The Walsingham House Team have welcomed young people on retreat for many years, firstly at Chingford, then at Canvey Island, and now here at Abbotswick. As a young adult team, usually aged 19-23, supported by staff members who have years of Youth Ministry experience, the Walsingham House Team live the model advocated by Pope St John Paul II, Pope Benedict and Pope Francis, who have each expressed the deep truth that “the best evangelisers of young people are other young people.”

Retreats 2026-27: Bookings are now open!

We are excited to be welcoming groups back to Walsingham House both for day and residential retreats. Hopefully the key information is detailed below, but any further questions or to make a booking please do get in touch.

Day retreats at Walsingham House: our day retreats are tightly packed with reflective activities and drama, as well as times of prayer and reflection. Walsingham House is fairly central in the diocese being  just a 30 – 40 minute drive from almost anywhere in Essex and East London.

For Primary and Secondary Schools, we recommend you bring one class a day for their retreat in order to give them the opportunity to make the most out of the experience, but please do get in touch to discuss this further if required. Timings are flexible and we offer a window of 9.30am – 4pm. Students are required to bring a packed lunch, and there will be refreshments available throughout the day. We can take bookings for schools groups Wednesday – Friday (in the summer term we are able to take some bookings on a Monday). 

For Confirmation groups, we recommend a maximum of 40 young people, as this allows them to make the most from the day and to be comfortable in the space we have, but please do get in touch to discuss this further if required. Timings are flexible and we offer a window of 9.30am – 5pm. Mass can be included if the Parish Priest is able to join for the retreat. Young people are required to bring a packed lunch, and there will be refreshments available throughout the day.

Residential retreats offer time, space and opportunity for personal prayer, and reflection, and for a group (be it school class, part of a year group, or a parish Confirmation or youth group) to bond in new ways, to discover each other’s gifts and talents. Our retreats are centred in prayer – and prayer is brought alive for young people. We use art, and drama, to help different aspects of faith, and different Scripture passages, to resonate in the lives of the young people.

2026/27 Retreat Prices for School Groups, Confirmation Groups and Youth Groups

After increasing the prices in 25/26 we have decided to keep the prices the same for the coming year.

Day retreats work best with small groups, ideally a class size. This allows maximum contact time for young people and the very best use of our retreat team. We know that class sized retreats are not always possible for schools and so please contact us if you have a different request and we can try to accommodate this. Our experience shows that the larger groups lose the intimacy of “retreat” and it becomes more of a “conference.”

Day retreats at Walsingham House are timed flexibly, to suit you – please do indicate times of arrival and departure upon booking to help us design the programme effectively. Students are required to bring a packed lunch on day retreats.

Schools:

Day retreat at Walsingham House – per class (typically 30 students) – £480

2 night resident (4pm Wed – 2pm Fri) – £100 per person

1 night residential (10am Wed – 2pm Thurs) – £70 pp

1 night residential (4pm Wed – 2pm Thurs) – £60 pp

For day retreats there are no additional costs for staff, on residential retreats 2 free staff places are included.

Parish Confirmation/Youth groups

Weekend retreat (8pm Fri – 2.30pm Sun) £125 per person (for residential groups 2 free catechists places are included).

Saturday day retreat (window of 9am to 5pm) £18 per person (no charge for catechists)

For one night retreats (10am Sat – 2.30pm Sun)  please contact the office.

For all retreat enquiries please contact Natalie ([email protected])

For information about expectations, roles and responsibilities and other visit information please see the document below:

Useful Info for Leaders

For Schools:

Walsingham House offer a set programme for each year group. For Secondary Schools we have worked to link our secondary school programmes to the RED and CIS frameworks, there is more information in the link below. We also offer a set programme for Year 5 and Year 6 retreats:

Example Yr5 Programme    Example Yr6 Programme

Retreats at Walsingham House 26-27

 

LOtC Quality Badge:

Walsingham House at Abbotswick has now been awarded the Learning Outside the Classroom (LOtC) Quality Badge. When schools complete their trips and visits requests to county (often the Evolve forms) Walsingham House at Abbotswick will now be listed as an approved provider: http://lotcqualitybadge.org.uk/

Equality, diversity & inclusion

We are a Catholic youth retreat centre and therefore rooted in the charism and teachings of the Catholic Church. However we know that there will be students of other religions and none within your schools coming on retreat. Please know that we welcome everyone to our House.

It would be helpful to know in advance of any particular needs within your group. Disabled access is provided to the main House and Chapel.

 

All data is held in accordance with GDPR policies. It will be kept securely, confidentially and destroyed in a timely manner.