Our Lady of Walsingham
— — a thousand years of footsteps to one small house.
Not only on a wall.
“A medieval pilgrim village in north Norfolk, about forty kilometres northwest of Norwich. Walsingham has drawn pilgrims since 1061, when, by long tradition, a noblewoman named Richeldis de Faverches built a wooden replica of the Holy Family's house here. Henry VIII walked the last mile barefoot before he later dissolved the shrine in 1538. Both an Anglican and a Roman Catholic shrine now stand in the village, and the lane between them, the Holy Mile, is still walked on foot. — from the studio
Our Lady of Walsingham, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
Little Walsingham sits in north Norfolk, about forty kilometres northwest of Norwich and six kilometres from the North Sea coast at Wells-next-the-Sea. The village holds two principal shrines: the Anglican Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham, rebuilt in 1931 inside the village; and the Roman Catholic Slipper Chapel at Houghton St Giles, about a mile to the south. The original medieval priory, destroyed in 1538 under Henry VIII, survives as ruin and arch on the same site.
The pilgrim year at Walsingham runs from spring through autumn, with the largest gatherings in May, late July, and September. The National Pilgrimage to the Anglican Shrine falls each spring; the Catholic National Pilgrimage to the Slipper Chapel typically falls in late summer. The Holy Mile, the lane between the Slipper Chapel and the village, is walked on foot by most pilgrims, traditionally with shoes removed for the final stretch. By tradition, the shrine's founding date is 1061, making the site nearly a millennium old.
The village is small and the shrines are open to visitors of any background. The Anglican Shrine Church on Holt Road and the Slipper Chapel a mile south at Houghton St Giles are both open daily, with services held throughout the day. Parking is available at the edge of the village; the lanes inside are narrow and largely pedestrian. Nearest mainline rail is at King's Lynn, about thirty-five kilometres west, and Norwich, about forty kilometres southeast. The village holds a population of roughly five hundred and fifty.