Walsingham and Around: The Postcard Collection

Walsingham is a large village in North Norfolk famous for its shrines of Mary. The original Shrine was built there in 1061 and attracted pilgrims from all over Europe. In the Middle Ages, it was said to be the fourth most important pilgrimage place after the Holy Land, Rome and Compostela in Spain. That all stopped with the Reformation in the 1530s, but memories remained. The Catholics refounded a Shrine at nearby Houghton in the 1890s and then the Anglicans did the same in Walsingham itself in the 1920s. Both shrines have grown since in popularity and size with many thousands of pilgrims visiting each year. In Walsingham and Around: The Postcard Collection the author has drawn on a remarkable selection of old postcards to give a pictorial record of life in Walsingham and the surrounding area in the past, including historical illustrations of the shrines, the village of Walsingham and its parish church before the shrine were refounded as well as the nearby villages of Great Walsingham, Warham and Wighton, East Barsham and Binham, Stiffkey and Hindringham. Although some of the buildings seen in these views have been lost, many landmarks remain, with changes, and will be familiar today. This fascinating collection of images will be of interest to those who visit or who have lived in the Walsingham area of North Norfolk.