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The photo shows the original church entrance porch, about 4 foot square (at the right hand end of the building as seen in the photograph above).
It stood where the entrance to the new lady chapel is today.
Originally, to gain access one would enter the white door shown to the right of the three windows and turn sharp left to enter the nave, under the choir loft, through a further door, just about where now the second last bench is situ. Facing this further door was the second white door in the photo. Its purpose was to allow coffins to be taken in and out in a straight line.
It would have been impossible for a coffin to make the left hand turn without standing it up on end – with disastrous consequences for the poor corpse. This was used until Parish Priest Father Feeley arranged for an extension to be built onto what was the back wall of the Church.
The link with Stanford Hall has remained strong for over one hundred years. Mass was said by the parish priest in the chapel at the hall weekly and then monthly until around 1976. The present Lady Braye is a member of the parish and both her father and mother are remembered fondly by many of the longer attending parishioners.
Largely due to the initiative and persistence of Councillor Len Drage, Canon Hazeland’s name and his contribution to the life of Lutterworth during his sixty years here, are remembered by Hazeland Court being named in his memory.
Records of the middle years of our parish are few. Canon Hazeland’s 90th birthday in 1937 was recorded in the Diocesan Year Book, as was his obituary in 1940. In 1950 it was recorded that:
“A kind donor has built and paid for a sacristy in rustic brick which has come out very well… Also we have a shrine in honour of the Venerable (now Blessed) Robert Sutton – who was converted here in the Parish church some 200 years after John Wyclif was vicar in the same building..: A statue of Our Lady has been presented to the church – all replete in gold and blue and vermilion.”
