A series of exceptionally valuable religious mosaics crafted with handmade Venetian glass were saved from destruction after being discovered just minutes before they would have been demolished along with a former Catholic school building. The beautifully designed friezes featuring Catholic iconography were found hidden behind wooden panels by construction workers who were in the middle of tearing down part of the former Chorlton Convent High School for Girls in Manchester, England.

The dramatic rescue began when local residents, led by restoration expert Tracey Cartledge, spotted the exposed mosaics and intervened at the crucial moment. The group has now launched a fundraising campaign to safely remove and restore these precious artworks. Developer Cube Homes, which had been demolishing the school to make way for new residential homes, has agreed to partially fund the restoration effort after learning about the discovery.

The mosaics are believed to have been created in the early 1900s and were completely missed by planning officials because they had been covered over when the Manchester Islamic High School for Girls took over the site around 1991. The religious artwork was installed high on the walls of the ground-floor chapel building, where it remained hidden for decades. Cube Homes had received approval for plans to build 22 new homes on the site, and demolition work had already begun earlier this year when the discovery was made.

Tracey Cartledge recalls the moment she learned about the find: a friend living across from the construction site spotted the mosaic being uncovered by the demolition team at the end of July and immediately sent her a photograph. "I remember thinking, 'wow, I had no idea this was there. Is it about to be demolished? I better do something right now,'" she explained. Her quick thinking and immediate action proved crucial in saving the artwork from destruction.

After alerting colleagues in the art world about the discovery, Cartledge and others immediately contacted local city councilors and Historic England in an urgent effort to preserve the mosaics. When she visited the site to examine the artwork firsthand, she was amazed by its quality and materials. "It's made of absolutely beautiful Venetian handmade glass, gold leaf, and a very rare recycled mosaic glass that was made in London for a limited period," she explains. "The whole thing is incredibly precious - not just because of the materials used - but because of the high-quality of the execution of the work."

Cartledge, who is from the Chorlton area, has used her extensive contacts in the restoration field to assemble a team of freelance specialists who will carefully remove the mosaic once scaffolding is erected. The team hopes to begin work next week, removing the tiles in "manageable sections" and slowly lowering them into protective crates. The planning process requires meticulous attention to detail, as Cartledge noted: when dividing the sections, "we have to ensure we're not going to make a division line through an angel's face."

However, the tight demolition schedule has created significant pressure for the restoration team, who face a deadline of August 24th. This time constraint means there is a real possibility that not all of the mosaics can be saved. Chris Heath, managing director at Cube Homes, said the company is working collaboratively with Cartledge and her team to "find a solution to the logistical challenges around the mosaic removal." The developer has committed "funds and time to remove this mosaic as efficiently and as safely as possible so that the development can proceed."

This latest discovery follows another successful preservation effort earlier this year involving a separate mural depicting the Virgin Mary and baby Jesus that was located at the school's entrance. That mosaic, thought to have been created much later than the newly discovered friezes, was painstakingly removed and relocated to St. Ambrose College in Hale Barns after a successful restoration campaign.

Ruth Douglas, who attended the school as a student in the 1980s, explained how a group of former students organized through Facebook to raise thousands of dollars to save the earlier mosaic. "It's a piece of our history, and obviously from a personal perspective, it's a memory," she said. The former Chorlton Convent High School for Girls served generations of local children before closing, making these artistic discoveries particularly meaningful to the community that once called the building home.