What is Walsingham Development Group?

Walsingham Development Group exists to develop and implement a village-wide strategy to improve the experience of visiting Walsingham for tourists and pilgrims so that all might enjoy an enriched experience of this unique and sacred place.

Illustrated map of Walsingham village
Walsingham Village, welcoming visitors since 1061

Activities

The Group’s activities include organising community events, and group marketing for Walsingham intended to support all the village businesses (such as providing business listings on this website). It works on projects to help support the sustainability of the village as a whole.

The Group organises the decoration of the Common Place and High Street for Christmas, together with our now annual Christmas Lights and Carols event held on the first Saturday evening in Advent.

Fundraising

The Group’s first fundraising efforts were to design and build this village website. Then to mark the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee in 2012, a village map was commissioned to be put up around the village and help visitors to find their way, with locally made oak frames.

Additional funds were raised in 2015 to print and distribute the village map leaflet, ‘Discover Walsingham‘, as a marketing tool. 100,000 copies have to date been printed and widely distributed to tourist destinations and accommodation providers as well as in the village.

Walsingham ‘Open Spaces for All’ walking project

The Development Group is working towards accreditation for the village as a Walkers are Welcome destination.

Walkers are Welcome is a nationwide initiative, launched in 2007 to encourage towns and villages to be ‘welcoming to walkers’. The network has expanded rapidly and there are now over 100 locations across the UK that have joined this innovative community-led scheme to benefit from Walkers are Welcome accreditation.

As part of this we were successful in our recent bid for grant funding (from the Big Society Fund), to develop and way mark a collection of Walsingham Walks. These will build on the original five Walsingham Walks routes which were part of the now-defunct Countryside Stewardship Scheme. Leaflets for the five walks which include a written description, a map and some further information can be found here.

Resources to download

Discover Walsingham map leaflet

Walsingham Wildflower leaflet. The list of wildflowers was compiled by a resident of Walsingham, Mrs Clark during her walks with Alfie – a very well-behaved terrier. We hope that this will inspire you to walk in this lovely part of North Norfolk. If you spot a flower that is not on the list please do let us know (with a photo), share on Facebook www.facebook.com/walsinghamvillage email info@walsinghamvillage.org

Leaflets for the five walks

Membership of the Walsingham Development Group

Organisations and individuals representing a cross-section of interests, knowledge and skills within the village. It is a working group of the Parish Council.

To contact Walsingham Development Group email info@walsinghamvillage.org