‘Time capsules becoming popular’

I READ with interest the item ‘A message for the future’ (Post & Times, June 1) about St. Mary’s Catholic Primary School’s burial of a time capsule under the school playground.

The children intend to unearth it in 20 years’ time. It contains the children’s letters to their future selves and copy of the Post & Times.

Time capsules are becoming a tradition. When in 1888 the new Municipal Hall was opened in Newcastle-under-lyme a time capsule was put under the foundations.

It contained a local paper and various other memorabilia. Everybody forgot about it. The ‘Muni’ was demolished in 1967 and eventually the capsule saw the light of day in a very different world.

Next year, the town celebrates the 850th anniversary of the bestowal of its Charter and no doubt all its phases and the evolution from one to another will be depicted.

Our sense of history is becoming more acute. We are deliberately strengthening our links with the past, as the article ‘Looking out for Armageddon!’ on the Rushton Spencer bunker shows.

The Hack Green Nuclear Bunker at

Nantwich, declassified in 1993, has long been a preserved site.

Historians have been helped by accidental discoveries provided by building work and climate change.

HS2 construction has revealed a Roman villa and Siberian thaws have revealed well-preserved mammoths and wolves. And who can forget the excitement caused by the discovery of Richard III’S body under Leicester car park?

Here the resurrectionists have been busy. Enthusiastic locals have been contributing 1950s furniture and fittings to the recreation of Harper St , Middleport, as it was 70 years ago.

It is to be hoped that the St Mary’s children do in fact return in 20 years and that their ambitions have been achieved.

Margaret Brown Address supplied