On Thursday 24 September 2020, 6th Fleet Scouts buried a time capsule in Hartland Village.
This week, the Scouts literally made history.
Thanks to the Berkeley Group, who are developing Hartland Village, we obtained permission to bury a time capsule on their land. They threw themselves wholeheartedly into the idea, providing tools, a gazebo in case it rained, and a photographer to record the event.
The ground in between the pine trees at the edge is pretty solid, so the Hartland Village site manager kindly got two men to prepare a hole (it took them two hours to dig out a 600mm cube and back-fill it with topsoil).
On Thursday, the Scouts dug out the hole, filled up the capsule with memorabilia, and then buried it, leaving the ground in the same condition as when we started. This is what we included:
- A calendar, depicting the best views in and around Fleet
- A map, customized with date, event and centred on Fleet
- Copies of “Fleet Life” and “The Week Junior”
- Takeaway & butchers’ menus
- A Brexit 50p
- A mobile phone
- Face mask, sanitising gel & gloves
- Scouting badges
- Details of house prices; water, electric & fuel prices; Fleet population; electric car usage and broadband speeds.
- Some personal letters to Scouts in 2120.
“Alexa, set a reminder for 100 years.”
We decided against mounting a plaque due to potential vandalism, so its precise location will remain a secret until 24 September 2120, but is roughly at the what3words address \\\always.childcare.practical.
The location has been entered in the International Registry of Time Capsules, the Notforgotten library holdings and the WorldCat register. We are the first Scout Group in the UK to register a time capsule, so that’s pretty exciting.
