The national Shrine of Our Lady of Willesden
Pilgrimage was made to the ancient Shrine of Our Lady of Willesden throughout the Middle Ages until its suppression in 1538.
Devotion was restored in 1892. The present Shrine Church was opened in 1931 and the image Crowned in the Marian year of 1954.
St Thomas More made frequent visits in the 1530s. In the 20th Century St Josemaria Escriva and Bl. Alvaro del Portillo made a number of pilgrimages.
The Dissolution of the Monasteries, while not named on the memorial, is alluded to, with the date 1538.
We note that the text gives Escriva the title "St." (saint) but Portillo is given only "Bl." (blessed) which probably indicates their status at the time the board was erected (Escriva being canonized in 2003, but Portillo was only beatified in 2014.)
Also note that neither of these saints, nor St Thomas More, ever visited this location; their pilgrimages were made to the church which was located where the Anglican now is.
Site: Our Lady of Willesden - shrine (1 memorial)
NW10, Nicoll Road, 1, Our Lady of Willesden RC church
About a mile to the north lies the Anglican church of . As far back as 939 there was a well (from which Willesden gets its name) and a church to which pilgrims came, primarily to venerate a statue of Virgin Mary, the ‘Black Madonna’, Our Lady of Willesden. The statue was destroyed in 1538 during the the dissolution of the monasteries but the church continued. In the early 1900s the vicar restored the shrine and pilgrimages restarted. In 1972 a new ‘Black Madonna’ was installed. In 1998 the well was rediscovered and brought back into use.
Meanwhile, here in Nicoll Road Harlesden, in 1885 a Catholic Mission was established for the growing Irish population, with the help of the local Convent of Jesus and Mary and using a temporary chapel on Manor Park Road. A new statue was blessed by Cardinal Vaughan in 1892. In 1907, a larger church was built in nearby Crownhill Road and then in 1931 the current church was built with a shrine of Our Lady of Willesden in the northeast chapel. The Feast of Our Lady of Willesden is on 3 October and the annual Catholic pilgrimage takes place in May.
So, there are two shrines for Our Lady of Willesden, the Anglican one in the original location and this Catholic one a mile away.
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