All Hallows House pilgrimage centre being extensively refurbished
We are giving the house a much-needed facelift, aided by generous financial support from the Community of All Hallows (who have been involved with mission work at St Julian’s since 1884) and overseen by Charles Thurston, the Diocesan Surveyor for the Diocese of Norwich.
All Hallows House, faithfully served since the 1960s by much-loved Sisters of the Community of All Hallows (and, for a time in the 1990s, the Community of the Sacred Passion) has been vacant and unable to receive guests since the departure of Sister Pamela CAH to Mull in February 2018.
Work to straighten out the gardens and improve the drainage has been done during the winter, windows will be replaced within the next couple of weeks, and by Easter we hope builders will have moved on site to undertake refurbishment work, including widening doorways, enlarging the kitchen to create a kitchen-diner, creating an accessible ground floor bedroom, and other improvements.
A flat (with sitting room, kitchen, bathroom and bedroom) will be created for the House Steward, who will be recruited later this year: keep an eye out for advertising and do pass it on to anyone who might be interested. Some more modest improvements and alterations will also be made to the Julian Centre next door, to upgrade our facilities and to provide interpretative material to help visitors learn more about Julian.
The Friends of Julian of Norwich are providing significant financial backing to enable this work to take place, and are also contributing the same amount for furnishings and fittings at All Hallows House, as well as making a contribution towards the stipend of the Priest Director to fund the provision of ministry at the site – cash support totalling some £56,000. All this is an invaluable contribution towards the future flourishing of this place which is loved and treasured around the world, and just one tangible expression of the intrinsic role which the Friends play in this flourishing now and in the future.