London to Walsingham Pilgrimage

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1. Thursday 23rd to Sunday 25th March 2023. The Anglican Shrine at Walsingham is offering a package including a two-day walk with Andy Bull, author of the London to Walsingham Camino, arriving in Walsingham for the Feast of the Annunciation. This link takes you to the details, just in case anyone might be interested.

2. Friday 14th and Saturday 15th April 2023. Andy Bull (author of the  London to Walsingham Camino) will be walking the full route 11-25 April 2023. Anyone interested is invited to walk with him along any part of the route. Details and a provisional timetable can be found here. 
You are most welcome to join Andy and his pilgrims on any of the stages but the route from Stansted to Saffron Walden on Friday 14th April and from Saffron Walden to Withersfield on Saturday 15th April might be of particular interest?  Both are about 14 miles and will take about 5 hours.
Andy says" We shall be staying overnight in or near Saffron Walden on the night of Friday 14 April, walking on again the following morning. I think we will number around half a dozen. If there are any other locals who would like to join us for a stage or two, they are most welcome. They can contact me andyzbull@gmail.com and I will then keep them updated."

St Mary's Church Saffron Walden is on the resurrected London to Walsingham Pilgrimage route and where visiting pilgrims can stamp their official passports which can also used on the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage in Spain.

Before Henry VIII outlawed pilgrimages and the veneration of saints in 1538, the route from London to the shrine at Walsingham in Norfolk was the most popular pilgrimage in England.

This resurrected route has been given official recognition by the Confraternity of St James, better known for their organisation of the Camino de Santiago in Spain. That means any pilgrim who walks at least 25km of it will be able to use that 25km towards the total of 100km that must be walked in order to get the official credencial on reaching Santiago.

The 178 mile route is in13 stages, each averaging about 14 miles, and passes through Saffron Walden, and St Mary’s is one of the 19 churches that now has its own pilgrimage stamp (see above) that pilgrims can use to stamp their passports en route.  Passports can be ordered from the Confraternity of St James - www.csj.org.uk

Andy Bull has written a 192 page comprehensive guide to this route called the “London to Walsingham Camino – The Pilgrim’s Guide” published by trailblazer-guides.com and also available from bookshops and Amazon. This guide has a forward by the Archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell, who has walked to Walsingham twice, and says “I am delighted that the route from London to Walsingham is now better established and therefore more available for other pilgrims and also drawn into the network of pilgrimages under the umbrella of the Confraternity of Saint James. Walsingham is England’s Nazareth, the place where we encounter, in a fresh and homely way, the truth of the incarnation that in Christ, God has come among us. When we walk to Walsingham this truth is amplified and magnified; we discover that the incarnate God is with us every step of the way.”

Stage 4 describes the walk between Stansted Mountfitchet and Saffron Walden and Stage 5 is from Saffron Walden to Withersfield and is shown on this map on the right, taken from the guide. You do need to purchase Andy Bull’s  guide to be able to follow the route. It has a map of each stage and has detailed walking instructions. Click on the map to enlarge.

The whole route which can be found in the guide is shown below. Further details can be obtained from Andy Bull andyzbull@gmail.com