Trowbridge Ted and the town’s mayor Cllr Graham Hill with the time capsule buried in the town park to celebrate the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee. Photo: Trevor Porter 68076-9
The time capsule included a copy of the Wiltshire Times, a copy of a daily national newspaper dated Tuesday June 7 2022; Celebrate Trowbridge Community paper Issue 04 March 2022; Discover Trowbridge Spring / Summer 2022; a face mask; The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee commemorative badge; a postcard from the Town Hall with a personalised message; a postcard of the Trowbridge Town Crier Trevor Heeks with a personalised message from him; a Trowbridge Town Crest; an Active Trowbridge pen; £3.88 in change – one of each coin in current circulation.
It also contained items and photographs from several local schools, including St John’s, The Grove, West Ashton, Newtown, Castle Mead, Bellefield, the Clarendon Academy, and a knitted mouse donated by Trowbridge Museum.
The time capsule has been officially registered with the International Time Capsule Society and now appears on their library of capsules from all over the world.
A representative from the organisation had this to say:
“For more than 30 years our library has registered many thousands of time capsules from all over the world. This is a free library service offered by The International Time Capsule Society (ITCS) designed to build the historical record of time capsules and to ensure time capsules can be traced generations from now. The ITCS is based at Oglethorpe University in Atlanta (builders of the first modern time capsule – the Crypt of Civilization).
We believe the knowledge gained in registering these time capsules offers us a wealth of information on the way we remember collectively. Unfortunately, most time capsules are lost or forgotten over time, and as a result our stories and history are lost with them. In an effort to prevent this, the ITCS catalog, map, preserve and transfer this information.
“Our dedicated members and volunteers focus on time capsule technology, consulting, cataloging and research. Our society’s mission is:
- To maintain a registry of all known time capsules.
- To establish a clearing house for information about time capsules.
- To encourage study of the technology, history, variety, and motivation behind time capsule projects.
- To educate the general public and the academic community concerning the value of time capsules.
- To maintain and share a global directory of time capsule interested parties”
