This year marked the 250th anniversary of the Act of Incorporation that allowed 23 parishes in the Forehoe Hundred to build a House of Industry on Wicklewood Common, now known as the housing residence 'St Georges'. We decided burying a time capsule would be a good way to start our commemorative events, so the committee invited Year 6 children at Wicklewood Primary School to each write a letter to be placed in it.

On Thursday 2nd July, 17 children and their teachers arrived at St Georges to witness the capsule being buried. Joining them were the two youngest residents of St Georges, who presented each of their older schoolmates with a commemorative sticker designed by one of our committee.

The weather was perfect, and sitting on a blanket under an open-sided marquee, the children listened to a short history of the building. Then they posed in front of the main building with their letters before these were placed in the time capsule.

Alongside their letters went a set of 2026 coins featuring the head of King Charles III, and other items including a current postage stamp and pages from the EDP newspaper published that morning. The children were impressed that it included the match report from the England v DR Congo football match the night before.

The burial site beneath three Black Locust trees was on the other side of the main building and had been dug some days earlier, no mean feat as it had not rained for weeks.

En route to the site, the children stopped at the Memorial Cross to learn that it had been erected almost a hundred years earlier to remember former inmates buried on the plot of ground behind it.

Then it was time to bury the capsule. After placing it in the hole, each child, the teachers, and parents present ceremoniously placed a trowel of earth on top of it. To make sure it will not be forgotten, an engraved black granite plaque marks the burial site. It will be opened in 2076.

Then it was back to the marquee for squash and cakes. One of our committee members had made the cakes, and she had decorated each with an edible commemorative logo.

The morning was a huge success for all concerned, but all too soon the children had to return to school. Still, it had been a fun way to begin our 250th commemoration events.