PARISH CHURCH

ALL SAINTS PARISH CHURCH:
In LOUGHBOROUGH, in common with almost every community in the country, the Parish Church is the oldest surviving building in the town. It is also one of the largest Parish churches in the county. It is built on the top of a gentle rise and all approaches go up, however slightly, as they approach the church. One theory is that this hill was the "TOT HILL", or "Watching Post", which formed the centre of the very earliest settlement on this site. The name is certainly kept alive in that of TOOTHILL ROAD, which runs very close to the church building.

ALL SAINTS CHURCH as we see it now almost certainly replaced a much earlier wooden structure which existed at least as far back as Saxon times. Construction of the present building probably began in the 13th century but most of the construction took place in the mid to late 1300s. Alterations and additions continued for about 100 years, with the last phase of building occurring in the 1450s.

The original dedication of the church was to ST PETER AND ST PAUL and it is not known for certain when this changed to ALL SAINTS. Certainly it was still "PETER AND PAUL" until at least 1786 when there is a direct reference to it as such. After this, documents tend to refer to it simply as "the Parish Church" but it seems certain that the change came comparatively late in the church's life.

The architectural style of the church - at least on the outside - is decidedly 14th and 15th century. The tower is over 100 feet high and is surmounted by four large corner pinnacles. Inside is a substantial ringing chamber and a peal of ten bells, all recast in 1840 by TAYLORS BELL FOUNDRY.

On the south side of the chancel is a bricked-up priest door, still ornately moulded. An even older door can be found nearer to the east end. The tower's large west window has carved stone emblems of the local Lords of the Manor and town merchants of the 15th century. Two shields on the tower door depict the arms of both the STAPLE OF CALAIS and of RALPH LEMYNGTON, whose arms are also used as the emblem of LOUGHBOROUGH GRAMMAR AND HIGH SCHOOLS.

Inside, ALL SAINTS has a double south aisle, the second one being an elaborately furnished Chapel dedicated to the Burton family.

The well-proportioned nave is supported by 14th century columns, above which is the 15th century clerestory and an exceptional medieval roof. The 64 carved roof bosses depict faces denoting various emotions, a griffin, an elephant and castle, devils and a traditional (if pagan) "green man". Eighteen gilded angels can also be seen as beam supports, many of which are playing a variety of musical instruments (including bagpipes!) There is a 17th century font, a Jacobean parish chest and a memorial in the tower to the TAYLOR family of bellfounders.

The east window is dedicated to George Davys, a native of LOUGHBOROUGH who became tutor to the future QUEEN VICTORIA and Bishop of Peterborough. The screen and panelling is of modern oak and the marble and wrought iron altar is very reminiscent of Austrian or Bavarian baroque.

HISTORY - FIRST REFERENCES:
The very first reference to a Parish Church in LOUGHBOROUGH comes in 1193 when BERTRAM, DEAN OF LICHFIELD was appointed the town's first Rector. It is reasonable to suppose that the original RECTORY was built close to this date.

When the town's MARKET AND FAIR CHARTER was granted in 1221, there was no reference to the location of these events. As with other early MARKETS, it is very likely that they were held in the churchyard or even the church itself. If this did happen in Loughborough, it was not for very long as the MARKET moved very early in it's life to what is recorded as "an open area, west of the London Road". In other words, just where it is now.

It is not until 1228 that we find the first documentary evidence of the RECTORY. This is in a document which records it as: "the dwelling house of the church, which was Robert de Cortlinstok's near the church". ALL SAINTS is unusual in that it had a very early chiming clock, commissioned from RICHARD CLERKE of LOCKINGTON in 1483. This used five church bells to play "the song of Kyrie Rex Splendens..... to go and endure by night and day at every fourth hour". "Kyrie Rex Splendens" dates from the 10th century and is reputed to have been written by St Dunstan.

THOMAS BURTON, who died around 1495, is now remembered as the founder of the LOUGHBOROUGH GRAMMAR SCHOOL. His will did indeed provide money for the relief of the poor, repair of the town bridges and other local causes but there is no specific bequest to found a school. It was in fact RALPH LEMYNGTON, one of the will's trustees, who decided the money should be used for that purpose. The first school is housed in the chancel of the Parish Church and was described as "A fre scole in Lughborowe".

In the early part of the 16th century, several bequests were made to the Parish Church "to the edification of the steeple". These were needed more than ever in 1551 when the church tower was damaged on January 13th. The parish registers record this event as "a great wind which overturned six pinnacles at the top of the tower and broke the apex of the church and caused much other damage" (Translated from the Latin).

The earliest, albeit conjectural, reference to a possible organ in the church comes in 1558 when, during an outbreak of plague, one of the victims is recorded as an "organ player"". Could this have been the church organist?

A document of 1578 records the appointment of HENRY SCATTERGOOD as BELLMAN for the town. His duties were many and varied and were recorded as follows:

"(1) To go at 8 o'clock in winter and summer to ring the curfew and then go to bed in the church;

(2) To ring the bell at 7 o'clock every Sunday and every Saint's Day;

(3) To light the candles on Saint's Days as has been the custom;

(4) To blow the organ at Matins, Mass and Evensong as has been the custom;

5) To help ring the services if necessary;

(6) To sweep the church through and clean every seventh day and every Halloween;

(7) To sweep the pillars of the church with a long banner pole as high as possible where the cobwebs hang down;

(8) To go about town every Friday at 6 o'clock in the summer and 7 o'clock in the winter to bid the parishioners pray for all Christian Souls, as is the custom;

(9) To prepare the bier for the dead".

In about 1590, the THOMAS BURTON FREE SCHOOL relocated from the Parish Church into a separate building in the churchyard. (The site of this building is now marked by the large tree at the east end of the Church).

A sixth bell was added to the peal in the Parish Church in 1616 and bells were to feature in several notable visits to the town during the Civil War. On May 24th, 1642, KING CHARLES I himself passed through LOUGHBOROUGH on his way to Leicester. The church bells were rung in his honour, for which the ringers were paid ten shillings (50p). The King returned to the town again on August 18th but this time he only received 5s 2d (25p) worth of bell ringing. In August of the same year, PRINCE RUPERT OF THE RHINE passed through LOUGHBOROUGH on his way to Coventry. He was evidently not as popular as he received just one bell peal worth one shilling (5p).

In 1644, a preacher escaped from Royalist cavalry who tried to seize him out of the parish church pulpit. This was later reported as follows: "A party of Hastings horse, coming to LOUGHBOROUGH on the last Lord's Day, according to their accustomed profanation of that day, rode into the church in sermon time, and would have taken the preacher out of the pulpit, but the women of the town, expressing more valour than their husbands dared to do at that time, redeemed him from them and disappointed their purpose".

This preacher has usually been thought to be NICHOLAS HALL, RECTOR OF LOUGHBOROUGH but as he was a Royalist this seems rather odd unless he had recently changed his views. It could be that the preacher was in fact OLIVER BROMSKILL, a Puritan who became Rector shortly after this.

The next year - 1645- CHARLES I is thought to have reviewed his troops in the Market Place, many of whom were being housed in the church.

By the time the COMMONWEALTH was fully established, all links with the deposed King were quickly being expunged. In 1650, Robert Foster was paid four shillings by the Burton charity "for washing out the Kings Arms" in the Parish Church. The Puritan minister OLIVER BROMSKILL seemed to do rather well out the COMMONWEALTH. In 1654, he and two colleagues bought LOUGHBOROUGH MANOR HOUSE, which had to be sold by FERNANDO HASTINGS, the SIXTH EARL OF HUNTINGDON to cover family debts. They paid £1,390 for the building.

But their fortunes did not last and in 1662, two years after the Restoration of the monarchy, BROMSKILL was evicted from the Rectory by the Act of Uniformity and NICHOLAS HALL was restored as Rector. As a result of meetings held in the MANOR HOUSE, BROMSKILL went on to become an early leading light of the Non-Conformist movement in LOUGHBOROUGH.

Reverend John Bright, later chaplain to Mary, Princess of Orange and Dean of St Asaph, became Rector of LOUGHBOROUGH in the rather more settled year of 1669.

The first SLATE headstone was erected in the Parish Churchyard in 1692, in memory of a local ironmonger. Now that the old headstones have been moved to the side of the churchyard, it has become one of the few green spaces on this side of the town. Their removal has also allowed us to see things on the stones we were never intended to see! Chief amongst these are the practice carvings made at the bottom of the headstones. Slate cost money and, since the bottom of the headstones were meant to be in the ground and invisible, they were often used for apprentices to practice their art.

In 1695, the LOUGHBOROUGH bell ringers profited again, this time from a visit by KING WILLIAM III. Each ringer was given five shillings "to drinke when the King came by" but there is no mention of them having to ring a peal to earn it!

THE EIGHTEENTH AND NINETEENTH CENTURIES:
The 18th and 19th centuries saw many changes and alterations in the Parish Church. This began in 1718 when a gallery was build in the west end. The four front pews of this were sold to wealthy families at £5 each as freeholds to their houses.

The seating in the parish church was completely renewed in 1747, at a cost of £380. The following year, the then Rector - Reverend Thomas Alleyne - paid out £1,000 of his own money to relay the chancel floor with gravestones and SWITHLAND SLATE.

The bells were re-cast by Eayres of Kettering in 1753 at a cost of over £111, all raised by public subscription. In 1792 an organ was installed, though there are references to an organ here as far back as 1578.

In 1825, the THOMAS BURTON GRAMMAR SCHOOL relocated from the churchyard building to a new one in CHURCH GATE, on the site of what is now LEMYNGTON STREET.

In the first of two such moves, the Parish of LOUGHBOROUGH was transferred in 1837 from the Diocese of Lincoln to that of Peterborough. Two years after this, the bells are recast again, this time by JOHN TAYLOR, who also established a branch of the firm in Pack Horse Lane. Two extra bells were also added, making a peal of eight.

One of the most significant of the town's RECTORS, HENRY FEARON, is appointed in 1848. His work on improving the water supply and sanitation of the town made him one of the most important figure in the town's history - and probably it's biggest life saver. FEARON's arrival also coincided with the division of LOUGHBOROUGH into two parishes - ALL SAINTS and EMMANUEL.

On his arrival, he found the church in a very poor state of repair and characteristically set about putting things right. Using £1,000 of his own money - a year's stipend - he gave the building a thorough overhaul and restoration, so much so that some of his congregation were horrified at the changes. It is to him that we owe the existence of ALL SAINTS CHURCH as it is today - a lectern in the church is dedicated to his memory.

In 1862, a further £9,000 worth of restoration was carried out in the Parish Church, including the removal of all galleries, the high-backed pews and the triple-decker pulpit. The gravestones were removed from the floor and replaced in the graveyard. Obviously feeling the mood of the time, W PERRY HERRICK of BEAUMANOR paid £1,000 of his own money to restore the tower. A new organ was installed in 1873, together with a new organ chamber and vestry.

THE TWENTIETH CENTURY:
Fame came to ALL SAINTS in 1909 when it's bell ringing team broke the world ringing record by ringing 18,027 Steadman Caters in 12 hours 18 minutes.

In 1927, ALL SAINTS moved Diocese again, this time becoming part of the Diocese of Leicester.

The late twentieth century saw the replacement of the tower's crumbling gargoyles and the start of an ongoing new phase of building to accommodate the expanding work of the Parish Church. This will be the biggest restoration and redevelopment programme for over a century and includes the rebuilding of the nave pinnacles and the adaptation of the interior to accommodate concerts. In this way, ALL SAINTS will reaffirm the Church's centuries old association with the arts and consolidates it's ancient position as a cultural and community centre as well as a place of worship.