Sheffield Daily Telegraph – Monday 09 January 1928

Pebbles in Collection
Plates to Take Place of Bags at Conisborough Church

There is a definite reason for a notice, appearing the current issue of the Conisborough Parochial Church Magazine that it was decided at the November meeting of the Church Council that alms dishes should be bought to take the place of alms bags.

The reason was explained to a Telegraph representative by the Vicar of Conisborough, the Rev. H. Lee.

“I have been in this living for more than year now, he said, “and practically every week a pebble has found its way into the collection. Trouser buttons, “dud” coins, and even sweets are by no means uncommon. The Church officers are going to put a stop to this having the open dishes—their contents open, as it were, to public inspection, in place of the bags that have been in use. “

The dish is most commonly used to-day. Please understand that it not that we want to force those people who cannot afford it to give to the collection. All we wish to do is to eliminate the undesirable element in the collection.”