Weathervane Wednesday ~ A small town church

Weathervane Wednesday is an on-going series of photographs I post weekly.  I started out by publishing only weather vanes from the Londonderry area, but now I've been finding interesting weather vanes from all over New England.  Sometimes my weather vanes are whimsical, or historical, but all are very interesting.  Often, my readers tip me off to some very unique and unusual weather vanes.

Today's weather vane is from somewhere in New Hampshire.

Do you know the location of weather vane #240?  Scroll down to see the answer...

Today's weathervane was photographed atop the Congregational Church steeple in Amherst, New Hampshire. It is a two dimensional, gilded rooster, with a plumed tail.   The rooster is one of the oldest symbols of Christianity, and was a symbol for St. Peter (in the bible he denied Jesus three times before dawn when the cock crowed  Luke 22:34).  In the 9th century Pope Nicolas I decreed that all churches must show the symbol of a cock (rooster) on its dome or steeple.  In England weather vanes are still known by the word "weathercock".   Roosters are still a common feature on weathervanes.

This building was built as the Second Meetinghouse, and originally stood on the Amherst common, known to locals as "The Plains".  It was sold to the Congregational Church in 1832.  It was moved across the street in 1836.  The meetinghouse was destroyed by a fire in 1923 and rebuilt and renamed "The First Congregational Church of Hollis".

The Gallo di Ramperto, the oldest weather vane in the world, circa 820 AD

on display at the Museo di Santa Guiulia in Brescia, Lombardy, Italy

By RobyBS89 (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

The Congregational Church of Amherst website http://www.ccamherst.org/

and their Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/ccamherst  

The Historical Society of Amherst website   http://www.hsanh.org/  

Click here to see the entire series of Weathervane Wednesday posts!

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Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Weathervane Wednesday ~ A small town church", Nutfield Genealogy, posted December 23, 2015 ( http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2015/12/weathervane-wednesday-small-town-church.html : accessed [access date]).