Marian Pilgrimage- Our Lady of the Red Mount Kings Lynn

The Pilgrimage now makes its penultimate stop at the chapel of Our Lady of the Red Mount in Kings Lynn.

 

   

Our Lady of the Red Mount

Image: Kings Lynn Civic Society

The vault of the upper chapel 

Image: Facebook - Borough of Kings Lynn

A reconstruction of the original roof

Image: GetArchive

   

This remarkable building was built as a chapel for pilgrims making their way to Walsingham. First proposed in 1483 and authorised in 1485 the upper chapel was added in 1506. It was rendered redundant by the destruction free Walsingham shrine, yet it survived, as is recounted in The remarkable tale  of Red Mount Chapel

There as a well-illustrated account on the Britain Express website at Red Mount Chapel, King's Lynn

My previous notes on the chapel can be accessed through those for last year at Marian Pilgrimage - Our Lady on the Red Mount at King’s Lynn

In two of those articles I mention the Book of Margery Kempe. This ubique dictated autobiography by a Kings Lynn businesswoman and housewife recounting her pilgrimages and her spiritual insights opens windows into early fifteenth century England in ways no other work does. If you have not read it I urge readers to do so. Margery is nothing if not her own woman - likeable, infuriating, amazing, very different yet very similar to ourselves.

 

May Our Lady of the Red Mount intercede for us and our intentions 

Jesu mercy, Mary pray

Marian Pilgrimage - Our Lady of Ardenbergh in Great Yarmouth

 The Pilgrimage now makes its way into the important medieval fishing town and commercial port of Great Yarmouth, and to its extremely large parish church of St Nicholas.

Here, in the churchyard east of the church, was the now long-lost chapel of Our Lady of Ardenbergh. This, as I explain in my earlier posts, which can be accessed through Marian Pilgrimage - Our Lady “of Ardenbergh” at Great Yarmouth, was a commemoration of the part played by Yarmouth sailors in the victory at the battle of Sluys in 1340.

St Nicholas 1821

This showmen’s the church from the north-east. The chapel of Our Lady of Ardenbergh stood in the churchyard to the east of the 

 

Image: professorhedgehogjournal

 

St Nicholas Church Great Yarmouth

A print published in 1826 showing the view from the south-west

Image: rareoldprints.com

The church in 1880

Image:AbeBooks

The history of the church, and its curious plan,can be read in the Wikipedia account of its development  over the centuries in Great_Yarmouth_Minster

The drastic mid-Victorian restoration resulted in the church outwardly looking like a building of that time rather than being medieval. Bombing in WWII resulted in the church being completely burnt out. The 1950s restoration incorporated some radical changes but created a spacious place of worship, but does not feel particularly old. Unfortunately the timber and lead spire was not rebuilt.

May Our Lady “of Ardenbergh” intercede for us and our intentions

Jesu mercy, Mary pray

Marian Pilgrimage - Our Lady of the Oak at St Martin’s in Norwich

The Pilgrimage now goes into Norwich and heads for one of the city centre parishes north of the river Wensum, that of St Martin at Oak. It was in the branches of that oak in the churchyard that there stood a statue of Our Lady which from at least the reign of King Edward II attracted offerings as well as care in terms of maintaining the paintwork of the figure.

St Martin at Oak 

James Sillett (1764-1840)

Image: Norfolk Museums Service - artuk.org

St Martin at Oak circa 1909

Image: JBArchive

 

My post from last year is, like others, linked to my previous ones about the shrine. These note include some more about other statues of Our Lady that were places in trees as at Islington or visions of her in ones, as at Evesham, and, more recently, Fatima. These can all be accessed from Marian Pilgrimage - Our Lady of the Oak at St Martin’s in Norwich

The church today

As a result of bomb damage in WWII the upper part of the tower was, regrettably, not rebuilt

Image: Wikipedia 

May Our Lady of the Oak intercede for us and our intentions

Jesu mercy, Mary pray

The Fall of Constantinople in 1453

Today is the 573rd anniversary of the fall of Constantinople in 1453. I am told that as it was a Tuesday. to this day Greek people refuse to start a new project on that day of the week.

The always instructive website on Ancient Greek history and culture Greek Reporter has an interesting piece today which offers some new insights into the background, the events of the siege and the final assault from a new book by a US academic.

In particular he rejects the inevitablist interpretation of what happened and indicates that various other possible outcomes might have happened.

I am not a Byzantinust, and beyond reading something about the events of 1453 and being interested in their true place in wider European history, I can claim no expertise. However the arguments set out in the article seem well made and well worth considering.

The article can be read at Why Constantinople’s Fall Was Not Inevitable. 

The detailed Wikipedia biography of the last Byzantine Emperor whose body was never discovered can be seen at Constantine_XI_Palaiologos 

   

 

 

Emperor Constantine XI

A modern statue in Athens

Image: Orthodoxwiki

Marian Pilgrimage - Our Lady of Winfarthing and Our Lady of Weston

Moving north-eastwards the next two stops on the Pilgrimage are at the churches of St Mary at Winfarthing in Norfolk and St Peter at Weston in Suffolk.

 

My previous posts about these two shrines can be found from last year’s notes at Marian pilgrimage - Our Lady of Winfarthing and Our Lady of Weston

Nothing apart from the fact that it existed appears to be known about the devotion at Weston, which is a  simple unaisled building.

  

Winfarthing is better documented but, as my notes across the years show it suggests shall we say, a distinctive local, and community based, set of ideas in the parish. As I have written in previous years it reads like a synopsis for one or more M.R.Janes stories.

 

Winfarthing Church

 

Image: English-church-architecture 

 Weston Church

Image: Facebook - Chris Droffats on Historic churches uk

May Our Lady of Winfarthing and Our Lady of Weston intercede for us

 

Jesu mercy, Mary pray

Marian Pilgrimage - Our Lady of Stoke by Clare

Travelling northwards the Pilgrimage now stops at the parish church of St John the Baptist at Stoke by Clare in Suffolk, and in an area we have already visited.

In 1124  the first Clare Earl of Hertford moved a small community of Benedictines from the great abbey of Bec out of his castle at Clare and established them alongside the church in Stoke. In the fourteenth century this was one of those foundations classified as an alien  priory during the Hundred Years War. When the remaining ones were merged or dissolved and their estates reassigned to other religions houses by legislation in 1415 the Earl of March as Lord of Clare and successor to the original founder secured the refoundation of the Priory as a college of secular canons. Incidentally the final Papal approval of the new statues was secured by “my” Bishop Fleming of Lincoln as he left the household of Martin V to travel to his new diocese in 1420. He appears to have been a friend of the first Dean of Stoke, and requested that at the end of each day, the community should recite the Salve Regina in the Lady Chapel. 

 

That there was a particular devotion to Our Lady at Stoke us recorded but virtually nothing more about it is known. I suspect it originated with the monks, and it may be one of the reasons Earl Edmund sought to refound the community.

The VCH Suffolk account of the history of the college is detailed and very interesting. It can be read here

Stoke by Clare Church

Image: A Church Near You

 

The largely fifteenth century church of St John the Baptist is a handsome and sizeable one with transepts and side chapels, and the college founded by Earl Edmund in 1415 seems to have had in part an educational intent for the local community.

The college was dissolved in 1548 and its last Dean was Matthew Parker, who in 1559 became holder of the see of Canterbury 

The church from the south east

Image: thornber.net

May Our Lady of Stoke by Clare intercede for us and our intentions

Jesu mercy, Mary pray

Marian Pilgrimage - Our Lady of Runwell

After their unexpected diversion to the lower reaches the Medway the Pilgrimage resumes in Essex. One can perhaps envisage out hypothetical medieval alter ego taking a boat from the Medway or perhaps from King Edward III’s new development of Queenborough on the Isle of Sheppey, across the Thames to the Essex shore, landing maybe in Prittlewell.

The first object of the Pilgrimage is Our Lady’s Well at Runwell which is a few miles inland and due south of Chelmsford. This has been claimed as the only holy well in Essex

My source for this is a post from The Northern Antiquarian which can be seen at Our Lady’s Well, Runwell, Essex

That article seems to assemble such evidence as there is, and of which the quotation from the parish registers in 1602 to the Shrine of the Bl. Virgin of Runnyngewelle  appears the most striking.

There is some more information on The Megalithic Portal at The Running Well 

The Essex Field Club has a brief account, giving the first date of a record of its existence as 1768, at Geology Site Account: Running Well

It might be significant, but then again might not , that the parish church is also dedicated to St Mary

The church of St Mary Runwell

Image: Wickford and Runwell parish

May Our Lady of Runwell intercede for us and our intentions 

Jesu mercy, Mary pray

Oak Apple Day

I wish a happy and joyful Oak Apple Day to my readers  and hope that some at least will be able to take part in some of the traditional ways of celebrating the Restoration of King Charles II to his thrones in 1660. 

King Charles II in his new regalia and robes of state as King of England in 1661

Image: Royal Collection - Wikipedia 

I have found short online pieces that are relevant to today. The first is a Country Life article from 2015 about the observance of the day as a holiday and the various customs that survive in different towns and villages. It can be read at Bring back Oak Apple Day

The second is from the National Churches Trust and follows the itinerary of the King’s flight from Worcester in the autumn of 1651 to his eventual escape from what is now Brighton and to safety in France. It can be found at Oak apple day 

 

King Charles II at the time of the Battle of Worcester 

Image: History Today

In addition there is a 2001 History Today article about the King’s time at Boscobel House in Shropshire where he did hide for a day in the branches of the famous oak tree near the house. The account can be read at Charles II Hides in the Boscobel Oak

 

Now that we once again have a King Charles it seems to reinforce the case for making more of Oak Apple Day.