East Wing of the Church
The focal point of the parish of Thorpe Acre with Dishley is All Saints' church on Thorpe Acre Road, built in 1845, when Thorpe Acre was a small farming village. The architect was William Railton (known for Nelson’s Column) and an east window was later added by Charles Eamer Kempe. The parish also covers neighbouring Dishley. Today, we tend to be known as Thorpe Acre church, avoiding confusion with neighbouring All Saints with Holy Trinity, the parish church of the town.
Thorpe Acre church grew significantly in the 1980's, enabling the original building to be modernised, expanded and connected to the old school house. We have a hall, offices and other rooms all linked together, enabling a range of activities by the church and local community groups. The congregation has become smaller since then, with around 100 on the electoral roll[1] and average Sunday attendance of around 70-80 in the period leading up to COVID-19.
[1] 102 recorded at the May 2021 APCM
Village Green and Vicarage
The parish has several major roads and a host of minor ones but there are still many natural areas as well as parks and other open spaces. The church itself sits opposite Thorpe Acre village green (pictured right), which was the heart of the original village and is still a focal point. The present vicarage (also in the picture) was built in the 1950s and has a generous garden behind it. It is within sight of a local shopping area, known as The Ville: groceries, haircuts and fish and chips in easy reach. Nearby is The Plough pub and, within a ten-minute walk, there are more shops, including a large Morrisons and mid-sized Co-op, as well as healthcare facilities and schools for all ages including some with good and outstanding OFSTED ratings.
Post-war developments linked Thorpe Acre to Loughborough town. Since then, the housing stock and population has continued to grow with successive waves of estate building. The parish partially spans several wards of the Charnwood district (Ashby, Dishley and Hathern, Garendon, Storer) and the local population is presently around 15,000. Development is presently underway on Garendon Park, which will add a further 3,200 homes and additional infrastructure within the parish. We are neither the most affluent nor the most deprived area of Loughborough but skew towards the lower end of the socio-economic scale. If you want to dig deeper into demographics, Charnwood Borough Council conduct biennial surveys.
