Walsingham

The Annual Walsingham Pilgrimage took place over the weekend following Easter. The thirteen pilgrims from St George’s were joined by others from Leigh Park, Havant, East Wittering and Fareham, making up a total group of 34.

After an early start on the Friday, we stopped at Bury St Edmunds, the Abbey Park with its beautiful spring flowers providing a lovely setting for a picnic lunch. We arrived at Walsingham mid-afternoon, and found that the building work scheduled for this year had not yet commenced, and so we were able to enjoy this beautiful and tranquil place at its very best, and in the glorious spring sunshine that shone throughout most of our stay.

After a leisurely stroll to the Catholic Shine on Saturday morning, briefly visiting the Greek Orthodox Chapel on the way, an option for the afternoon was a visit to Sandringham House. This impressive building is all the more fascinating for being the country home of the Royal Family. Much of the ground floor could be visited, and the ballroom had an exhibition of paintings by Prince Philip and Prince Charles, whilst the museum in the stables had many interesting displays including various vehicles owned by the Royal Family over the years. We were also able to walk around the extensive grounds and visit Sandringham Church.

Either by co-incidence or divine intervention the pilgrimage happened to ­coincide with Dick’s birthday. This obliged the group to hold a party in celebration on the Saturday evening, and somehow vast quantities of wine turned up, as well as a birthday cake. Fr Mike recalled an incident some years previously when at a similar St George’s birthday celebration at Walsingham the candles on the birthday cake had set off the fire alarm causing mass evacuation and some consequent unpopularity with fellow pilgrims, and so on this occasion the candles were “pretend” lit and blown out.

This was no great sacrifice as there were plenty of candles around at all the services and processions that took place and everyone agreed that it was an inspirational place to be, and a memorable weekend amongst good company.

John Johnson