Loughborough, All Saints Parish Church c.1950

Photo ref: L197013

More about this scene

In the 19th century the church was heavily 'restored and improved in a hearty manner' by Sir George Gilbert Scott, a nationally famous architect, but the building still retains its medieval appearance. Close by is Loughborough's Manor House, now a hotel and restaurant. Whilst the main fabric of the present building is known to date from the 16th century, there is internal evidence in the roof beams and fireplaces, and in the large use of timber on one of the external walls, of a much earlier house. Fire was an ever-present danger with so many premises built from wood. Disease, specifically bubonic plague - the Black Death, carried by the fleas on black rats - killed between a third and a half of the population of England in the 14th century. It gets its name from causing abscesses which turn black. Bad weather and poor harvests may well have left the local people with little resistance to the virulence of the plague. Conditions in Loughborough helped to spread plague. Much of the town was either marshy or near to standing water. Garendon Abbey records five outbreaks in and around Loughborough in the 14th century. The worst epidemic is described as 'the Great Pestilence'. No one knows how many died, but the little community was doubtless affected as badly as most others. Many survivors saw the epidemic as the Judgement of God upon the world. The face of England would never be the same again and the plague would return to haunt Loughborough many more times.