A Goose's Gander — Stop 4
George visits the New Church
It was 1893 and George had waddled over to watch a very important event. That morning the goose had seen 21 schoolboys from St James School pile into a horse-drawn coach and set off on a trip to Belle Vue Zoo. That would be a long and bumpy ride!
He had overheard the boys chatting about an official event that day to mark the start of work on a new church, All Saints, so he headed straight over. A smartly dressed lady wearing a big gold chain was presenting a silver trowel to the Lord Bishop of Chester. He heard that it was Miss Clemenson and she was the Mayoress of Mossley.
Then a very strange thing indeed happened - the Mayoress read out a long list of names and thanked them all for being part of the Building Committee that had paid for the church to be built. George recognised lots of the names as mill owner and councillors.
Next the lady rolled up the list, put it inside a glass bottle and put it into the wall of the church. How exciting - a time capsule!
A bottle ‘time capsule’ from 1893 was found in the church wall in 2016 while the church was being renovated.
It contained a copy of the Mossley and Saddleworth Reporter dated Saturday June 10th 1893 and a handwritten list of the Church Building Committee.