SIR,—The consecration of the Slipper Chapel being fresh in the minds of your readers together with the news of the erection of the territory of Little WaIsingham, the Slipper Chapel and its grounds and Great Walsingham into a parish of which the Bishop is the parish priest and Fr. Scott James the Administrator,. the moment may be opportune to say a word about the parent parish from which the new one is formed.
Just over thirty years ago the whole area formed part of the district served from Kings Lynn, but in 1905 Bishop Riddell sent a priest to Fakenham whose work it was to build up a. new parish around that small market town. A presbytery and " the Sacristy of a future church " were built and in 1930 the district was formally erected into a parish by synodal decree.
There must be many devout clients of Our Lady of Walsingham who, in addition to their offerings at the Shrine, would be willing to contribute towards the cost of building a permanent church at Fakenham to serve the needs of the countryside round about.
In 1928 a generous benefactor provided a spacious and dignified chapel of ease at Wells. East Dereham, which originally formed part of the parish, has been given a temporary church and handed over to the care of another priest. Mass centres have been formed at Raynham, Overy Staithe and Stiffkey but the agricultural population of the Fakenham area remains poverty stricken and without its church. An excellent site is available and a building fund has been started.
ARTIluR T. BREWER,
Parish Priest of Fakenham. The Presbytery, Wells Road, Fakenham, Norfolk,