Our Lady of the Annunciation

Introduction

Our Lady of the Annunciation in King's Lynn is a Gothic Revival church of 1897 designed by William Lunn, incorporating elements from an earlier 1845 church on the same site by A.W.N. Pugin. The church houses the Pontifical Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham, established here in 1897, and was the main focus of Catholic devotion to Our Lady of Walsingham until 1934.

History

The foundation stone of the earlier church was laid on 10 May 1844 and the church, dedicated to St Mary, was consecrated by Dr Wareing, Vicar Apostolic of the Eastern District, on 8 May 1845. The original proposal for a church with a tower and spire was not realised and initially only the nave and chancel were built, with a north aisle added later. The church was taken down and rebuilt under Lunn's supervision, re-using some parts of the old building and some furnishings, including the rood, the font and stained glass.

The foundation stone of the rebuilt church was laid on 29 September 1896 and the church was opened by Bishop Riddell of Northampton on 2 June 1897. The builder was W. Hubbard of East Dereham and the approximate cost was £3,000. The rebuilt church included a Lady Chapel built as a replica of the Holy House of Loreto. The shrine was set up in August 1897, immediately after which Fr Wrigglesworth led a pilgrimage of about 40-50 people from Lynn to Walsingham, the first manifestation in modern times of the revival of that ancient popular pilgrimage.

The altar in the shrine was consecrated by Bishop Riddell of Northampton on 15 May 1900. This remained the official shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham until 1934, when the national shrine was established at Walsingham; at that point King's Lynn became a pontifical shrine. The interior of the church was refurbished several times in the twentieth century and the sanctuary reordered in 1969.

Architecture and furnishings

The church is in a simple Gothic style, with walls faced with carrstone, dressings of dark red sandstone, window surrounds of Bath stone, and slate roofs. The plan comprises a nave and chancel under a continuous pitched roof with a lean-to north aisle, a north porch and a small northwest tower. On the south side of the chancel is a Lady Chapel, which is also the shrine. Internally, the nave and chancel have a continuous open timber roof with collars and tie beams; the walls are plastered and the floor is woodblock.

The nave has a five-bay north arcade with pointed chamfered arches on octagonal stone columns with moulded capitals. At the west end is an octagonal stone font with quatrefoil panels, re-used from Pugin's church. Above the font is a modern timber organ gallery, the organ (assembled in 1990) with pipework from Emmanuel College, Cambridge. On the gallery front are painted panels of the Annunciation in a carved timber surround, originally part of the 1897 reredos designed by William Lunn and made by Charles Beajart of Bruges.

A large three-light traceried window contains stained glass by William Wailes (Virgin and Child, Thomas Becket and St George), re-set from the earlier church. The transition between nave and chancel is marked by the rood beam and rood, also re-used from the earlier church. In 1923 the chancel walls were covered with a scheme of painted decoration, later hidden by a simpler decorative scheme; a fragment of the older scheme (showing a phoenix) survives in the tympanum of a door in the north wall. The sanctuary has been reordered and the stone altar, which was introduced in 1947, cut down and brought forward.

The Lady Chapel, which is also the Pontifical Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham, is a narrow rectangular space with walls faced with irregular courses of carrstone and a blue-painted timber barrel-vaulted ceiling. The image of Our Lady is incorporated in a neo-Baroque altarpiece, possibly that supplied by J. A. Pippet in 1900. The shrine contains brass memorials to the Revd William Poole (d.1867) and the Revd George Wrigglesworth (d.1900) 'who rebuilt this church and set up the shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham'. The northwest tower is rectangular on plan and topped by a pitched tiled roof with a spirelet.

The north aisle has a mixture of double and single cusped windows, while the clerestorey windows are alternately double and single lights. The entrance to the shrine was originally enclosed by a carved and gilded timber screen, only fragments of which survive. In the early nineteenth century, Mass was celebrated by two successive French émigré priests.

Visiting

The west front on London Road features a central pointed doorway, a wide four-light pointed window above with idiosyncratic tracery, and a pair of small cusped windows in the gable head. To the right of the main front, a modern carrstone wall with a pointed doorway approached by a ramp provides step-free access to ancillary facilities added around 2010. The nave is seated with modern benches. At the west end of the south wall is a modern rectangular door opening.

Further east, a wide pointed arch leads to the shrine. The chancel is of two bays, with clerestorey windows on the south side and sedilia in the south wall. There is no east window because of the presbytery beyond; hanging on the blind east wall is a crucifix by Michael Clark, installed in 1969.