Spring cleaning this year revealed a long over-looked artifact! Tucked back in the dark recesses of a former storage locker we found part of the weather vane off the old Worsted Church.
It’s only in recent times that Canterbury has built it’s climate controlled archival rooms and that CHS has been given stewardship of the additional Elkin’s Memorial Building with its own storage cellar. In times past, the heirs of our founding fathers, knowing particular items had historical significance, simply stashed things in their barns. Coming into modern times as bulky items moved from the barns to the protection of CHS they were stored in the “cage” (a room walled off with wire mesh and a padlock) in the cellar of the Sam Lake House where our town offices are located. A final clean-out of the space this spring gave us this surprise.
This weather vane is not only significant because of where it was located and it’s hand-wrought craftsmanship but because it survived the fatal fire of the church. Come see it on display this month in the Elkin’s Memorial Building at the Canterbury Fair, Saturday July 30th, 2016.
Read a bit more about the Worsted Church by clicking here.
Canterbury, NH Historical Society 