Pilgrims Miss
RED MOUNT
By Fr. Desmond Murray, O.P.
AS in the case of Canterbury there were a number of places where pilgrims rested on the way to the famous shrine of
Walsingham.
Along those roads special chapels were provided for rest and refreshment.
These formerly existed at S. and W, Acre, at Friars Thorn, CockIcy Clay, Ick borough, Sianhoe, Hilhorough, and a number of other places. hut practically the only one that has survived to our own day is the beautiful building and chapel at Lynn, known now as Red Mount hut formerly as Lady Hill.
At lekborough, Norfolk, near Brandon, the chapel WU attached to a leper hospital, today it is a farmhouse. At Cockley. near Swathes,. the pilgrims' house is now incorporated in modern dwelling houses. Kings Lynn was originally known as Lynn Episcopi, until the time of Henry VII, when it as changed to Kings Lynn.
In pre-Reformation times it was a spry Catholic town (todey it has a Catholic Mayor once again), for it had as many as 13 monasteries end churches and over 30 guilds for the townspeople.
RED MOUNT
THE ancient Mount Chapel was
built about 1484-86 by Robert Curraunce probably on the site of a more ancient one a perfect gem of architecture, consisting of three storeys, reached by two circular staircases of stone which go between the, outer and the inner buildings, encased in an octagon shell of red brick.
The chapel on the upper floor is cruciform in shape, built of stone measuring 17 ft. 7 in. by 14 ft. across the transepts but there are three hagioscopes. to relieve the smallness of room, let into the 12 In. thick walls; two at the back of the chapel and one on the lefthand side. cut out of solid stone.
A drawing of one is shown here as an inset. From the circular passage outside. pilgrims could therefore follow the Mass, if there was not sufficient room within.
The central room was also used as a chapel, as the piscine in the right wall shows: the lower corns pertinent which is larger and very dark (being partly underground). Was probabh, used to house pilartnis.
'1 he chapel is situated in a park known as '' The Walks." just near the station and though the many visitors to Lynn see the exterior, very few have bun inside, the chapel always being kept locked up; the key can be obtained at the offices of the corporation yard. The great tosser of the treyfriars church is a short distance 'may, under which stands a very ancient stone crucifix, all that now remains of the buildings.
LONG WALK
TN the old days Lynn was a port of some importance. so that pilgrims coming from Flanders and
elsewhere on the Continent found this one of the most convenient landing places. Our Lady's chapel was their first resting place, hefore
they set off to walk the long road some 20 miles. as the crow Mei, to the former Shrine of Walsingham.
The chapel is very richly urnsmented in pehsendletilar style. with elaborate mouldings on the walls and ceiling. From the four central angles rise four yaults, which, doiee-like, meet in the centre; all is in perfect symmetry and the details are of great beauty.
The present stone structure is
not the original altar. 't he Interior has not beets illustrated before, sinless the late E. Al. Bettie, who wrote a monograph on the chapel, gives one, hut his hook is long out of print and not available.
It seems very strange that of the thousands of pilgrims who now
Walsingham, few, it any, hase ever heard of, much less visited this Cry beautiful little chapel at Lynn. It is much finer in ever way than the Slipper Chapel, quite tinkles in fact, and so closely connected with the same pilgrimage.
(iillet's hook on " The History of Waisinghem " 11946) mentions Lynn and Red Mount but does not make any special feature of it.
The Cath Mc church in London Road contains a tiny chapel to Our Lady of Walsingham, decorated with 15 'stinging lamps; the shrine is an exact replica, on a small scale, of the Holy House of Loretto; the statue was carved in Oberammergau, and solemnly blessed by Pope Leo X111 in 1897, before being sent to England,
when the Pop. restored the Ancient shrine ot Our Lady or Walsingham
PROCESSION
RED Mount cliepel lees saved
from demolition and desecration in 1823 by ennie pious Catholics of Lynn, since then it has been taken over by the corporation of the town and now a showpiece. livers year on the Thursday in WhIteseek a procession of Catholick winds up the hill to pay their respects to Our Lady as of old. The first Catholic chapel was opened in 1828, the foundation atone of the present church laid in I896—and see how they have been blessed.