Little Walsingham was voted the nation’s favourite holy place in a poll by BBC Radio 4. Even in the 21st century, it still deserves such an accolade: the Blessed Virgin Mary herself has graced it for all time, putting it alongside many of the other great pilgrimage centres in Europe. The Mother of God’s intervention in this country’s spiritual development can still be experienced today. There are three places you can visit that are directly connected to the medieval shrine: the Anglican shrine (a reconstruction), the Catholic shrine just outside the village, and the ruins of the priory that housed the original shrine. There are other churches in the vicinity too that add to the Walsingham story. It all began 1,000 years ago when a Saxon woman called Lady Richeldis had a vision in which the Blessed Virgin took her to Nazareth. Mary showed her the house in which the Archangel Gabriel had delivered the Annunciation – the news that she was to bear the son of God. Lady Richeldis was given the dimensions of this house and told to construct a replica in Walsingham. A simple wooden cottage was duly built after miraculous signs showed her where to put it, near two holy wells. A corner of a field in Norfolk became forever a piece of the Holy Land. That was the year 1061, and during the next 500 years, Walsingham grew into Britain’s foremost centre of pilgrimage, rivalled only by Canterbury. A monastery was built, and a huge priory church enclosed the original humble house under its roof. To illustrate the importance of this shrine, it is enough to note that every monarch for 300 years, from Henry III in 1226 to Henry VIII, made a pilgrimage here. Henry VIII even walked the last mile barefoot when he came in 1511. Such humble respect for the shrine came to an abrupt end with the Reformation. The monastery was destroyed, the wooden image of the Blessed Virgin burned, and 11 people hanged outside the walls for daring to resist. Much of the shrine has been reconstructed during the past 100 years. Little Walsingham is once again a holy place without parallel in Britain and comparable to few in Europe. Around 350,000 visitors come to this hallowed spot each year, shared between Anglican, Catholic, and Orthodox believers alike with instructive common purpose. Perhaps only the sites of the Holy Land can give a greater sense of shared Christian tradition – none in Britain matches it for multi-denominational activity, though Lindisfarne comes close.