Once I was a clever boy learning the arts of Oxford... is a quotation from the verses written by Bishop Richard Fleming (c.1385-1431) for his tomb in Lincoln Cathedral. Fleming, the founder of Lincoln College in Oxford, is the subject of my research for a D. Phil., and, like me, a son of the West Riding. I have remarked in the past that I have a deeply meaningful on-going relationship with a dead fifteenth century bishop... it was Fleming who, in effect, enabled me to come to Oxford and to learn its arts, and for that I am immensely grateful.


Friday, 22 May 2026

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


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