Marian Pilgrimage - Our Lady of Aylesford

Heading back towards London the Pilgrimage comes to the Medway and to the Carmelite friary at Aylesford. This was founded in 1242, dissolved in 1538, and re-founded by the Order in some of the original buildings in 1949. 

My posts from previous years can be found through last year’s article at Marian Pilgrimage - Our Lady of Aylesford

The Carnelites have an excellent illustrated online history of the house at The Friars - Aylesford Priory
 

A reconstruction of the medieval friary

Image: the friars.org.uk

Aylesford today
     
Image: the friars.org.uk

May Our Lady of  Aylesford intercede for us and our intentions 

Jesu mercy, Mary pray

Marian Pilgrimage - Our Lady of Bradstow at Broadstairs

This shrine on the coast of Thanet is one I added to the Pilgrimage two years ago.  My articles about it can be accessed, along with a number of additional links about its history, from last year’s post at Marian Pilgrimage - Our Lady of Bradstow at Broadstairs

  

The much altered and adapted remains of the chapel today. A plaque indicating the history of the building can be seen on the left

Image: Rob Baker on Facebook

May Our Lady of Bradstow intercede for us and our intentions 

Jesu mercy, Mary pray

Marian Pilgrimage - Our Lady of Poulton

After our spiritual equivalent of a ‘booze cruise’ we resume the Pilgrimage with the next stage on the Kentish leg.  This is the shrine of Our Lady at Poulton, a short distance north-west of Dover.

The shrine fell under the authority of the nearby Premonstratensian - better known these days as the Norbertines -  abbey of St Radegund which was founded in 1191. Whilst nothing survives on site of the shrine there are still quite extensive remains of the abbey. 

Wikipedia has an account of the history and remains of the monastery at St._Radegund's_Abbey and there is a more detailed one from The Dover Historian, which includes a rather improbable reconstruction drawing, at St Radegund’s Abbey

There are much better ones in what is a very detailed study of the remains and closely argued  reinterpretation of them from Kent History and Archaeology at St Radegund Abbey - A Re-Assessment of the Abbey Churc

All that physically remains of the Poulton shrine is a fifteenth century pilgrim badge in what is now designated the London Museum. Their online photograph will not copy, but what it depicts is an enthroned Virginand Child, reminiscent of Our Lady of Walsingham. The throne has a high gabled back with pinnacles, very much in the style of St Edward’s Chair at Westminster.. Beneath the Virgin’s feet the figure is identified by the letters POL followd by an image of a tun

May Our Lady of Poulton intercede for us and our intentions

Jesu mercy, Mary pray

Marian Pilgrimage - Our Lady of Calais

As the Pilgrimage has got to Dover it seems a pity not to journey to the one piece of medieval English territory in the area that is no longer English  (grrrr) - the town and pale of Calais. 

Calais was held by the English Crown from August 1347 until January 1557/8. It was definitely English, the original French inhabitants having been expelled, but it was a doubtless cosmopolitan community because of its trading and diplomatic importance. N the later years of King Henry VIII’s reign it was fully incorporated into England, sending two MPs to Parliament and becoming part of the diocese of Canterbury.

Little survived of the medieval and early modern centre after the second world war, but one of the medieval buildings that did, although much damaged and in need of extensive repair, was the church of Notre Dame, or as it was known under English rule, St Mary’s.

Some websites claimed special devotion to the Virgin arose during the English siege in 1347. After Calais passed back under French rule the sanctuary was extensively remodelled in an early seventeenth century Counter Reformation style in honour of Our Lady A new eastern chapel in her honour was also added..

The church was largely rebuilt in the second half of the fifteenth century. It is one of the few in France that is often seen as exhibiting the distinctive English perpendicular style, although that that has, in my opinion, left evidence elsewhere in the lands then under English rule.

Wikipedia records the discovery in 1843 of wall paintings from the English era, one of which featured the Virgin and Child. The article can be seen at Eglise Notre-Dame_de_Calais

In the time of English governance the church was visited by virtually every monarch and their consorts when they were in Calais either for peace or war. It was also in the church that the Duke of Bedford, as Regent of English France, conferred the Cardinal’s red hat on his uncle Henry Beaufort in 1426.

The church from the north-west

Image: Wikipedia 

The interior looking east

Image: Wikipedia 

May Our Lady of  Calais interced for us and our intentions 

Jesu mercy, Mary pray.   

Marian Pilgrimage - Our Lady of Pity in the Rock at Dover

The Pilgrimage now returns to Kent for visits to another four shrines, together with a little additional excursion.

The first of these is the now lost one of Our Lady of Pity intgeRoch close to the harbour in Dover. This was especially frequented by travellers to and from Calais and the continent, either seeking a safe crossing or giving thanks for one.

My previous posts with a detailed account I wrote in 2020 and other links can be accessed from Marian Pilgrimage - Our Lady of Pity in the Rock at Dover

To those I would add an article from the website of Dover Museun which gives more detail about the decay of the site from the later sixteenth century and its final destruction in the early nineteenth century. This can be seen  at Archcliffe Chapel Biography.

The embarkation of King Henry VIII at Dover for the Field of Cloth of Gold in 1520

This painting dated to 1520-40 shows Dover harbour and the castle at a time when the shrine of Our Lady was still actively frequented by travellers

 

Image: Royal Collection and Wikipedia

May Our Lady of Pity in the Rock at Dover intercede for us and our intentions

Jesu mercy, Mary pray

Marian Pilgrimage - Our Lady of The Four Tapers at St Albans

The Pilgrimage now returns to south-eastern England and the great medieval - and indeed modern - destination for pilgrims of St Albans. 

On this Pilgrimage the focus is less on St Alban and St Amphibalus, though they should never be ignored, but on a particular focus of Marian devotion, the statue and altar of Our Lady of the Four Tapers. This altar was, and is, in the south-east corner of the presbytery ambulatory, and just to the right of the Lady Chapel.

My post from last year has links to those from earlier years, most notably that from 2020 which sets out the quite complicated story of the moves of this devotion around the abbey church. We know more about these relocations thanks to the great tradition at St Albans of maintaining I I a chronicle. 

 

These links can all be accessed from Marian Pilgrimage - Our Lady of the Four Tapers in St Albans

St Albans Cathedral and Abbey is, in my opinion, with its amazing fusion of medieval history, art and architecture, and its legacy of prayer and spirituality, one of the most intensely moving historic churches to visit. The damage and neglect it suffered for several centuries, followed by an over-enthusiastic late Victorian restoration give it a vulnerability that is almost palpable. 

  

St Albans Abbey in the late middle ages 

Image: Cathedral and Abbey Church of St Alban and St Albans and Hertfordshire Architectural and Archaeological Society

May Our Lady of The Four Tapers at St Albans intercede for us and our intentions

Jesu mercy, Mary pray

Marian Pilgrimage - Our Lady of Kingswood

Returning to the southern Cotswolds the Pilgrimage now goes to the Cistercian abbey of Kingswood near Dursley.

My post from last year, which has links to those from previous years, can be read at Marian Pilgrimage - Our Lady of Kingswood

Kingswood Abbey Gatehouse

The roof timbers are dated to 1441-1466

Image: britainexpress.com

 

The roof bosses in the vault 

Some author infer that the central boss is a Tudor Rose suggesting a sixteenth century date, but the boss has six petals, not five. The boss to the right looks like the Yorkist sun in splendour

Image: britainexpress.com

Rereading the excellent English Heritage account, which an be read at History of Kingswood Abbey Gatehouse and thinking about the skilled iconography built into the gatehouse of this monastery dedicated to the Virgin, leads me to wonder if the statue venerated as Our Lady of Kingswood might even have been in fact the one here, on the outer face of the gate.

  

The empty niche in the abbey gatehouse. The Holy Spirit can be seen descending at the top left of the canopy

Image: English Heritage

The lily carved on the mullion of the window over the gate

Image: britainexpress.con

May Our Lady of Kingswood intercede for us and our intentions

Jesu mercy, Mary pray 

Marian Pilgrimage - Our Lady of Allingtree

Moving to Herefordshire the Pilgrimage now goes to the shrine of Our Lady of Allingtree, on the western edge of Hereford.

Close to the site is the modern Catholic Church of Our Lady Queen of Martyrs which was completed in 1996. By its dedication it seeks to commemorate the lost chapel www was and the Herefordshire  martyrs of the recusant era. Taking Stock has a description of it at Hereford - Our Lady Queen of Martyrs 

My notes from previous years about this shrine of which virtually nothing is recorded can be accessed from last year’s post ar Marian pilgrimage - Our Lady of Allingtree

I have done a little more online research about Allingtree or Aylingtree. This reveals that what were called the Gallows Tumps were situated south of the city near Belmont Road ( A465). My online source says this was the earliest recorded execution site in Hereford, and that between 1737 and 1789, it saw 54 confirmed public executions. This cannot be entirely true as Widemarsh Common to the north of the city centre was the setting for the martyrdom  of St John Kemble in 1679. The map by John Speed does not indicate any gallows close to the city. It does perhaps suggest however that the medieval chapel was not close to a place of execution.

May Our Lady of Allingtree intercede for us and our intentions 

Jesu mercy, Mary pray