HIGHLIGHT: St Mary’s Saffron Walden
St Mary’s church sails above Saffron Walden like a great ship in stone. Everywhere I walk, its spire watches over me.
It looms round corners, peers over rooftops, is glimpsed down alleys, and keeps a keen eye on everything that goes on in the town.
Representations of the saffron crocus, grown here extensively for 400 years until the late 18th century, appear on the roof and above arches in St Mary’s, which is as imposing inside as out. Its great nave is a cathedral-sized space: 50ft high and 108ft long.
Tucked in St Mary’s shadow is the lovely little Catholic Church of Our Lady of Compassion, housed in a former barn.
I reach it via an alley from the churchyard of St Mary’s. It presents an anonymous, orange-brick face to Castle St, but inside is a gold-encrusted revelation.
Above the sanctuary is a ceiling in deep blue dotted with gold stars; the simple screen-like reredos glisters with gold, as do the points of the crucifix. Most golden of all is the soaring cover to the tabernacle, delicate tracery topped with an angel.
Saffron Walden has a powerful medieval feel. On the corner of High St and King St is The Cross Keys, a 15th century inn that will have hosted pilgrims along with secular travellers.
In the centre of Market Square is what I mistake at first for a holy or market cross, until I learn it is actually a Victorian drinking fountain.
No matter, high on each of its four stone faces is a sculpted, high relief scene from the book of Exodus. Each features Moses and show him: liberating the children of Israel from slavery in Egypt; about to kill an Egyptian who is smiting a Hebrew labourer; helping Reul’s daughters to water their father’s flock; and leading the Hebrews out of Egypt in the Exodus.
It is by John Francis Bentley, a convert to Catholicism who designed Westminster Cathedral, and dates from 1863.
On The Common, I come across what is known as the Turf Maze but which is actually a labyrinth.
The difference being that while a maze is designed to confuse, with deceptive turns and dead ends, a labyrinth follows one true path to the centre, and hence has a clear connection with pilgrimage.
The path it offers may appear to be taking you away from your goal at times but, stick with it, and you will reach your destination.
Some cathedrals feature labyrinths marked out in the tiles of the floor, notably Chartres, and walking them offered a symbolic path of pilgrimage for those unable to travel to shrines such as Walsingham, Santiago or Rome.
Find out more
For all you need to know in order to follow the London to Walsingham Camino, check out the guidebook
For highlights on each stage of the route, click on the links in the drop-down menu