Old coins, a photo and a perfectly-preserved copy of the Radio Times were unearthed hidden in a time capsule during renovations by Bristol landscapers. Matt Grocott, from Grocott Landscapes in Fishponds, made the surprise discovery of the TV magazine, dated August 4, 1990, with the Queen Mother on the cover celebrating her 90th birthday.
Matt said they were rebuilding a natural stone wall in in Bradford on Avon when they came across a hidden glass jar. He said: “It was buried in the wall and my business partner Pat Drummond found it. If it had been five or six centimetres to the left, we would never have found it.
“It was an old coffee jar with a photo and a letter, which had both perished from condensation and some old coins - a 10p and one shilling,” said Matt. They called the owner of the home to come and have a look at their discovery.
Read next: Pictures show Doctor Who filming in Bristol
Matt said: “We looked deeper in the hole and found a large old-style Tesco plastic bag.” Unwrapping the bag, they found the copy of Radio Times. Matt said: “It was in good condition and on the front cover was the Queen Mother for her 90th birthday, which we thought was good timing with the King’s coronation coming up.
“All three of us sat on the ground to look through it all, it was really cool. We have been landscaping for six years and we have never found anything like this. Nothing as significant or deliberate as this,” he said.
He added that they were not able to track down who may have buried the jar and the bag. He said: "They must have been buried together and the old Tesco bag was from the 80s and it was all intact.
The back of the Radio Times advertised VHS tapes of The Terminator, Rain Man, Lethal Weapon and Michael Jackson’s Moonwalker. Homeowner Emily Huevel was excited about the find. She said: “We only had the house for a couple of years and this is the first real work we’ve done. It was great, we sat down and unwrapped everything.
“They had found a jar with old coins and there was a photo with writing on the back,” she said, adding that the writing was illegible due to condensation in the jar. She said: “We were looking in the hole and they dragged out an old Tesco bag.
“Everything in the bag was absolutely fine, it was preserved from August 1990,” she said, adding that both she and her husband were '1990 babies'. Emily added: “I would have been six months old when these were buried. The next-door property had the same owner and they have found things hidden in the walls.”
There was also an old building advert which may have belonged to whoever buried the mystery time capsule, but the contact number no longer worked.
Read next:
