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All Saints Church, Loughborough
52°46′27.66″N 1°12′13.60″W / 52.7743500°N 1.2037778°W
All Saints Church, officially All Saints with Holy Trinity is the Church of England parish church of the town of Loughborough, Leicestershire within the Diocese of Leicester. HistoryThe church dates from the 14th century; the tower from the 15th century.[citation needed] It is located on a slight rise within the old town and is probably the site of a pre-Christian place of worship.[citation needed] All Saints is one of the largest parish churches in England, which is an indication of the importance of Loughborough in the mediaeval wool trade.[citation needed] Loughborough Grammar School was likely founded by a priest at the church c. 1496, paid for in the will of local wool merchant Thomas Burton, and the school was housed within the church grounds until it moved away to its purpose-built campus in 1850.[citation needed] The hymn composer G. W. Briggs (himself an Old Loughburian) was rector of All Saints from 1918 to 1934.[citation needed] Next door is the Old Rectory, originally a mediaeval manor house, the earliest record of which is 1228. It was mostly demolished before it was recognised that large parts of the mediaeval house remained.[1][2] It now contains a museum which is open on summer Saturdays. The postcode for the church is LE11 1UX, and its official address is on Rectory Road.[citation needed] However, the main entrance leads onto Steeple Row and Church Gate, the latter a mediaeval street that connects the old town and the church to the modern town centre (Market Place), though now devoid of mediaeval buildings is of mediaeval width and now partially pedestrianised.[citation needed] In December 2022, the church garnered controversy after they used a revised set of lyrics to the hymn God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen with references to “queer and questioning” individuals and “women, who by men have been erased.”[3] List of rectors
OrganisationAll Saints is the official seat of the Archdeacon of Loughborough, previously The Venerable Paul Hackwood, who nevertheless normally resides at St Peter's, Glenfield in Leicester.[citation needed] The Archdeacon oversees the 6 deaneries in Western Leicestershire which are named after ancient hundreds; Akeley East (Loughborough), Akeley South (Coalville), Akeley West (Ashby-de-la-Zouch), Guthlaxton, Sparkenhoe West (Hinckley and Market Bosworth) and Sparkenhoe East.[citation needed] All Saints is the more traditional one of the two main Anglican churches in Loughborough, the other being Emmanuel Church (1835), which is Evangelical and frequented by many Loughborough University students.[citation needed] Emmanuel has St Mary's, Nanpantan as a sister-church. [citation needed]In Loughborough, there is also The Good Shepherd Church in Shelthorpe and All Saints Thorpe Acre with Dishley.[citation needed] The Akeley East deanery is headed by a rural dean, The Reverend Wendy Dalrymple, rector of this parish until 2023. BellsThe tower contains a ring of ten bells hung for change ringing with a tenor weighing 30 long cwt 2 qr (3,420 lb or 1,550 kg) in Db. The present peal were cast between 1897 and 1899 at the John Taylor Bellfoundry in Loughborough., whose foundry was less than a mile away.[6][7] The largest four bells are lost wax castings and have intricate patterns cast on to the waist of the bells.[8]
MusicDirector of Mission through Music
Musical ensembles
OrganThe church contains a 2-manual pipe organ. It was installed in 1966 by Henry Willis. It uses much pipework from a redundant organ from Bridgway Hall in Nottingham. A specification of the organ can be found on the National Pipe Organ Register. Organists
References
External links
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