Time Capsule Project In Amesbury
At a new development in Amesbury, Swaythling worked in partnership with Amesbury Archer Primary School to create a time capsule project. Young people at the school reflected on areas such as housing in the future, transport and current hobbies and trends.
They also wrote themselves letters to the future. All the children's work was then placed in a time capsule and an event was held in May 2008 at the Bowman's Centre in Amesbury to bury the time capsule. The capsule will be reopened in 10 years time.....
Time Team's Phil Harding joined pupils from the newly built Amesbury Archer Primary School to bury a time capsule. Swaythling Housing arranged the event to mark the starting point of the school's history along with that of the new community centre and the Archer's Gate housing development in Amesbury. The Mayor of Amesbury, Councillor Dennis Brown and Chris Tapp, Vice-Chair of Swaythling Housing, also lent a hand.
The MOD supplied a Harrier Jump Jet demonstration cockpit from RAF Boscombe Down for the occasion, which was extremely popular with the children.
Phil Harding, of Time Team, enjoyed helping the community to mark the beginning of its own history. Phil said, "This is the community's own record of what is going on for future generations and includes ideas of how we think things will be in the future. It is a wonderful thing to do."
Amesbury Archer Primary is a brand new school at the heart of the new Archer's Gate development in Amesbury, Wiltshire. Pupils from the school have been busy producing items to fill the time capsule, gathering artefacts from modern life and enclosing ideas of how life might be in ten years time, when the capsule will be retrieved. The event took place at Archer's Gate's new community facility, the Bowman Centre.
Head Teacher, Rob Lakin, said, "This has been really important for the school as it places them in the heart of the community. We are delighted to have been given the opportunity to contribute to the time capsule, which the children have been extremely enthusiastic about."
The land on which the development stands is of considerable archaeological interest. In 2002 archaeologists uncovered the Amesbury Archer, a Bronze Age man of high standing, whose grave contained the first gold relics found from this time period. It also provided the Boscombe Bowman findings, graves from around 2300 BC, believed to be the builders of Stonehenge.
Swaythling Housing is developing 129 new homes on the Archer's Gate development. The houses, provide affordable homes for rent and shared ownership, have been part funded by a £3.5m Social Housing Grant from the Housing Corporation.
Swaythling Housing Society organised the event as part of an ongoing programme to build community links and a sense of shared identity. By introducing the time theme they are introducing children to the value of heritage to the local area. Children who are currently at the school will come back in ten years time to uncover the time capsule with future pupils.
