The Pilgrimage now returns to Yorkshire for two stations in the West Riding. The first is the famous and beautiful chantry chapel of Our Lady on Wakefield Bridge.
My article about it from last year, together with links to those with more detail from previous years, can be found at Marian pilgrimage - Our Lady on the Bridge at Wakefield
The Wakefield chapel is more elaborate and more richly decorated than the few others which survive in England. This may be because of it being built in the 1340s when the Decorated style was still dominant whereas the others are from the fifteenth century and in the more restrained Perpendicular style. It may also reflect, as I suggested in my first post on it, the influence of the Lord of the manor, the Earl of Surrey, or of the proprietors of the rectory, the Cluniac monks of Lewis and then the canons of St Stephen’s Chapel at Westminster. It is a reminder that even small wayside chapels and shrines could be finished to a high quality. I recall a good friend from the Wakefield Historical Society making the point that even in its damaged and erodes state the sculpture from the original facade was superior to that of the 1939 replacement one sees today.
Wakefield Bridge and Chantry
Philip Reinagle 1793
Image: Meisterdrucke
The interior of the Chapel
There is a replacement statue of Our Lady to the right of the altar
Image: TripAdvisor.com
May Our Lady on the Bridge at Wakefield intercede for us and our intentions
Jesu mercy, Mary pray
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