A surprise blast from the past greeted a family who are renovating their home when they discovered a time capsule hidden under the floorboards.
Jane Walker, 41, of West Way, Harpenden, is in the process of having restoration carried out on her home, and was pleasantly surprised when a builder found a time capsule under the kitchen from 1986.
The capsule was left there by two previous residents, Mark and James Noble, who were eight and 11 when they put the capsule there.
The time pod included a property page from February 1 1986, a picture of a Ford Cavalier car, and two letters the two boys had written about what it was like at the time.
Jane said: “There’s a few things that they had written in the pieces included in the time pod: it was three days after Challenger had exploded in the sky, they mentioned Halley’s Comet, Margaret Thatcher as Prime Minister, and even included Minstrels and peanut treats sweetie wrappers.”
Jane took to social media last Tuesday (10) to post about their discovery, enquiring if anyone knew the boys and how to contact them.
She said: “The reaction we had was unbelievable. We couldn’t believe it, the people in Harpenden really rallied around.”
Subsequently Mark was found. Jane added: “Those that had known them tried to get in contact with Mark and three hours later Mark had messaged me. It’s amazing really.”
They talked bout what the house was like then and now. Jane continued: “We exchanged quite a lot of information on West Way, past and present, he was telling me what they had done to the house and I was saying it looks very different now. He sent me photos of him and his dad building an extension at the back of the house.”
But the Walker family are not the first to discover the snapshot in time- a builder working on the property in 2001 added his own contributions before putting it back for the next person to discover.
Jane will be returning the contents to Mark but not before recording the contents and adding their own contributions. She continued: “I think it has inspired a lot of people to do a similar thing; the children are very excited about it and they’ve already started planning what they want to add to the time pod.
“We’re going to find an appropriate place to put it when we have finished our renovations and hopefully someone in the future will find ours.”
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