DONATIONS, GIFTS AND LEGACIES

As regular visitors to Walsingham will know, the new building at the Shrine is to be named after Sir William Milner. It was through his generosity – both in his lifetime and after his death – that today’s Shrine island site is what it is. Whenever Fr Patten had a new scheme for developing the Shrine Church, the College, or Stella Maris, it was Sir William who gladly dug deep into his pockets and provided the necessary cash. His own firm of architects, Milner & Craze designed the Shrine Church and one doubts whether a bill was ever sent to Fr Patten! But his biggest gift to the Shrine was in his will – his house in north Yorkshire, Parcevall Hall, its garden and the surrounding estate were all left for the benefit of future pilgrims to Walsingham.

But we should not forget that, during the past 75 years, thousands of other pilgrims have contributed to the running, upkeep and development of ‘England’s Nazareth’ through their donations, gifts and legacies. As a charity, the Shrine depends on this giving in order to subsidise the costs for pilgrims staying at Walsingham and none of the large building and refurbishment undertakings of the past few years would be possible without the sacrificial giving from those with a deep love of Our Lady of Walsingham. We are close to reaching the £2 million target of the Walsingham Appeal. Well over 5,000 pilgrims and friends have made donations to the Appeal and without this level of generosity we would be struggling to pay the builders.

There are all sorts of ways that donations and legacies can be used and the Guardians try very hard to make sure that large gifts are used for a specific purpose and commemorated in some appropriate way. Read on and you will discover some recent examples of remarkable generosity.

Click on Gifts or Legacies for more information.

MONEY IN THE BOX?

What happens to the money that is placed in the various offering boxes in the Shrine Church? All these offerings (generally anonymous, unless Gift Aided - if you are a UK taxpayer do take the trouble to fill in a Gift Aid envelope; your donation is then worth considerably more) are put towards the regular upkeep of the Shrine – and the Church in particular. There are always so many restoration and cleaning jobs - restoring the wall paintings, embroidery repairs on vestments, replacing worn out chairs; the list is endless.

Parcevall Hall - now used as the Bradford Diocese Retreat House - the former home of Sir William Milner.

The view of the north Yorkshire dales from the Pool Terrace of Parcevall Hall; the gardens designed by Sir William contain many fine plant specimens brought back from the Far East.

The new Milner Wing at the Shrine rising from the ground with (below) Stella Maris - about to be re-roofed - in the background.