still delightful.

 

Drew and I then shared a hot (it wasn’t very hot to our taste) Paneer, stir fried with mixed peppers, spring onions and garlic in a chilli sauce – the paneer was exceptional, whenever I cook it, though it takes on the flavour of the dish, it is soft, this was crisp, almost barbequed in flavour a great texture as an alternative to the more traditional use of this cheese.

Our second dish was called Namaste Special Dosa and was a Dosa with grated paneer, desiccated coconut, roasted cashew nuts & raisins with chilli powder in the Dosa giving it a light hear.

 

We eat this with a serving of pulua rice and a plate of mixed naan bread.

 

Robin and Liz had a paneer korma and the same special dosa, though without the chilli, alongside Basmati Rice. Maybe they will describe theirs in the comments below?

 

Another lovely, original, and tasty meal – this time with good company and lots of catch-up stories of life since we last saw each other in Cardiff four or so years ago.

 

The meal had a gentle pace and we finished eating at 9.30 and left at 9:50. After dropping Robin and Liz home we were back in Wagtail Barn at 10:25. 12+ hours since we left this morning!