The long forgotten Holy Shrine of ‘Our Lady of Ulting’
Ulting Church Deep in the Essex countryside sits, just ten feet from the River Chelmer, All Saints Church, a tiny little church, always locked, standing guard, silently, over its river domain, something it has done for almost a thousand years, an idyllic, innocent facade, concealing it’s once significant position in ecclesiastical England. For it wasn’t always like this. Back in the 15th Century it included a Chapel, adjoining the steeple at the western end, hosting the Guild of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the centre piece being a statue of the Virgin Mary, adorned with precious jewellery and crosses, a fact attested by many medieval wills and other bequests, funded for by the many pilgrims. It was a Holy shrine, said not only to rival the world famous shrine of ‘Our Lady of Walsingham, in Norfolk, but also the shrine of St Thomas a Becket, in Kent. Indeed, it attracted pilgrims who saw the three shrines at Canterbury, Ulting and Walsingham, who saw visits to the three sh...