Marian Pilgrimage - Our Lady of Wensleydale

The third of these Marian shrines, that of Our Lady of Wensleydale, as I explored in Marian pilgrimage - Our Lady of Guisborough,  Our Lady of Mount Grace, and Our Lady of Wensleydale

In that I give my reasons for preferring Jervaulx to Coverham as the home of Our Lady of Wensleydale, but I am open to correction.

 

Unfortunately less survives above ground of the abbey than at several of the other Cistercian monasteries in Yorkshire, but it is still very well worth visiting.

 

Reconstruction model of Jervaulx abbey, on display at the site

Image: linkaonline.co.uk

There are more images of the model at Jervaulx Abbey

One striking fragment thought to have been salvaged from Jervaulx is the east window of the Lady Chapel in the parish church of the nearby market town of Bedale. The remarkably interesting church, described by Wikipedia at Church_of_St_Gregory,_Bedale incorporates this over-large window. It may have been in the west or east front of the abbey, or maybe the north transept.

Image. bedale.church

The interior of the Lady Chapel

Image: Wikipedia 

May Our Lady of Wensleydale intercede for us and our intentions 

Jesu mercy, Mary pray

Marian Pilgrimage- Our Lady of Mount Grace

The Carthusian house of Mount Grace is by far the best preserved example of a medieval Charterhouse in the British Isles, and still being in a rural setting is that much easier to envisage as it would have been in the fifteenth or early sixteenth century. Similarly the separate Lady Chapel on the hill above the priory, probably visited by the monks on their weekly walk, witnesses to medieval piety, to recusant fidelity and to modern revival. 

What has also b en shown by academic research is the exceptional part played by the community at Mount Grace in disseminating devotional literature in the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries.

 

Model of Mount Grace

Image: eatsleepenjoy.com

English Heritage has a history of the monastery at History of Mount Grace Priory 

My posts from previous years discussing Mount Grace  can be found through Marian pilgrimage - Our Lady of Guisborough,  Our Lady of Mount Grace, and Our Lady of Wensleydale

 

Above the site of the ruined Priory is the restored Lady Chapel, and close by is the Catholic parish church in Osmotherley. There is more about that at Osmotherley village - Our Lady of Mount Grace - Taking Stock

The Lady Chapel overlooking the monastery

Image: Taking Stock

After the Elizabethan break with Rome the area around the North Yorkshire Moors was one with strong recusant sympathies. 

   

There is an excellent history of the Lady Chapel at History – The Lady Chapel

The Priory ruins with the hill on which the Lady Chapel stands in the background

Image:Country Life 

May Our Lady of Mount Grace intercede for us and our intentions 

Jesu mercy, Mary pray

Marian Pilgrimage - Our Lady of Guisborough

The Pilgrimage journey northwards again to the North Riding of Yorkshire, and to three more shrines.In past years I have grouped them together, but think that I will now give each a separate post. 

The first stop is the important Augustinian priory at Guisborough in the northern margins of the Riding.

My posts from previous years about all three monasteries can be found through Marian pilgrimage - Our Lady of Guisborough,  Our Lady of Mount Grace, and Our Lady of Wensleydale  

The surviving east wall of the Priory  church at Guisborough 

Image/ Britain Express

English Heritage has an illustrated account of the history of the monastery at History of Gisborough Priory

I recently came upon a video, obviously made using AI for its images, but on the whole well made - although the second church shapeshifts between two different versions. Nonetheless it is definitely superior to many, ma g others online relating to the past. It can be seen at 

 Guisborough Priory ‘Restoration/reconstruction’

May sour Lady of Guisborough interced for us and for our intentions

Jesu mercy, Mary pray

Marian Pilgrimage - Our Lady of Howden, of Stamford and of Flawford

Today the pilgrimage takes in three medieval statues of Our Lady which doubtless attracted devotional prayer in the later medieval centuries, but which were not, as far as an be seen, the focus of a particular cultus.

My posts about them from last year and others from earlier years can be accessed from Marian Pilgrimage - Our Lady of Howden, of Stamford,  and of Flawford

Howden Minster

Image: A Church Near You

St Mary’s Stamford

Image: Britain Express

Flawford Church before demolition in 1775-9

Image: Flawford.org.uk

The statue of the Virgin and Child from Flawford

Image: Southwell and Nottingham Church History Project

 There is more about the statues at The Flawford Alabasters and at Flawford - Features and Fittings. There is an online video about an academic study leading to a reconstruction of the original painted decoration of the statue, and that is a revelation. It can be viewed at Re-imagining the Flawford Virgin

 May Our Lady of Howden, Our Lady of Stamford and Our Lady of Flawford intercede for us and our intentions

Jesu mercy, Mary pray

Marian Pilgrimage - Our Lady in the Wall at Boston

As I pointed out last year Boston lies at the mouth of the river Witham, south east of Lincoln. 

So far as I know the location, let alone any remains of the shrine set into the town wall are lost. I would think it was perhaps the particular focus of prayer by merchants and seafarers.

My previous posts can be accessed through last year’s notes at Marian pilgrimage - Our Lady in the Wall at Boston

If one wants to get a sense of the piety of late medieval Boston then the place to look is, of course, its monumental medieval parish church of St Botolph.

Wikipedia has an article about the church at St_Botolph's_Church,_Boston and there is another good one from Bostonstory which can be accessed at St Botolph's Church

St Botolph’s from the Market Place

Image: Wikipedia 

St Botolph Boston

Image: Bostonstory.co.uk

May Our Lady in the Wall at Boston intercede for us and our intentions

Jesu mercy, Mary pray

Marian Pilgrimage- Our Lady of Lincoln

 TheOilgrimage now heads south to Lincoln and the cathedral there. Leaving Axholme the medieval pilgrim would have had two basic choices. One route would be along the Lincoln Edge following the Roman road Ernibe Street that runs straight as a die from Lincoln to the Humber. The other possibility would be to travel beside or on the Trent south to the Foss Dyke created by the Romans to link the Trent to the Witham at the Brayford Pool in the centre of Lincoln and ultimately the Wash. Whichever way they travelled they sooner or later they would see, many mikes ahead the triple spires and commanding bulk of Lincoln Cathedral 

  

 The west front of Lincoln Cathedral before the removal of the timber and lead spires in 1807.

The spire on the central tower collapsed in 1548.

Although almost certainly not the 584 feet high often quoted it was something approaching that and the tallest building in the world until the later nineteenth century.  

A painting by A.C.Pugin 

Image: Whitworth Art Gallery Manchester 

 

If the objective on the Pilgrimage was the statue of Our Lady by the High Altar the Cathedral could also offer shrine of St Hugh , of his head, of Little St Hugh and rge tombs of two bishops popularly regarded as potential saints, Robert Grosseteste and John of Dalderby.

My previous posts about the Marian devotion at Lincoln can be accessed from that for last year at Marian Pilgrimage - Our Lady of Lincoln

Although some of the treasures of the various shrines had been confiscated by 1541 according to Gareth Russell’s excellent biography of Catherine HowardYoung & Damned & Fair, quoting the great historian of Lincoln Sir Francis Hill, one golden statue of the Virgin was hidden away in the vaults of the cathedral when Thomas Cromwell’ s agents came and it was not rediscovered until 1586. 

The modern statue of Our Lady in Lincoln Cathedral

Image: The Orthodox Art Journal

May Our Lady of Lincoln intercede

 for us and our intentions 

Jesu mercy, Mary pray

Marian Pilgrimage - Our Lady in the Wood at Epworth

The Pilgrimage now travels to the Carthusian house of Our Lady in the Wood in the Isle of Axholme in north west Lincolnshire.   

The Isle of Axholme in 1626 before Vermuyden’s drainage scheme

The site of the priory is marked. south east of Epworth

Image:North Lincolnshire Museum

 

The site of the priory today

 Image: Facebook - Mike Garrett

Details of recent archaeological surveys of the site, now represented by today Low Melwood Farm can be accessed at Isle of Axholme Community Group - All Things Allowed

My post from last year with its links to previous ones, notably that from 2020, can be seen at Marian pilgrimage - Our Lady in the Wood at Epworth

In last year’s note I drew attention to the death at the priory of Edmund of Langley, first Duke of York, in 1402. I realise I failed to point out that the Duke held the manor and chase of Hatfield, which lay just to the west in Yorkshire. He could therefore have been on a local pilgrimage at the time, or maybe that sensing his death was imminent he asked to be transferred there so as to die surrounded by the prayers of the Carthusians.

I see that my 2020 post about the foundation or the house and its endowment has lost the image I included of Thomas Mowbray. It is, I think, the only contemporary likeness of him that survives, and I am reposting it below. 

King Richard II appoints Thomas Mowbray as Earl Marshal in 1385-6. He is holding the distinctive baton of his new office.

From a manuscript of circa 1390

Image: Wikipedia 

May Our Lady in the Wood intercede for us and our intentions 

Jesu mercy, Mary pray

Marian Pilgrimage - Our Lady of Derby

Returning to the midlands the Pilgrimage now pauses at a Marian shrine  of which I nothing until today although I was aware of it as a Catholic shrine. It is the bridge chapel of St Mary at one end of the bridge, also known as St Mary’s, which crosses the Derwent in Derby. 

Probably first built in the late thirteenth or early fourteenth century it was apparently extended and rebuilt in the fifteenth century with provision for an anchores, as well as the chantry priest. By this time it was under the jurisdiction of the collegiate church of All Saints, which was itself under the authority of the Dean of Lincoln Cathedral. Like the bridge All Saints was, save for its great west tower, rebuilt in the eighteenth century and since 1927 has served as the cathedral of the Anglican diocese of Derby. Today it once more has the bridge chapel as part of its responsibilies.

St Mary’s Chapel 

Image: Wikipedia 

Apparently by the late fifteenth century the chapel on the bridge housed a statue of the Virgin and Child which was black. It attracted more offerings than any other church in the town apart from the shrine of St Alkmund in the church dedicated to him.

After the suppression of the chantries the building had many uses and not a few alterations, until it was rescued and restored in the twentieth century.

The interior

Image: Discover Derby

Wikipedia has an illustrated account of the chapel at St_Mary's_Bridge_Chapel, and the cathedral website has one at The Bridge Chapel, 

The south side of the chapel and the bridge

Image: Wikipedia 

Today the chapel is still a place of pilgrimage, nowadays commemorating three Catholic priests who were martyred nearby in July 1588. They were Nicholas_Garlick, Robert_Ludlam and Richard_Simpson. After their execution their heads and quarters were displayed at St Mary's chapel, which by then was serving as a prison before being set up around the town.

John Speed’s map of Derby of 1611

St Mary’s chapel  and bridge are at the top right

Image: The Old Map Company

May Our Lady of Derby intercede for us and our intentions

Jesu mercy, Mary pray