1931

invitation to the opening of the new shrine

click on the picture to see the invitation

The seventy-fifth anniversary of the Translation of the statue from its shrine in the parish church to its home in the newly-built Holy House on Thursday October 15th 1931 was celebrated in Walsingham on the weekend of Saturday October 14th 2006.

Another 75th anniversary was celebrated in 2006. In 1931 the League of Our Lady (founded 1904) amalgamated with the Confraternity of Our Lady (founded 1880) to become The Society of Mary. The League played a vital role in the revival of pilgrimage to Walsingham, from its first pilgrimage in October 1922, three months after the statue was set up in the parish church. Some of its officers were original Guardians of the Shrine. A souvenir book of photographs has been published: this contains many photographs with Walsingham connections.

The procession of the Translation of the image of Our Lady from the parish church to the new Shrine on October 15th 1931.

Read the
descriptions in the Church Times and East Anglian Daily Times alongside 36 of the Shrine's own archive photographs of Translation day and the days surrounding it
(thumbnails link to full-screen size)
and the report from 'Ave'

Fr Patten's description of the day's events in Our Lady's Mirror, Autumn 1931

The timetable of the day of the Translation, pieced together from contemporary accounts

stone inscription placed in the walls of the Holy House (under the window)

THE LITTLE GUIDE: October 1931: Fr Patten's first Guide to the newly-opened Holy House: full scanned text including ground plan of the building

one pilgrim's reminiscences of being present at the Shrine in 1922, 1931 and 1938

Another description of the 1931 Translation events written by a visitor - a churchwarden from St Mary's, Bourne Street : beautifully observed, like the above, with similar touches not found in the press accounts of the time

FATHER PATTEN'S PHOTOGRAPH ALBUM OF THE BUILDING OF THE HOLY HOUSE

Fr Patten compiled this ("number 8") album as a record of the building of the Holy House and covering church from June 27th to October 16th 1931. It has 34 pages, with 165 pictures. He dated, numbered and captioned 110 of them. All the photographs, except duplicates, are on the website, in their original order. Click on the picture to view the album.

TRACT ON PILGRIMAGE by Fr Patten, 1931: full scanned text

Douglas Keddie is always at the National, and in 2007 he gave a bench seat in the Sunk Road to commemorate the fact that he was present at the opening of the Holy House in 1931. He was one of two pupils sent to represent St Michael's School, Otford on the day.
click here for pictures

1931 Timeline:
In ENGLAND George V was on the throne, Ramsay MacDonald was Prime Minister, Cosmo Lang was Archbishop of Canterbury and Bertram Pollock was Bishop of Norwich. It was the year in which England left the Gold Standard, there was a Census, and Whipsnade Zoo opened. In NORFOLK the East Anglian earthquake shock was felt throughout the county, there was the largest cliff fall for thirty years, the first letter was delivered in Norwich by air mail, and you could come on pilgrimage to Walsingham by train.