5 favourite English Catholic places

Fr Ray Blake tagged us to do the five favourite English Catholic places meme. It's difficult for me to reduce my choice to only five, but I'm helped by the fact that many of my instinctive choices have already been covered by other people, so I thought I'd go for a few that I haven't seen elsewhere.

First, Ladywelle, or to give it its full title, the Shrine of Our Lady of the Well at Fernyhalgh. It's a beautiful Marian shrine and has been a place of continual Catholic devotion since at least 1348. Enough said.




One of my favourite places to go for Mass on Saturdays is the shrine of St Margaret Clitherow in York. Admittedly it's in the wrong house, but it is nonetheless a very special place and I have a great devotion to St Margaret Clitherow. As an added bonus, there's a splendid second hand bookshop with a great selection of interesting Catholic books just up the road.




Another fabulous place to go for Mass on Saturday (it's actually a Sunday vigil Mass though) is the Lady Chapel at Mount Grace. Mount Grace itself is a beautiful place to be. The Lady Chapel was built by the Carthusians and has remained a place of Catholic devotion and pilgrimage ever since. You can walk up there from Mount Grace, following the route taken by the Carthusians or from Osmotherley. The Chapel is served from here by Fr Damian from Ampleforth, who is based at the Old Hall in Osmotherley, iself a place with a rich Catholic tradition.

St Aelred is a longstanding friend of mine so Rievaulx has to be included in my list. I used to get quite angry with Henry VIII and his friends while visiting the ruins of our monasteries but now, following the suggestion of a friend, I pray for him instead. If anyone is a good candidate for purgatory, it is surely him.

While I'm still on ruins, Bede's world, which includes the monastery of St Paul at Jarrow is another favourite. I know this technically breaks the rules of the meme, since it's owned by the Anglicans, but it isn't actually run by them so I'll include it.