King's Lynn Pilgrimage

By Joe Rodriguez

For my first trip of the year, I visited King’s Lynn in Norfolk County. I was up by 4 am to be sure I was at the London Kings Cross Station ready to board the 7:42 train with the rest of my group. The ride was about two hours, but it seemed to go by faster since I wasn’t traveling alone.

As soon as we arrived at King’s Lynn, which used to be called Bishop’s Lynn before it was renamed in 1537 during the reign of King Henry VIII, we headed to Castle Acre Priory by coach. When we got there, someone asked what a Priory was, and we discovered in the interactive exhibition that it’s a small monastery that’s run by a Prior or a head of a house or group of houses within a religious order. We further learned that Castle Acre Prior is notable for being one of the most well-preserved monastic sites within England. It dates to the Norman Conquest of England in the 11th Century. The property was owned by William de Warenne who fought as a Norman Knight at the Battle of Hastings. The site begins on the West front, and you follow the trail through the remains of the Eastern arm of the church, but most of us headed straight for the Prior’s great chamber and lodging, which was astonishingly still intact. You could spend hours roaming around the ruins and marveling at what life might have been like for the monks who lived there, but many of us started to get hungry, so we headed to The Ostrich Pub for lunch.

I enjoyed the Philly Cheese Steak Baguette, but I don’t think the Pub staff was used to serving such a large crowd. They seemed overwhelmed by our boisterous American presence. We were even told that we should be careful not to scare the locals with our loud conversations when we first arrived in Castle Acre village.

After lunch, we headed to Walsingham Abbey. The Abbey is known for the large swathes of snowdrops that cover the grounds, an early sign of spring, and the ruins of the medieval Priory of Our Lady of Walsingham. I was most excited, however, to see the location of the 11th Century Anglo-Saxon Shrine of the Holy House of Nazareth where several Kings, from Henry III to Henry VIII, and Queen Catherine of Aragon all pilgrimed. Of course, only a sign and cross mark the spot now, but it’s fascinating to look around and picture royalty paying homage. I imagined them kneeling where I was standing.

Castle Rising Castle marked our final site visit in King’s Lynn. It was also my favorite. This Castle was built by the Earl of Arundel, William D’Albini II, in the 12th Century. The massive and steep earthworks surrounding the Castle were impressive to walk on. The Castle was once a royal residence, hunting lodge, and home to a mental patient in the 18th Century. There’s an old Norfolk legend that says Queen Isabella of France (1292-1358) who murdered her husband Edward II and lived out her remaining days in this Castle still haunts the upper floors. As the sun began to set on our pilgrimage, none of us wanted to stay long enough to find out.