Willoughby-on-the-Wolds: St Mary & All Saints

Photo by Richard Croft, CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikimedia Commons

St Mary & All Saints is a fairly unassuming church in Loughborough.

The earliest reference to the church is around AD 1120 however the original dedication is not confirmed. It is usually referred to St Mary’s however in York records it is given as ‘All Hallows Church’ and in Bacon’s Liber Regis it is referred to as St Mary’s & All Saints.

The fabric of the current building suggests a 13th century church that may have been here previously [1].

In the present building, the north and south arcades of the nave are the oldest and date from the beginning of the 13th century [1]. The south arcade is the oldest however. The chancel is also of 13th century and the W tower is 14th century [2].

The church was restored in 1891 and 1908 and is notable for some fine ‘Willoughby monuments’ in the North Chapel’

Photo’s from The Corpus of Romanesque Sculpture in Britain & Ireland – some of the pillars in the S Arcade.

In 1908 the south porch was rebuilt [3]

The Clock Itself

The clock of St Mary & All Saints is one by Copes of Nottingham. It’s a 3 train flat bed clock with a double three legged gravity escapement. [3] & [4]

It apparently plays an ‘unusual quartertone’ making use of the bells and was installed in 1919 by public subscription and in memory of the villagers who fought and died in the first world war. [3]

There is a plaque on the right hand side of the ringing tower that reads