"A brief history of Emmanuel Church building written in 1974
“The church was built 1835-1837, at the beginning of Queen Victoria's reign. The town was growing out towards the Charnwood Forest and the new church on the Forest lane was needed in addition to the medieval church of All Saints in the town centre. The cost of the building was £7,000.
The original parish of Loughborough was divided into "the parish of Loughborough and the parish of Emmanuel, Loughborough". The Rectors of both parishes were to be appointed by the original patrons, Emmanuel College, Cambridge.
The church was consecrated on 4th September 1837 by John Kaye, Bishop of Lincoln, in whose diocese Loughborough then was.
The architect of the church was Thomas Rickman (1776-1841). He introduced the names "Early English", "Decorated" and "Perpendicular", and was the most notable antiquarian and architect of the earliest period of the Gothic Revival.
The church was built with a western tower, a nave with aisles and a short chancel; the aisles partly enclosed the tower, to form a porch to the south and a clergy vestry to the north. The building was mainly in the Geometric Decorated style, but the clerestory windows were in the Perpendicular style.
Inside the church there were galleries in the north and south aisles and across the west end. There were originally 360 rented seats in the nave and 843 free seats in the aisles and the galleries "for the use of the poor". The original pews in the nave and aisles were replaced by the present ones in 1871, and pew rents were discontinued in 1876.
There was probably a small organ in the west gallery from the beginning. A "new organ" was built there in 1868 and the choir sat in two rows in front of it. The organ was enlarged in 1886. By this time the choir were seated in the short chancel, but the arrangement was very cramped.
In 1909 the chancel was lengthened, the marble steps and floor added and new choir stalls provided. A new vestry for clergy and choir was built to the south of the chancel. The original clergy vestry was opened into the north aisle to form a baptistry. A new stone font was built as a memorial to the RevdOctavius Glover, BD, Rector 1870-1904.
In 1929, the galleries in the north and south aisles were removed, as there then seemed no more need for them.
In 1964, a hanging Rood (Crucifix) in the chancel arch, a great Corona (Crown) in the chancel and a new altar in the sanctuary were added. They symbolised Christ Crucified, Christ the King risen and ascended, and the continuing Presence of God the Holy Spirit.
There are three good stained glass windows in the south aisle and one rather dark one in the north aisle, all memorials to parishioners. The two "daughter" churches of Emmanuel: Saint Mary in Charnwood and the Good Shepherd, are portrayed in one of the windows in the south aisle.
The two monuments in the chancel were erected in memory of the Revd William Holme, BD, Rector of Loughborough when the church was built (and one of the benefactors); and to Richard Crosher, of Forest Fields, one of the first two Churchwardens. The coloured glass in the east window (now mostly removed) was a memorial to Miss Mary Tate of Burleigh Hall (also a benefactor).
The first Rector of Emmanuel was the Revd Robert J. Bunch, BD, appointed in 1848. He is buried in the churchyard to the east of the present vestry.
Nearby is buried Robert Burnaby. He was an administrator and later a businessman near Vancouver in British Columbia. The town of Burnaby in British Columbia is named after him.
The churchyard was cleared of most gravestones in 1963 and is now a lawn. There is a garden of rest to the north of the church."
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