Marian Pilgrimage - Our Lady of Northende Sherborne

This visit on the Pilgrimage is another addition to the itinerary, and one that brings us to one of my favourite churches, Sherborne Abbey in Dorset.

The outside has the calm elegance of its fifteenth century renewal, whilst the interior is a sublime place of prayer created over the decades associated with the Wars of the Roses. Sherborne is a wonderful antidote to seeing the fifteenth century as gloom and doom. What is more the seemingly effortless rhythm of the masonry literally conceals the fact that the core of the building is the late Anglo-Saxon cathedral, and not an entirely new building. For all its varied and sometimes turbulent history, not least when the present appearance of the church was taking shape in the fifteenth century the abbey has an ordered spiritual calm that transcends time and space.

Wikipedia has a detailed history, which includes the sometimes fraught relations between the abbey community and the townspeople over parochial rights, which can be read at Sherborne_Abbey

 

Sherborne Abbey from the south west

The pseudo-Norman porch is an unfortunate Victorian recreation replacing the fifteenth century re-casing

The destroyed church All Hallows extended west from the main abbey. The springer for its easternmost window can be seen. The shrine of Our Lady was in the area in shadow

Image: Sherborne Abbey

The interior looking east

Image: Wikipedia 

Sherborne Abbey with the attached church of All Hallows circa 1530

Image: strongwomen.org.uk

The statue of what was known as Our Lady of Northende stood in the now destroyed parish church of All Hallows in a chapel at the extreme east end of the north aisle. This appears to have been resorted to by local women in particular.

 

Fortunately here there survive churchwardens accounts from the early sixteenth century recording offerings at the shrine. Thus we actually have named pilgrims and benefactors to the statue. The rarely preserved details of devotion can be read in Our Lady of Northerne, All Hallows church, Sherborne

The sanctuary of Sherborne Abbey

Image: CleverDeverWherever

May Our Lady of Northende Sherborne 

intercede for us and our intentions

Jesu mercy, Mary pray