Gloucester Township Aims For World Record On 325th Birthday

GLOUCESTER TOWNSHIP, NJ — Gloucester Township turns 325 years old this year, and the township has big plans to celebrate. During the celebration, the township intends to make history.

In honor of the township’s six fire companies that have been a major part of the township’s history, Gloucester Township will attempt to break the Guinness World Record for the longest Bucket Brigade.

Bucket brigades were a method used in firefighting before hand-pumped fire engines in which firefighters would pass buckets to each other to extinguish a blaze.

The current world record belongs to Voluntary Fire Department of the Town of Pfullingen (Germany), in Pfullingen, Germany, according to guinessworldrecords.com. It was 15,058 feet, 2 inches long and consisted of 5,239 people transporting the equivalent of 229.62 U.S. gallons of water. That happened on July 23, 2011.

To break that record, the township is looking for 6,500 volunteers to line up and pass a bucket on Saturday, Sept. 12.The township will release further details on the event and how to register in the coming weeks and months. The world record-breaking attempt will cap a series of special events being organized by the township with members of the township’s community service organizations.

It all kicks off with an anniversary parade in May. Local groups, organizations and businesses are encouraged to participate in the parade and enter their own unique floats. The parade is scheduled for Saturday, May 2, with a rain date of May 9. The township will release more details as plans for the parade are finalized.

On Saturday, June 13, a time capsule will be buried at the Historic Gabreil Daveis Tavern. Significant items will be buried in the time capsule, to be dug up by future generations. By doing this, the township hopes to allow its heritage to live on for many years to come.

Gloucester Township and Egg Harbor Township were the two towns that made up Gloucester County as of 1683, according to the township’s website. Gloucester Township derived its name from the cathedral city of Gloucester on the banks of the River Severn in England.

It further subdivided into four smaller towns, and was one of New Jersey’s first townships to incorporate, on June 1, 1695. It became part of Camden County in 1884.

It consists of more than 64,000 people, according to the 2010 Census. It covers 23.2 miles of land, with eight primary communities. It is home to the Chew-Powell House, the oldest house in Camden County and one of the oldest buildings in the state. It was built in 1688.