THE
P RTAL
June 2018
Page 18
Ecumenical Marian Pilgrimage Trust
Pilgrimage to Our Lady
of Willesden
T he P ortal was there!
W illesden may
be on the Bakerloo Line now, but it
was not always the case. Until the coming of the railway,
Willesden was a leafy village to the north of London; a place of
farms and countryside. It had been thus for generations. Prior
to the Reformation, Willesden was the
place where food for the great Cathedral
of St Paul’s was grown, both crops and
animals.
The origins of the Shrine of Our Lady
of Willesden reach back to the mists of
antiquity. The story is that King Athelstan
was on his way to a battle. He stumbled Fr Stephen Willis
across a group of hermits living in rude
wooden huts. The King requested that
they pray for him and his success in
the coming battle. They duly did as the
monarch asked. Upon his return, having
won his battle, he is reputed to have given
the hermits a purse of gold for them to
build a stone church. The present Anglican
Parish Church stands on the site of this
Fr Mark Woodruff
pre-conquest church.
Whether this story is true, or whether
the shrine dates from the fifteenth
century, we shall never know. Whatever
its beginnings, what is certain is that prior
to the Reformation there was a church
and a shrine in Willesden, and that it was
dedicated to Our Lady. Quite why it was
dedicated to Our Lady is another mystery.
Kathy Watters
The church contained two images of Our Chuch Warden
Lady, one of which was a “black Madonna”.
We know that on the eve of the Reformation,
it was a thriving centre of Marian devotion.
There were processions, fairs, and all the
fun of a medieval pilgrimage. There were
complaints of prostitution, con-men,
and other unseemly activities in the road
around the shrine. As one person on the
pilgrimage said, “Not much has changed!”
Roger Macklen
The work being done on the new Church Warden
RC Shrine of OL Willesden
Crossrail project has found tokens relating
to the medieval shrine, and it seems
that prayers were offered for a healthy
heir to the throne. St Thomas More was
a visitor to Our Lady of Willesden. He
was a regular pilgrim. Alice, his adopted
daughter, lived nearby and he would walk
the short distance from his Chelsea home
on a Sunday, stay the night and walk back
home on Monday.
More used Our Lady of Willesden in
his defence of Catholic Pilgrimages and
practice. We know he was in Willesden
one week before his arrest. He came to the
shrine knowing he was to be arrested.
The shrine was destroyed in 1535.
Cromwell’s agent, Richard Mores, has left
a detailed description:
“With many vanities they have
there an image of Our Lady in robes
of sarsenet (a type of silk) and with
stones; with a veil withal of lace
embroidered with pearls and other