The Walsingham Statue of Our Lady
The Statue of Our Lady of Walsingham.  This statue, shown below, is a twentieth century replica of the much revered medieval wooden statue from the original Walsingham shrine, claimed to be able to perform miracles. It is displayed behind an altar in the Anglican shrine, and is often carried in procession.
The design of the modern statue, created in the 1920s, was taken from an image on pilgrimage tokens, shown below. Also below, another replica created in stone for the Slipper chapel in 1954.
The original statue was removed at the dissolution and, it is assumed, burned as a Catholic icon. But was it? The are many stories of devout Catholics seizing relics and icons and doing their best to hide them. Below is the Langham Madonna, presently in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.  Langham is a village near Walsingham, and there are tales of local Catholics doing their best to preserve revered icons. Could this be what is left of the Madonna from Walsingham? An intriguing mystery!
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