The churches and chapels of Walsingham: 11, the Catholic Church of the Annunciation

The Catholic Church of the Annunciation in Little Walsingham was designed by Anthony Rossi and was consecrated in 2006 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Patrick Comerford

During my recent stay in Walsingham earlier this month, when I was a guest speaker at the Ecumenical Pilgrimage, I visited about a dozen or so churches and chapels in the area, including the Catholic Church of the Annunciation, set back from the Friday Market, almost beside the Black Lion Hotel, a grade II listed hotel, pub and restaurant that partly dates back to the 15th century.

Today is the Feast of the Annunciation, and earlier this month I was in the Church of the Annunciation for Catholic Sung Mass celebrated by Bishop Peter Collins of East Anglia, with Monsignor Keith Newton the preacher. There were addresses too by Bishop Peter Collins, who spoke about Anglican Roman Catholic dialogue, and the Revd Norman Wallwork, who spoke about the prayers of Eric Milner-White.

Walsingham was one of the most famous pilgrim shrines in Europe until the Reformation, and the tradition of pilgrimage there was not revived until the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

After Catholic Emancipation in 1829 and the restoration of the Catholic hierarchy in England in 1851, Walsingham found itself in the parish of King’s Lynn, then in the Diocese of Northampton.

The Roman Catholic presence in the immediate was not established until the 1890s, when Charlotte Pearson Boyd (1837-1906) bought the Slipper Chapel at Houghton St Giles, a mile outside Walsingham, hoping to see it being used for pilgrims and liturgies.

The site of the Church of the Annunciation is deep and narrow, with a considerable rise in ground level from front to back, and the church is set into the slope (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

However, there was virtually no Catholic presence in Walsingham at the time, and the King’s Lynn parish records at the time recorded only one Catholic resident, and she was a resident of the workhouse. This explains why the Catholic shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham remained in the church in King’s Lynn and was not transferred to Walsingham for decades.

When Father Alfred Hope Patten (1885-1958) became Vicar of Little Walsingham in 1921, he was singularly responsible for making Walsingham the centre of pilgrimage it is today and established the Anglican shrine in the 1930s.

The popularity of the shrine and pilgrimages he initiated seem to have provided the impetus for the Diocese of Northampton to rapidly move the Catholic shrine in King’s Lynn to the Slipper Chapel. As a consequence, Little Walsingham became a Catholic parish in its own right, and a church needed to be built in the village itself.

Inside the Church of the Annunciation in Little Walsingham (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

A community of Capuchin friars settled at Walsingham in 1937 and acquired two cottages in Friday Market that were demolished to provide the site for a new church. But when the friars left in 1948 the church was still built.

A temporary church was built by the Diocese of Northampton in the Friday Market in Little Walsingham in 1950. The brick façade and some of the furnishings may have been designed by Enid Chadwick, an artist based in Walsingham whose work is found throughout the Anglican Shrine Church.

The plain design, with a central porch and flanking curved walls, may have been inspired by the Church of Our Lady at Wells-next-the-Sea. That small church was built as a temporary church, and it was intended to be replaced as soon as possible, but it remained in use for more than 50 years.

The priests of the Society of Mary (Marists) took over the care of the national shrine and also the parish of Walsingham in 1968. Meanwhile, the Diocese of East Anglia was formed in 1976, covering the counties of Cambridgeshire, Norfolk, and Suffolk and Walsingham became part of the new diocese.

Throughout that time, there were active discussions about building a more permanent parish church. However, the first plans were not drawn up until 1996, under the guidance of Bishop Peter Smith (1943-2020), Bishop of East Anglia and later Archbishop of Cardiff (2001-2010) and Archbishop of Southwark (2010-2019).

The Church of the Annunciation was designed as Britain’s first carbon-neutral church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

The new Church of the Annunciation was designed by the Norfolk architect Anthony Rossi (1932-2008), and it is said Bishop Smith insisted that there would be no half-measures, and that only the best would be good enough when it came to materials and design.

Work began in 2005 and the church was consecrated by Bishop Michael Evans in 2006. The site is deep and narrow, with a considerable rise in ground level from front to back, and the new building was set into the slope with a parish room in the roof space.

The church is the first important East Anglian church of the 21st century. It was designed as Britain’s first carbon-neutral church. he heating and electrical installations are designed to use renewable sources and a solar energy unit displays how much electricity is being generated by the panels on the roof, how much is being used, and how much stored.

The Annunciation depicted on the tower of the Church of the Annunciation in Walsingham (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

The open forecourt in front of the church ties the building into a relationship with the Friday Market and the Pilgrim Bureau beside it. The cross is the one survival from the earlier church.

The plan includes a round tower with a nave extending to the west and a sanctuary on the north side of the nave. Behind the tower, the nave is set into the sloping ground and is largely windowless except for the timber-faced end gable, which has three windows with triangular heads.

The south-facing slope of the wide pitched roof has solar panels. The walls of the north side are a mixture of red brick and flint. In the centre of this side is a full-height projection containing the sanctuary, which has canted side walls with a central north window, a four-light window in the east and a deep sloping roof. The walls are a mixture of flint, red brick and timber boarding and the roofs are covered with red pantiles.

The font, with the holy oils displayed behind it in containers of coloured glass (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Wooden doors lead into a narthex. The church is not orientated on the tradition east-west axis, and the sanctuary faces north. The internal layout reflects modern liturgical practice. The interior is wide, open and fan-shaped, focused on the narrow window behind the altar, as if echoing a Norman lancet. The other focus is the font, with the holy oils displayed behind it in containers of coloured glass. Virtually everything is new and all of a piece, and the overall sense is of simplicity and beauty.

The church has a light-coloured floor covering, plain plastered walls and a panelled ceiling with the steel trusses of the roof exposed. The timber bench seating is arranged in a fan shape facing the raised semi-circular platform of the sanctuary. The sanctuary furnishings and font were designed by the architect Anthony Rossi and made by the Norwich stonemason Bruce Riley, using three types of Ancaster stone, which is also used for steps and areas of paving within the church.

The north window behind the altar is by Paul San Casciani, who began his training in 1950 at James Powell Stained Glass Studio (Whitefriars Glass). Set against it is a bronze statue of the dead Christ by the sculptor Mark Coreth. The west and east windows have simple patterns of leads of varying widths with accents of colour and were designed by the architect. Two statues and the Stations of the Cross were brought from the earlier church.

The exposed girders of the roof make it feel lower than it needs to be, and it could have benefitted from a central lantern light. Most of the furnishings were designed by the architect, but some items were brought from the earlier, 1950 church.

The Papal insignia in the forecourt of the Church of the Annunciation (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

The low flint-faced round tower evokes the form of many mediaeval Norfolk churches. It has a conical roof incorporating a gable pierced with an oculus, with inset brick in a radiating pattern. Around the bottom of the tower is an open loggia or porch, with the letters AMDG (‘To the greater glory of God’) and the date of consecration MMVI (2006) picked out in brick. A sculpture of the Annunciation attached to the tower in 2017 was blessed by Bishop Alan Hopes in 2018.

The gable houses a bell cast by Taylor, Eayre & Smith of Loughborough and donated by the Parish of Sudbury.

The priests of the parish are the Revd Keith Tulloch SM, Parish Priest, the Rev Thomas Goonan SM, and the Rev Desmond Hanrahan SM. Masses are at 10:30 am (Sundays), 9:30 am (Monday to Saturday and Holy Days. The other places of worship in the parish include Saint Peter’s Church, Blakeney, Saint Henry Walpole, Burnham Market, and Our Lady Star of the Sea, Wells-next-the-Sea.

Am icon of Our Lady of Walsingham in the Church of the Annunciation (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Daily prayer in Lent 2026: 36, Wednesday 25 March 2026, The Annunciation

Tthe Della Robbia terracotta panel in the Shrine Church in Walsingham shows the Angel Gabriel greeting the Blessed Virgin Mary at the Annunciation (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Patrick Comerford

We are in Passiontide or the last two weeks of Lent, which began on Ash Wednesday (18 February 2026), and this week began with the Fifth Sunday in Lent (Lent V), still known as Passion Sunday. Today is the Feast of the Annunciation or, more formally, the Annunciation of Our Lord to the Blessed Virgin Mary. My prayers this morning include Archbishop Sarah Mullally, who is being enthroned as Archbishop of Canterbury today.

Today is also celebrated in Greece as Greek Independence Day or the Greek National Day, commemorating the start of the Greek War of Independence 205 years ago on 25 March 1821, when Bishop Germanos of Patras raised the Greek flag of revolution over the Monastery of Agia Lavra in the Peloponnese. This is a national holiday and a day of great pride and celebration for Greeks around the world.

Later this evening, I hope to join the Choir Rehearsals in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford. But before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, to reflect, to pray and to read in these ways:

1, reading today’s Gospel reading;

2, a short reflection;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

4, the Collects and Post-Communion prayer of the day.

The Annunciation depicted on the tower of the Catholic Church of the Annunciation in Walsingham (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Luke 1: 26-38 (NRSVA):

26 In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, 27 to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. 28 And he came to her and said, ‘Greetings, favoured one! The Lord is with you.’ 29 But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. 30 The angel said to her, ‘Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favour with God. 31 And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. 32 He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. 33 He will reign over the house of Jacob for ever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.’ 34 Mary said to the angel, ‘How can this be, since I am a virgin?’ 35 The angel said to her, ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God. 36 And now, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month for her who was said to be barren. 37 For nothing will be impossible with God.’ 38 Then Mary said, ‘Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.’ Then the angel departed from her.

The ‘angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth’ (Luke 1: 26) … the ‘Holy House’ of Nazareth in the Shrine Church, Walsingham, with the Annunciation depicted in the left panel of the reredos (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Today’s Reflection:

I spent almost a week earlier this month, in Walsingham, where I had been invited to speak on ‘Pilgrimage’ at the Anglican Shrine in Walsingham during the Ecumenical Pilgrimage which takes place every two years.

The focus of pilgrimage in Walsingham, which was revived in the 1920s and the 1930s, is the ‘Holy House’, built as devotional copy of the house in Nazareth where the Annunciation took place, and which made Walsingham known from the Middle Ages on as ‘England’s Nazareth’.

In the Greek Church, the Feast of the Annunciation is one of the 12 Great Feasts of the Church. It is so important in Orthodox theology that the only time the Divine Liturgy may be celebrated on Good Friday, or ‘Great and Holy Friday,’ is if it falls on 25 March.

In Greece, Orthodox icons and frescoes of the Annunciation are in sharp contrast to the plaster-cast statue images of the Virgin Mary we see so often in churches in the west: her demure robes of white and blue hardly portray the strong Mary in the canticle Magnificat, the strong Mary who stands by the Cross when most of the disciples have run away, the strong Mary of the Pieta.

The canticle Magnificat, the Mary who stands by the Cross, the strong Mary of the Pieta, all make the connection between the Annunciation and Good Friday and Easter morning.

The date of the feast of the Annunciation, 25 March, was actually chosen to match the supposed historical date of the Crucifixion. This was to underline the idea that Christ came into the world on the same day that he left it: his life formed a perfect circle. In other words, 25 March was both the first day and the last day of his earthly life, the beginning and the completion of his work on earth.

Saint Augustine of Hippo explains it in this way:

He is believed to have been conceived on 25 March, upon which day also he suffered; so the womb of the Virgin, in which he was conceived … corresponds to the new grave in which he was buried …

Both events were understood to have happened in the spring, when life returns to the earth, and at the vernal equinox, once the days begin to grow longer than the nights and light triumphs over the power of darkness. Fans of JRR Tolkien and the Lord of the Rings cycle know that the final destruction of the Ring takes place on 25 March, to align Tolkien’s own ‘eucatastrophe’ with this most powerful of dates.

The early English historian, the Venerable Bede, says this dating is symbolic but it is not only a symbol: it reveals the deep relationship between Christ’s death and all the created world, including the sun, the moon and everything on earth.

The Annunciation and the Crucifixion are often paired together in mediaeval art. This pairing inspired the development of a distinctive and beautiful image found almost uniquely in English mediaeval art: the lily crucifix – on painted screens, stained glass windows, carvings on stone tombs, misericords, wall-paintings and the painted ceiling of cathedrals, churches and chapels.

The link between the Annunciation and the Crucifixion brings together in one circle the beginning and the end of Mary’s motherhood, its joys and its sorrows, as well as completing the circle of Christ’s life on earth.

When Good Friday fell on 25 March 1608, John Donne marked this conjunction of ‘feast and fast,’ falling ‘some times and seldom,’ with a well-known poem in which he draws on the same parallels found in those mediaeval texts and images.

In Michelangelo’s great sculpture of the Pieta, the weeping Mary bears on her lap the body of the Crucified Christ who has been taken down from the Cross.

In that moment of searing sorrow, she must have wondered: Is this what it was all for, is this the end? Without the benefit of foresight, she could not have known the Easter story.

In her womb, she has carried the Christ Child. Now she cradles the Crucified Christ on her lap. The lap on which he had once played is now the lap on which his limp and lifeless body lies dead.

Was this the journey – from the Annunciation to the Crucifixion?

When I see images of the Pieta, I imagine the Virgin Mary as a mother who knows the fears and lost hopes of so many women: the women who see the death of their own children; the women who hope to be mothers and grandmothers, but never are; the women who see, experience and feel violence and violation at first-hand in their own lives; the women whose own grief is hijacked by others for their own agendas.

But Mary’s yes was to all this: ‘Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word’ (Luke 1: 38).

The Virgin Mary’s ‘Yes’ at the Annunciation is her yes, is our yes, is the ‘Yes’ of humanity and of creation, not only to the Incarnation, but to the Crucifixion on Good Friday, and to the Resurrection on Easter Day, and all the hope for the future that Easter brings.

The Annunciation depicted in the West Window by Alfred Fisher (1997) in the Slipper Chapel near Walsingham (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Today’s Prayers (Wednesday 25 March 2026, the Annunciation):

The theme this week (22-28 March 2026) in ‘Pray With the World Church,’ the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘Myanmar Earthquake: One Year On’ (pp 40-41). This theme was introduced on Sunday with a programme update by the Revd Davidson Solanki, the USPG Senior Regional Manager for Asia and the Middle East.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Wednesday 25 March 2026, the Annunciation) invites us to pray:

We give thanks for Mary’s courage in saying ‘Yes’ to God’s call. May her example inspire ongoing trust and faithful service among all believers.

The Collect:

We beseech you, O Lord,
pour your grace into our hearts,
that as we have known the incarnation of your Son Jesus Christ
by the message of an angel,
so by his cross and passion
we may be brought to the glory of his resurrection;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post Communion Prayer:

God most high,
whose handmaid bore the Word made flesh:
we thank you that in this sacrament of our redemption
you visit us with your Holy Spirit
and overshadow us by your power;
strengthen us to walk with Mary the joyful path of obedience
and so to bring forth the fruits of holiness;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

The Annunciation depicted in a window in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org

A pair of royal doors by Hanna-Leena Ward depicting the Archangel Gabriel and the Virgin Mary at the Annunciation, in her exhibition in Lichfield Cathedral last month (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

The churches and chapels of Walsingham: 2, The Shrine Church and the Holy House

The Shrine Church in Walsingham was built in 1931-1937 in a vaguely Italianate style (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Patrick Comerford

During my three or four days in Walsingham, where I was speaking at the Ecumenical Pilgrimage last week, I visited at least ten churches and chapels in Walsingham, including the Shrine Church and the Holy House, where much of our worship took place last week, and the Church of England Parish Church of Saint Mary and All Saints.

The Anglican Shrine occupies an island site in the small village of Little Walsingham in north Norfolk, close to the ruins of the original mediaeval priory. The present shrine was gradually created from 1931 on from derelict farm buildings and cottages, and a new Shrine Church was built in the south-east corner of beautiful grounds close to the centre of Little Walsingham.

The grounds include the Shrine Church, gardens, several chapels, a refectory, a café, a shrine shop, a visitors’ centre, the Pilgrim Hall, an orangery, the college, which is home to priests-associate when in residence, and a large number of residential blocks that provide accommodation for pilgrims.

At the heart of the Shrine Church is the Holy House (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

At the heart of the Shrine Church is the Holy House, a replica of the house in Nazareth where the Virgin Mary heard from the Angel Gabriel at the Annunciation that she was to be the mother of Jesus.

The Shrine Church and the shrine date back to the appointment of Father Alfred Hope Patten as the Vicar of Walsingham in 1921. He rekindled Anglican interest in the pre-Reformation pilgrimage, and he created a new statue of Our Lady of Walsingham based on the image seen in the mediaeval seal of Walsingham Priory.

His statue was first set up in the Parish Church of Saint Mary and All Saints in 1922. From the first night that the statue was placed there, people gathered around it to pray, asking the Virgin Mary to join her prayers with theirs.

The trickle of pilgrims became a flood of large numbers as the 1920s unfolded, and a Pilgrim Hospice or hostel was opened to meet the needs of pilgrims. In 1931, a new Holy House encased in a small pilgrimage church was dedicated and the statue was moved there with great solemnity.

However, the then Bishop of Norfolk, Bertram Pollock, insisted in 1930 that Father Patten remove the image of Our Lady of Walsingham from the parish church. Undeterred, Patten sought financial help from supporters, principally Sir William Milner, and he was able to buy a suitable plot of land in the village with the intention of building a new Holy House enclosed within a small church.

The Shrine Church was designed by Sir William Milner and Romilly Bernard Craze (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

The land on which the Shrine was built was donated by Sir William Frederick Victor Mordaunt Milner (1896-1960), and the Shrine Church was built around the Holy House – a replica of the home in Nazareth of Joseph, Mary and Jesus, the Holy Family.

The church was designed by the architects Milner & Craze, the architectural practice of Sir William Milner and Romilly Bernard Craze (1892-1974).

Sir William Frederick Victor Mordaunt Milner (1896-1960), who donated the site of the shrine, was the professional partner of Romilly Bernard Craze in the architectural firm of Milner & Craze from 1931. The architect Sir William Frederick Victor Mordaunt Milner (1893-1960) was a godson of Queen Mary and the son of Sir Frederick George Milner, Conservative MP for York (1883-1885) and Bassetlaw (1890-1906).

He was educated at Wellington College, Berkshire, and after time as a lieutenant during World War I he returned to Christ Church, Oxford (BA 1919, MA 1934). He was partner of Milner and Craze, architects in London and was a Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects (FRIBA).

Milner bought Parcevall Hall in 1927 from a Skipton antique dealer, Frank Laycock, and set about restoring the house with great skill and vision, preserving its original features, salvaging timbers from 17th century buildings and employing local master craftsmen to cut and dress the stone and recast plaster mouldings. He planted rare species from Western China and Tibet, and co-founded Harlow Carr Gardens near Harrogate.

Milner, who succeeded his father as the eighth baronet in 1931, was a deeply religious and shy man. He never married, and when he died in 1960 he bequeathed Parcevall Hall to the Guardians of the Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham. The guardians now manage the estate and gardens, and the hall is leased and run by the Diocese of Leeds.

The liturgical east end of the Shrine Church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Milner’s partner in Milner & Craze was the church architect Romilly Bernard Craze (1892-1974). Much of Craze’s work involved replacing or repairing churches destroyed or damaged during World War II, although he also produced some distinctive churches of his own.

Craze reordered many churches in the Diocese of London, and rebuilt (1953-1963) Pugin's Roman Catholic Cathedral of Saint George, Southwark (1841-1848) on the original plan, with details in what has been described as ‘a curiously desiccated Arts-and-Crafts Free Gothic’.

Milner & Craze built the Shrine Church in Walsingham in 1931-1937 in a vaguely Italianate style, with an interior that is spatially complex for such a small building. The design reflects many of the features that would have been familiar to mediaeval pilgrims.

It soon became apparent that the shrine church was too small for the growing number of pilgrims. It was extended to its present length In 1938. The original east end was pulled down, and its site marked in the pavement by a line of grey bricks. The chancel includes the stalls of the 20 Guardians of the Shrine with appropriate heraldic decoration.

The arcades carried on to form a new nave and choir, with an apse and various side-chapels. The new, enlarged church was blessed on Whit Monday 1938. The side aisles were added later in 1964 and 1972.

Sir Ninian Comper designed the reredos, three stained glass windows, the Holy House altar and two sets of vestments (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Patten’s desire to return to the richness in the Church’s worship and the ornamentation of its buildings is reflected in the colourful paintings, statues and decorative work in the Shrine Church.

The walls are richly decorated with murals, many of them designed and painted by the artist Enid Chadwick who lived in the village for many years until she died. Work by the architect Sir Ninian Comper in the church includes the reredos, three stained glass windows, the Holy House altar and two sets of vestments.

As the church expanded, so too did the number of small side chapels, each dedicated to a saint. The 15 chapels are also named after the mysteries of the Rosary.

The tomb-like memorials to Father Hope Patten, top, Bishop Mowbray Stephen O’Rorke, centre, and Father Arthur Tooth, below (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

At the heart of the Shrine Church is the Holy House containing the image of Our Lady of Walsingham. The Holy House was rebuilt in brick in 1931, copying the dimensions of the original wooden house built by Lady Richeldis. It is effectively a shrine chapel within the much larger church.

On entering the Shrine Church from the Fountain Courtyard, the first thing visitors see is a memorial tomb to Father Patten beside the steps leading down to the well – although he was buried in the churchyard at Saint Mary and All Saints Church, Walsingham.

A similar monument commemorates Bishop Mowbray Stephen O’Rorke (1869-1953), second Bishop of Accra (1911-1924), later a Guardian of the Shrine at Our Lady of Walsingham.

A similar monument commemorates Father Arthur Tooth (1839 -1931), a priest who was prosecuted in 1876 for using proscribed liturgical practices at Saint James’s Church, Hatcham, and who was briefly imprisoned in 1877.

The well found during building work was rebuilt and incorporated into the Shrine Church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

When the foundations of the church were being dug in 1930s, the workers discovered an ancient well. Once cleared of debris, it provided a seemingly never-ending supply of pure fresh water. The well was rebuilt and incorporated into the Shrine Church and the healing service of sprinkling added to Shrine’s liturgy.

Facing the west doors, the Chapel of Saint Gabriel includes the Altar of the Annunciation. Above the altar is a copy of the Della Robbia terracotta panel showing the Angel Gabriel greeting the Blessed Virgin Mary at the Annunciation.

Walsingham was a restricted zone throughout World War II and closed to visitors. In May 1945, US forces based nearby organised the first Mass in the priory grounds since the Reformation. Three sisters of the Society of Saint Margaret moved to Walsingham in 1947 to assist at the shrine. The Priory of Our Lady, Walsingham was founded in 1955.

Father Patten combined the posts of Vicar of Walsingham and priest administrator of the Anglican shrine until he died in 1958. The Revd John Colin Stephenson then became administrator of the shrine, but declined to take on the role of vicar.

The Chapel of Saint Hugh and Saint Patrick, with wall paintings by Enid Chadwick (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

The pilgrimage to Walsingham has been known as the National Pilgrimage since 1959. It moved from the Whit Monday bank holiday to the Spring bank holiday in 1971.

The gardens have been developed into a full-scale devotional landscape, with a miniature Golgotha and stations of the cross, culminating in a Hill of Calvary with three great crosses. Station 14 includes a model of the tomb at the Holy Sepulchre, with a with a figure of the body of Christ.

The Shrine Church and Holy House are open each day from dawn until dusk, the Shrine Gardens and the Guild of All Souls Chapel are open from 9 am to 7 pm.

Tthe Della Robbia terracotta panel showing the Angel Gabriel greeting the Blessed Virgin Mary at the Annunciation (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Staying in Walsingham at a pilgrim centre revived in 1920s but that dates back to an 11th century visionary

The Shrine Church and gardens at the Anglican Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham in Norfolk (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Patrick Comerford

I am staying for much of this week at the Anglican Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham in Norfolk, where I have been invited to speak at the Ecumenical Pilgrimage to Walsingham tomorrow on ‘A Priest along the Way of a Pilgrim’.

My room looks out on the shrine church, built in 1938 after Walsingham had been established as part of the revival of pilgrimage devotion led by Father Alfred Hope Patten in the 1920s. The grounds include the shrine church, gardens, several chapels, a refectory, a café, a shrine shop, a visitors’ centre, the Pilgrim Hall, an orangery, the college, which is home to priests-associate when in residence, and a large number of residential blocks to accommodate pilgrims.

The village of Little Walsingham is mid-way between Norwich and King’s Lynn. Walsingham is the site of the reputed vision of the Virgin Mary experienced by Lady Richeldis de Faverches, traditionally dated to 1061. Her reputed Marian vision is one of the earliest recorded in England and was central to Walsingham becoming a pilgrimage place, and the original site of the ‘Holy House’ at Walsingham Priory became one of the most important pilgrimage destinations in mediaeval England.

In a vision, she was commissioned to build a replica of the house in her village in Walsingham, and it was dedicated to Annunciation. The vision was repeated three times, according to a legend retold in a 15th century ballad. Walsingham soon became known as England’s Nazareth.

Her son and heir was Geoffrey de Faverches. Before he left to join the Second Crusade, he left the Holy House and its grounds to his chaplain, Edwy, to establish a religious house at Walsingham and to care for the shrine. This later became Walsingham Priory, which passed into the care of Augustinian Canons Regular sometime between 1146 and 1174.

When Father Alfred Hope Patten was forced to remove statue of Our Lady of Walsingham from the parish church in 1930, he built a new Holy House enclosed in a small church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

As travelling became more difficult during the Crusades, Walsingham became a place of pilgrimage, ranking alongside Jerusalem, Rome, and Santiago de Compostela. The original Holy House had a revered wooden image of Our Lady, further emphasising its role as a centre of Marian devotion and pilgrimage.

Royal patronage helped the Shrine to grow in wealth and popularity, with visits from Henry III, Edward II, Edward III, Henry IV, Edward IV, Henry VII and Henry VIII. Erasmus visited the shrine around 1512, and in the 1526 edition of his Colloquies he wrote about practices and motivations of pilgrims and discussed external rituals and the inner faith of pilgrims.

At the dissolution of the monastic houses in 1538 at the Reformation, Walsingham Priory was suppressed, and the statue of Our Lady of Walsingham was reportedly taken to London and burned. Some accounts say the statue was burned in Thomas Cromwell’s courtyard in Chelsea, others that it was burned in Smithfield, a known site for public burnings, still others suggest the statue was rescued or sold rather than destroyed.

In any case, the loss of the statue brought an end to the status of Walsingham as a pilgrimage site for centuries, until its revival in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

The Roman Catholic pilgrimage to Walsingham was revived in the late 19th century and the 14th century Slipper Chapel, which was restored in 1897, is now at the centre of the Roman Catholic National Shrine.

When Father Alfred Hope Patten was appointed the Vicar of Walsingham in 1921, he rekindled Anglican interest in pilgrimage. He designed a new statue of Our Lady of Walsingham based on the image seen on the mediaeval seal of Walsingham Priory. The statue was set up in Saint Mary’s Church in 1922 and regular pilgrimage devotion followed.

Throughout the 1920s, the trickle of pilgrims became a flood of large numbers and the Pilgrim Hospice or house was opened. The then Bishop of Norfolk, Bertram Pollock, insisted in 1930 that Father Patten remove the image of Our Lady of Walsingham from the parish church. Undeterred, Father Patten sought financial help from supporters, principally Sir William Milner, and bought a site to build a new Holy House enclosed in a small church.

Inside the modern shrine church designed by the architects Milner and Craze and built in the 1930s (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

The modern church was designed by the architects Milner and Craze with an Italianate exterior. When the foundations of the church were being dug, an ancient well was discovered, cleared of debris and incorporated into the Shrine Church. When a new Holy House was encased in a small pilgrimage church in 1931, the statue was moved there with great solemnity.

Father Patten’s Anglo-Catholic tradition is reflected in the colourful paintings and statues, the use of incense and the honour given to the Virgin Mary and the saints. The walls are richly decorated with murals, many of them designed and painted by Enid Chadwick. Works by the church architect Sir Ninian Comper in the church include three stained glass windows, the Holy House altar and two sets of vestments.

The church was enlarged in 1938 to form the Anglican Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham. Walsingham was a restricted zone closed to visitors during World War II. But in May 1945, US forces organised the first Mass in the priory grounds since the Reformation.

Father Patten combined the posts of Vicar of Walsingham and priest administrator of the Anglican shrine until he died in 1958. The Revd John Colin Stephenson succeeded him as the administrator of the shrine, but he declined to take on the role of vicar. Since 1959, the Whit Monday pilgrimage has been known as the National Pilgrimage.

Three sisters of the Society of Saint Margaret moved to Walsingham in 1947 to assist at the shrine. The Priory of Our Lady, Walsingham, was founded in 1955 and became an autonomous house in 1994.

The side aisles in the shrine church were added later in 1964 and 1972. Each small side chapel is dedicated to a saint, and the 15 chapels are also named after the mysteries of the Rosary. The shrine church has a holy well, and water from the well is often taken home by pilgrims.

The Society of Our Lady of Walsingham was founded in 1925, the Order of Our Lady of Walsingham was founded in 1953, and the College of Guardians of the Shrine, with 20 members, is responsible for governing the shrine. The Association of Priests Associate of the Holy House, founded in 1931, is an association of priests who preside at the Mass for the shrine. But sacramental ministry in the shrine is reserved to male priests who have been ordained by male bishops The present priest administrator Father Ben Eadon was appointed in 2024.

The shrine comemorations focus on visions of Nazareth and the Annunciation (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

The shrine offers accommodation for just under 200 people, and the season runs from 1 February until early December, but the accommodation is closed in December and January. The grounds and gardens include the Shrine Church and Holy House, the Guild of All Souls Chapel, and the Barn Church. Saint Joseph’s House opened for pilgrims with special needs and Richeldis House opened in 1991 with more accommodation.

To mark the millennium, a new refectory was opened by Princess Alexandra in 2001, during a year of outreach when the statue of Our Lady visited five cathedrals in Britain. The statue visited a variety of venues in 2004, including a hospital, a prison, an airport, an army barracks, an Oxford college and a school, culminating in service of celebration in York Minster.

The shrine gardens were redesigned and replanted by Tessa Hobbs in 2005, the west front entrance piazza of the shrine church was reworked, and a new Altar of the Mysteries of Light was built in the garden.

Saint Augustine’s House has been rebuilt and restored and its library refurbished. The library was rededicated by the Archbishop of York, and the main room is named in honour of Bishop Eric Kemp, Bishop of Chichester and an honorary guardian of the Shrine.

The Milner Wing, where I am staying, was completed in 2008 and includes the Welcome Centre, a new reception area and a range of en-suite bedrooms.

The village of Little Walsingham is mid-way between Norwich and King’s Lynn in Norfolk (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Daily prayer in Advent 2025: 21, Saturday 20 December 2025

The ‘angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin [whose] name was Mary’ (Luke : 26-27) … the Annunciation depicted in a window in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

We are in the final days of the Season of Advent, Christmas Day is less than a week away, and tomorrow is the Fourth Sunday of Advent (Advent IV, 21 December 2025).

As we prepare for Christmas, and before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, to reflect, to pray and to read in these ways:

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a short reflection;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

4, the Collects and Post-Communion prayer of the day.

An icon of the Annunciation in the Greek Orthodox Church in Stony Stratford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Luke 1: 26-38 (NRSVA):

26 In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, 27 to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. 28 And he came to her and said, ‘Greetings, favoured one! The Lord is with you.’ 29 But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. 30 The angel said to her, ‘Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favour with God. 31 And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. 32 He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. 33 He will reign over the house of Jacob for ever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.’ 34 Mary said to the angel, ‘How can this be, since I am a virgin?’ 35 The angel said to her, ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God. 36 And now, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month for her who was said to be barren. 37 For nothing will be impossible with God.’ 38 Then Mary said, ‘Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.’ Then the angel departed from her.

The ‘angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin [whose] name was Mary’ (Luke : 26-27) … the Annunciation depicted in a window in Saint Mary’s Church, St Neots, Cambridgeshire (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Today’s Reflections:

In the Gospel reading at the Eucharist today (Luke 1: 26-38), we continue a series of readings before Christmas that draw on the two nativity narratives found in Matthew 1: 1-24 and Luke 1: 5-79.

During the week before Christmas, the great canticle Magnificat at Evensong traditionally has a refrain or antiphon attached to it proclaiming the ascriptions or ‘names’ given to God through the Old Testament. Each name develops into a prophecy of the coming of the Messiah.

O Sapientia, or O Wisdom, is the first of these days, and was marked on Wednesday (17 December). It was followed on Thursday (18 December) by O Adonai, by O Root of Jesse yesterday (19 December), and O Key of David today (20 December), and then O Dayspring tomorrow (21 December), O King of the Nations, and, finally on 23 December, O Emmanuel.

In the old Sarum rite, these were sung one day earlier, beginning on 16 December, requiring another ascription for 23 December, this being O Virgin of Virgins. Since this was clearly apposite to the Blessed Virgin Mary, and not a ‘title’ of God, it was not adopted much beyond Sarum and, with the revision of the Calendar, Anglicans have adopted the more widely-used formulæ and dating.

The seven majestic Messianic titles for Christ are based on Biblical prophecies, and they help the Church to recall the variety of the ills of humanity before the coming of the Redeemer as each antiphon in turn pleads with mounting impatience for Christ to save his people.

The Gospel reading at the Eucharist today (Luke 1: 26-38), tells the story of the Annunciation to the Virgin Mary, a feast we usually celebrate nine months before Christmas, on 25 March. The icon of the Annunciation presents the joy of the announcement of the coming of Christ. It is an icon of bright colours, depicting the Archangel Gabriel (left), who has come from heaven, and the Virgin Mary, who has been chosen to be the Mother of God.

The Archangel Gabriel presents the good news of the coming of Christ to Mary. He is shown with his feet spread apart as if he is running to share the good news with Mary. In his left hand is a staff, the symbol of a messenger. His right hand is extended toward Mary as he delivers the message and announces the blessing bestowed on her by God.

On the right side of the icon, the Virgin Mary sits on an elevated seat, indicating that as the Mother of God she is ‘greater in honour than the cherubim, and beyond compare more glorious than the seraphim, who without corruption gave birth to God the Word.’

In her left hand she holds a spindle of scarlet or crimson yarn that depicts the task she is engaged in of making the purple and scarlet material used in making the veil for the Temple in Jerusalem.

Her right hand is raised in a gesture of acceptance in response to the Archangel Gabriel’s message. Her posture expresses willing co-operation with God’s plan of salvation.

The three stars on the garments of the Theotokos represent that she is a Virgin before, during and after the birth of Christ.

At the top of the icon, the segment of a circle represents the divine realm from which three rays emerge. This demonstrates the action of the Holy Spirit coming upon her. In other depictions of the same icon, Christ himself – as a man – is shown in this semi-circle.

I was recalling yesterday the death of my eldest brother, Stephen, 55 years ago at the age of 24 on 18 December 1970. Images of the Pieta might remind us that the Virgin Mary was a mother who knew the fears and lost hopes of so many women: the women who see the death of their own children; the women who hope to be mothers and grandmothers, but never are; the women who see, experience and feel violence and violation at first-hand in their own lives; the women whose own grief is hijacked by others for their own agendas; the women of Ukraine and Russia, the women of Gaza, Israel and Palestine, the women of Lebanon and Syria.

But the Virgin Mary’s ‘Yes’ at the Annunciation is her yes, is our yes, is the ‘Yes’ of humanity and of creation, not only to the Incarnation, but also to the Crucifixion on Good Friday, and to the Resurrection on Easter Day, and all the hope for the future that Christmas and Easter bring.

The Archangel Gabriel and the Virgin Mary in icons of the Annunciation in Lichfield Cathedral (Photographs: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Saturday 20 December 2025):

The theme this week (14 to 20 December 2025) in Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), has been ‘The Floating Church’ (pp 10-11). This theme was introduced last Sunday with a Programme Update by Sister Veronica of the Community of the Sisters of the Church in Melanesia.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Saturday 20 December 2025) invites us to pray:

We thank you, Lord, for the Sisters. Sustain them in body, mind, and spirit, and guide them with your love in every journey, visit, and act of service across the islands.

The Collect:

O Lord Jesus Christ,
who at your first coming sent your messenger
to prepare your way before you:
grant that the ministers and stewards of your mysteries
may likewise so prepare and make ready your way
by turning the hearts of the disobedient to the wisdom of the just,
that at your second coming to judge the world
we may be found an acceptable people in your sight;
for you are alive and reign with the Father
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

We give you thanks, O Lord, for these heavenly gifts;
kindle in us the fire of your Spirit
that when your Christ comes again
we may shine as lights before his face;
who is alive and reigns now and for ever.

Additional Collect:

God for whom we watch and wait,
you sent John the Baptist to prepare the way of your Son:
give us courage to speak the truth,
to hunger for justice,
and to suffer for the cause of right,
with Jesus Christ our Lord.

Collect on the Eve of Advent IV:

God our redeemer,
who prepared the Blessed Virgin Mary
to be the mother of your Son:
grant that, as she looked for his coming as our saviour,
so we may be ready to greet him
when he comes again as our judge;
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

The Annunciation depicted in a large window by William Earley in the Church of the Annunciation in Clonard, Wexford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org

An Advent Calendar with Patrick Comerford: 9, 8 December 2025

‘The angel Gabriel from heaven came’ … the Annunciation depicted in a window in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

We are one-third of the way through Advent this year and yesterday was the Second Sunday of Advent (Advent II, 7 December 2025). At noon each day in Advent this year, I am offering one image as part of my ‘Advent Calendar’ for 2025, and one Advent or Christmas carol, hymn or song.

Today, the Calendar of the Church of England marks the Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary (8 December), and so my choice of an Advent hymn or carol today is ‘Gabriel’s Message’, also known as ‘The Angel Gabriel from Heaven came’.

This lilting carol takes inspiration from the Magnificat in Luke 1: 26-38, where the Angel Gabriel appears to the Virgin Mary, telling her she will conceive and have a son named Jesus.

The hymn was translated or written by the Revd Sabine Baring-Gould (1834-1924), a priest, poet and hymn writer who is best-known for ‘Onward, Christian Soldiers’ and ‘Now the Day is Over’. He translated the carols ‘Gabriel’s Message’ and ‘Sing Lullaby’ from Basque carols.

‘Gabriel's Message’ quotes the account of the Annunciation and the Virgin Mary’s Magnificat (Luke 1: 46-55) with the opening lines:

The angel Gabriel from heaven came,
his wings as drifted snow, his eyes as flame:
‘From God, all hail,’ the angel said to Mary,
‘most highly favoured lady!’
Gloria!

The Basque folk carol, in turn, is based on Angelus ad virginem a 13th or 14th century Latin carol. It was collected by the French composer Charles Bordes (1863-1909) and published in Paris 1897. It was then paraphrased in English and published in 1922 by Sabine Baring-Gould, who had spent a winter as a boy in the Basque country.

The tune ‘Gabriel’s Message’ is commonly performed in an arrangement by Edgar Pettman published in 1922. With their youthful sense of humour, this carol has been known irreverantly as to generations of choirboys as ‘most highly flavoured gravy’. But its use of the lilting phrase ‘Most highly favoured lady’ made it the favourite carol of Richard Harries when he was Bishop of Oxford.

Notable modern interpretations include a track on Sting’s single ‘Russians’ (1985) and on his album If on a Winter's Night … (2009). His interpretation of this carol is also part of the album A Very Special Christmas (1987).

Other recordings have been made by Charlotte Church on the album Dream a Dream (2000), Aled Jones on The Christmas Album(2004) and Moya Brennan of Clannad on her album An Irish Christmas (2005).

The Archangel Gabriel and the Virgin Mary in icons of the Annunciation in Lichfield Cathedral (Photographs: Patrick Comerford)

The angel Gabriel from heaven came,
his wings as drifted snow, his eyes as flame:
‘From God, all hail,’ the angel said to Mary,
‘most highly favoured lady!’
Gloria!

‘Fear not, for you shall bear a holy child,
by him shall we to God be reconciled;
his name shall be Emmanuel, the long-foretold:
most highly favoured lady!’
Gloria!

Then gentle Mary humbly bowed her head:
‘To me be as it pleases God,’ she said,
‘My soul shall praise and magnify his holy name.’
Most highly favoured lady!
Gloria!

‘And so,’ she said, ‘how happy I shall be!
All generations will remember me;
for God has kept his promises to Israel.’
Most highly favoured lady! Gloria!

Of her, Emmanuel – the Christ – was born
in Bethlehem, upon that Christmas morn.
And Christian folk throughout the world will ever say,
‘Most highly favoured lady!’
Gloria!

The Church of the Annunciation near Marble Arch and a visit to mark the Feast of the Annunciation

The Church of the Annunciation near Marble Arch … likened by Niklaus Pevsner to ‘a fragment of a major medieval church’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

Today is the Feast of the Annunciation [25 March 2025], and one of the churches in London I visited in recent weeks is the Church of the Annunciation near Marble Arch and close to Oxford Street. The architectural historian Sir Niklaus Pevsner said that to enter the church is to have stumbled upon ‘a fragment of a major medieval church’.

The Church of the Annunciation is between Bryanston Square and Montagu Square in the neoclassical Portman Estate, developed by Henry William Portman in the 18th century. It is a Grade II* listed building at the south end of Marylebone, and is a Gothic Revival church designed by Sir Walter Tapper and built in 1912-1914.

The area around the church was originally known as Tyburn, from its location near a small bourne or rivulet, once known as Ayebrook or Eye-brook, and later known as Tybourn-brook, that flowed into the Thames.

The parish church, Saint Mary’s Church, stood where Marylebone Parish Church now stands. Saint Mary’s came to be known as Saint Mary at the Bourn, giving its name to Saint Mary le bone, or Marylebone. The city of London contracted Sir Gilbert de Sandford in 1236 to draw water from Tyburn Springs that he owned to serve as the first piped water supply for the city.

Tyburn became notorious from 1196 as a place of execution. The Tyburn Tree was erected in 1571 and remained in some shape or form until 1783. A number of Roman Catholics martyrs were executed there during the Reformation.

Inside the Church of the Annunciation, designed by Sir Walter Tapper (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

The Portman family became the local landowners in the 16th century, when Sir William Portman (1498-1557) acquired 270 acres in 1532. The estate was later developed by Henry William Portman (1738-1796).

The Church of the Annunciation stands on the site of a chapel of ease built by Lord Portman in 1787. It was named the Quebec Chapel after the street on which it stood, and the street in the turn had acquired its name after General Wolfe captured the city of Quebec in 1759.

According to a contemporary report, the chapel was ‘a square, ugly edifice … with no pretensions to ecclesiastical fitness.’ It is said the original chapel was converted from the riding school of the nearby Portman Barracks – although this is probably untrue.

The High Altar and the reredos were designed by Walter Tapper Tapper and executed by John Charles Norman Bewsey (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

The perpetual curates or priests in charge of the Quebec Chapel included:

• Henry Alford (1810-1871), hymn-writer and author of ‘Come, ye thankful people, come’, patron of Pugin and later Dean of Canterbury (1857-1871);

• Edward Meyrick Goulburn (1818-1897), afterwards Dean of Norwich (1866-1899);

• John Hampden Gurney (1802-1862), who gives his name to Hampden Gurney School, established in 1863 as a memorial to the Reverend John Hampden Gurney, former Vicar of St Mary’s, Bryanston Square. The first school building was situated on Hampden Gurney Street in the parish of the Church of the Annunciation,

• and, in 1860-1861, William Connor Magee (1821-1891), who was born in Cork and later became Dean of Cork (1864-1868), Bishop of Peterborough (1868-1891) and briefly Archbishop of York (1891).

The high triumphal crucifix over the arch is thought to have been made by Robert Bridgeman of Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

The interior of the chapel was redecorated in the 1850s in an elaborate Byzantine style by the architect Sir Arthur Blomfield (1829-1899), who was also the architect of Saint Barnabas Church, Jericho, Oxford (1869), Selwyn College, Cambridge (1882-1889), and the nave of Southwark Cathedral (1890-1897).

When he was the chaplain, the Revd Edward Bickersteth Ottley (1853-1910) raised a public subscription and the chapel was bought from the Portman Estate in 1894.

The chapel had fallen into disrepair by the early 20th century, and the congregation wanted to build a new church on the whole city block between Seymour Street and Bryanston Street, and between Great Cumberland Place and Quebec Street.

Inside the Church of theAnnunciation, looking towards the west end (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

The Revd Bernard Day Douglas Shaw was the inspiration behind the new building. However, the original grand plan was halted due to the beginning of the World War I, resulting instead in a unique building that is both richly furnished and unfinished.

Sir Walter Tapper (1861-1935) was chosen as the architect of the new church, and the old chapel was demolished in 1911. Tapper was deeply religious with Anglo-Catholic convictions. His son later recalled that the Church of the Annunciation, a fine lofty building with something of the scale of a cathedral or a major medieval church, was Tapper’s favourite work.

Tapper was a Royal Academician, a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and President of the Royal Institute of Architects. Tapper was a pupil of George Frederick Bodley (1827-1907), a leading designer of mediaeval revival architecture. He was chief assistant and then manager in the office of George Bodley and Thomas Garner before setting up his own practice.

Later, he became Surveyor to the Fabric of Westminster Abbey, where he is buried.

The Lady Chapel in the Church of the Annunciation (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

The Church of the Annunciation is in the Edwardian Gothic style. It is a tall red brick church in the Late Gothic Revival (or Edwardian Gothic) style. It features stone dressings and buttresses and a gabled bell tower.

Tapper’s street elevations of the Church of the Annunciation are windowless at ground level, but high windows and vaulting throughout give the interior spaciousness. The rich furnishings are in keeping with the Anglo-Catholic tradition.

The Rood supporting Christ on the Cross flanked by the Blessed Virgin Mary and Saint John is in the shape of the rainbow, a symbol of the covenant between God and creation. The high triumphal crucifix over the arch is thought to have been made by Robert Bridgeman of Lichfield to designs by Tapper.

The high altar reredos was designed by Tapper and executed by John Charles Norman Bewsey (1880-1940). Bewsey, who trained with Charles Eamer Kempe (1837-1907), also designed the stained glass. A brass memorial to the Revd Bernard DD Shaw in the floor of the sanctuary is the only brass known to have been designed by Tapper, and was engraved by hand.

The organ case built by Sir Frederick Rothwell (1853-1944) was designed by Tapper and may be based on organ cases in Westminster Abbey designed by John Loughborough Pearson (1817-1897). Pearson, in turn, was the architect of Truro Cathedral (1879-1910) and the Fitzrovia Chapel (1890), London. He also restored Saint Lawrence’s Church, Towcester, added the two towers at the west end of Bristol Cathedral and designed additions to Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, in 1890.

The Stations of the Cross are by the Belgian sculptor Aloïs de Beule (1861-1935) of Ghent. They are plaster casts of originals in wood.

The Somerset Memorial in the north aisle is dedicated to Norman Somerset who was killed at the First Battle of Ypres (1914) at the age of 20.

The statue of Saint George in the Somerset Memorial in the north aisle (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

The church also has furnishings brought from other churches. The lampidarium spanning the arch between the sanctuary and the Lady Chapel originally hung above the high altar of Saint Chad’s Cathedral, Birmingham, and was designed by AWN Pugin (1812-1852).

The single bell was cast in 1913 by John Warner and Sons of Spitalfields.

The church was dedicated by the Bishop of London, Arthur Winnington-Ingram, on 24 June 1914. World War I was imminent and there were rumours too that the Suffragettes had planned to disrupt the service.

The Marylebone Calvary War Memorial on the corner of Old Quebec Street and Bryanston Street is at the south-east corner of the church. The memorial is also by Walter Tapper and includes local names from World War I.

The south porch of the Church of the Annunciation on Bryanston Street (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

In the early 20th century, many of the people associated with the church were strongly opposed to the growing ecumenical movement. An interdenominational rally was held nearby in Hyde Park in May 1951 to coincide with the launch of the Festival of Britain. A number of Anglo-Catholic clergy and lay people, led by Revd Hugh Ross Williamson, who later became a Roman Catolic, organised a protest meeting at the Church of the Annunciation to express their opposition to bishops of the Church of England sharing a platform with Methodists, Baptists and other nonconformists.

In their opinion, these churches did ‘not accept the traditional Faith of the Church’. In a signed letter, they expressed the concern that ‘the participation of the Church of England may give the additional impression that Roman Catholics are the only religious body which defend the full Catholic Faith.’

The poet John Betjeman was among the signatories. He admitted to TS Eliot, a fellow Anglo-Catholic and a churchwarden of Saint Stephen’s, Gloucester Road, that he found the tone of the protest ‘somewhat extreme.’ But he declared ‘I have nailed my colours to the mast and cannot let down my co-signatories.’ Rose Macaulay, the author of The Towers of Trebizond (1956), also commented on the protest, expressing her dismay at opposition to the rally.

Betjeman later opened new premises of Hampden Gurney School in 1967. The school continues its strong links with the Church of the Annunciation, and the Vicar, Father Lincoln Harvey, is chair of the governing body.

The Church of the Annunciation has always been closely associated with the Anglo-Catholic movement and has a distinguished tradition of music and choral singing.

Father Lincoln Harvey has been the Vicar of the Church of the Annunciation since 2021. He is a former Assistant Dean and Lecturer in Systematic Theology at Saint Mellitus College, and the author of a number of books, including A Brief Theology of Sport.

• The Parish Mass on Sundays is at 10:30 am. The weekday services usually include Mass at 12:30 pm each day. The church is open from Monday to Friday between 10 am and 6 pm for private prayer.

The Marylebone Calvary War Memorial on the corner of Old Quebec Street and Bryanston Street (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)