Historic treasures discovered in forgotten time capsule preserving ‘a moment in time’ buried under Gosport school’s stage

Nearly 30 years after it was buried away for a future generation to find, the metal case of historic items was discovered hidden in a block of concrete at Bedenham Primary School.

Inside the time capsule, staff discovered trophies, photographs, newspaper clippings, log books, old receipts, merit badges, staff lists, certificates, and sports kits - and even a 1996 copy of the Gosport edition of The News.

The items inside the capsule date from years between 1948 and 1996, with objects dated from the 70s and 80s.

Caroline Wood, head of school, said: ‘I think they did it in 1996, and they had all this stuff that starts from 1948 and put it in.

‘The things in there are so interesting. It is a moment in time - the newspaper of the day, shopping lists.’

The box was discovered thanks to a Facebook message that said a time capsule to be opened in the Jubilee year was buried underneath the school’s stage.

Despite searching through all the items under the stage, school staff initially could not find anything that looked like a time capsule.

Caroline said: ‘I was just about to give up and turned around and saw the concrete block.’

After spotting the large block of concrete, which was walled in by bricks, Caroline became suspicious that all was not as it seemed as the bricks did not match those in the building wall next to the block.

With help from the school’s caretaker, the block was drilled open - and inside lay the time capsule.

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Caroline, who has been showing the schoolchildren items from the capsule, said: ‘The children absolutely love learning about the time capsule in our assemblies.’

Items in the capsule trace the school’s history from its original home at the nearby Holbrook site as it moved to its current Bedenham location.

Year Four pupil William Davies, who is nine years old, said that his favourite item from the time capsule was the log book.

He said: ‘It tells us everything about what happened in the old version of the school.

The school plans to rebury the time capsule with more items from the school in July.

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

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