This is Loughborough Parish Church. I pass it almost every day, and have never been inside until now. From the outside, it’s all dark and austere looking - I’ve never particularly liked it other than because it’s stark and impressive.
I rang and asked if I could go inside and take some photos, and they were fine with it. It was open on a friday morning so me and Andy went along and let ourselves in. There were about 6 volunteers inside cleaning away, which at first seemed awkward but then they all turned out to be really nice and welcoming. They explained what the different parts of the church were called and offered to get out of our way and such. I gave one nice lady a card, so if you are reading this, thanks!
There are quite a lot of pics I want to include, so this will be a bit of a mammoth post. Here we go:
Nave and tower
The pews are made of Japanese Oak, and were installed in a restoration in 1862 - there was seating for 1,000 people back then.
Nave ceiling
The windows at the very top are part of what’s called a clerestory - there’s a new word for me, at least.
Tower
This window is enormous - the highlight of the church, really. It faces west, and I would always walk past it on the way home from the pub - it looks dark and dreary from the outside, so I was amazed to see it from within.
Burton Chapel
Part of the south side of the nave was converted to become The Burton Chapel between 1929 and 1932 by George Briggs, an ex Loughborough Grammar School student.
Stained glass scene
If I knew more about religion I could tell you what this represents, but I am a salty heathen so can only point and say “Ooh! Pretty!”
Stained glass scene #2
Ditto.
South Transcept
Churches are built in a cruciform (cross shaped) plan - the transcepts are the small parts of the cross, and normally face north and south.
Chancel
The chancel houses the Altar, sanctuary and seating for the choir.
Nave and tower #2
Another view of the nave, this time showing a bit more of the floor.
Columns
These, the guidebook informs me, are actually “quatrefoil pillars”. Which is quite a cool name. Impressively large and sturdy.
Pulpit
It always feels a bit cheeky setting your tripod up in a pulpit, but I’m game.
Technical info: Almost all these pics are iso 400 (the light was pretty low in the church, and at lower than iso 400, the brighter end of my HDRs would have been over 30s, which is a pain), f/22, tripod, 9-shot HDRs processed in Photomatix. All except the stained glass detail were taken with my sigma 10-20 - the stained glass ones were taken with my sigma 70-300.
And that’s it. Sorry about the photo bombardment, but I didn’t want to dribble them out over the course or a week or so 
In addition to these pictures, my friend Andy took some nice ones also - they can be found on his flickr profile
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