Treasure in a bottle

Treasure hidden in a bottle has seen the light of day for the first time in well over a century. The glass time capsule was placed in a cavity in a wall at Elland baths soon after the laying of a memorial stone at the baths on August 14 1901, an event which was followed by a posh dinner at the nearby Elland Town Hall.

The baths – properly named the Victoria Baths, opened in the year of Queen Victoria’s death – were closed in 2011 because of structural problems. Despite a campaign to reopen them the baths were demolished last month – and the bottle retrieved.

It was opened at a ceremony at Calderdale Centre Library attended by local historians and staff of the West Yorkshire Archaeology Advisory Service, among others. The honour of opening the bottle fell to WYAAS conservator Katie Morley. Tightly packed inside the 10 inch bottle were a number of local newspapers, records of Elland Urban District Council meetings for June, July and August 1901 and two coins, a penny and halfpenny dated 1901.

The papers, printed on different days between August 10 and 16, were the Halifax Guardian, the Elland Echo, the Elland News, the weekly Halifax Courier and the Halifax Evening Courier. They were in remarkably good condition, given that they had been hidden away for 114 years, and some included reports of the stonelaying ceremony.

Also retrieved from the time capsule was the menu and toast list for the dinner that followed the ceremony. It was quite a nosh; the local councillors and their officers and guests ate their way through soup, salmon mayonnaise, compote of pigeon, joints of beef, lamb, chicken and pork, fruit tart, trifle, jellies and creams, cheese and celery.

The impressive list of toasts began with “the King and Royal Family”, followed by “the chairman of the Victoria Baths” and continued with tributes to Elland District Council – which built the baths – the West Riding County Council, the “Town and Trade of Elland”, council officials, the baths’ architects and contractors, “visiting friends” and, finally, the press.

The glass time capsule and its contents will be retained by the archaeology service at the central library in Halifax.

The ceremonial stone laying, which took place on August 14 must have occurred some time after construction of the baths began, for it was positioned quite high up in the east wall, overlooking Huddersfield Road. The huge, ornate datestone, topped with a classical pediment, carried the words, carved in relief “Victoria Baths, erected by the Elland Urban District Council, 1901”.

It was reported that “the members of the council assembled on a temporary platform erected on the unfinished building and a goodly number of the inhabitants were present to witness the proceedings”.

The following year, in June 1902, a memorial to a soldier who died during the second Boer War was unveiled in a niche below the datestone. The memorial fountain was erected in memory of Private Joshua Hemingway, of Whitwell Place, Elland, who died on February 17 1901 at Kimberley, South Africa, of nephritis.He was Elland’s first volunteer for service with the Imperial Yeomanry; he was buried at Kimberley.

The picture at the top of the page shows the crowd gathered at the baths in June 1902 for the dedication of the memorial, which can be seen below the impressive datestone. Both datestone and memorial were carefully removed from the building during demolition and are being stored. It is thought they might eventually be returned to the baths site in Elland.

David Hanson