St Elisabeth's church, Reddish

[yelkcub]

St Elisabeth's features  several times in my early 20th century family research. I read recently that, during the church's construction, some components of the building were transported by elephants on loan from Belle Vue. Does anyone have any information about this? I wonder if it was someone's publicity stunt, and whether any photographs were taken of this unusual episode in Reddish history?

[Ray T]

Could well be true; stranger things have happened. Nobody used to believe that they once had a ski-jumping event not far away from St Elizabeth's, in Reddish Vale. I knew it happened - I was there!

[maddys52]

Lots of info about the building of the church in newspapers of the day (through British Library Newspapers online), however none that I can see that mention elephants - maybe they weren't quite the thing to comment on in those days? 

However, there is this blog about William Henry Houldsworth which mentions the elephants - don't know how accurate it is, there are no exact references:

"The church was built but a short distance away from the Stockport Branch Canal and the church records show that the granite columns were conveyed along the Ashton Canal and then the Stockport Branch Canal as far as Houldsworth Mill Wharf. Due to their substantial weight, the problem was how to transport the columns the short distance from the wharf to the church building site. The records show that the solution was to borrow elephants from Belle Vue Zoo in Gorton and to use these to draw the carts containing the columns."

http://www.pittdixon.go-plus.net/houldsworth/houldsworth.htm

[yelkcub]

Many thanks indeed for that informative and beautifully illustrated link. I think my next step in looking into the elephant element in St Elisabeth's story will be, next time I'm in Stockport, to visit the heritage library.