Kingston Mill time capsule to lay underground for 150 years (From Wiltshire Times)

Kingston Mill time capsule to lay underground for 150 years

7:50am Tuesday 20th October 2009

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Children's memories of Bradford on Avon have been buried underground in a time capsule which will not be opened for 150 years.

Pupils from Christchurch Primary School, their parents and staff gathered on Friday to bury the capsule at a secret location, within the grounds of the £35m Kingston Mills development.

Drawings of the town, stories of everyday life and a school prospectus, were just some of the items that have been stored away for future generations to enjoy, to help them learn about the past.

Lorraine Morrissey, a spokesman for developers Linden Homes Western, who are behind the project, said: “We went to them (Christchurch School) because we thought it would be a good idea to do something like this, as it is such an important site.

“It is a way of getting local people involved as well because the children brought their parents along and there were quite a lot of people there so it was a jolly occasion.”

The youngsters have been looking at how to preserve items underground and how language and technology changes over time.

As a result, they decided to write letters and stories rather then bury CDs, which are likely to be unusable in the year 2159.

Mick Arnold, construction director for Linden Homes, visited the school at the end of September to give a presentation about safety on the site.

“It was a huge success and the kids were fantastic,” he said.

“I went in to the school a couple of weeks ago with a site manager and health and safety representative to do a presentation.

“I didn’t want the kids to go in there without knowing the dangers of a construction site.”

The schoolchildren were shown a safety DVD and were tasked to design pictures that would be used in a poster campaign on billboards around the development to promote safety.

The winning three Year 6 students, who will see their designs come to fruition on posters around the town, were Charlotte Atkins, George Franklin and Sophie Locke.

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