Page 2 - WS A Moment In Time

Wokingham Town Council and local historian Jim Bell identified candidates to be considered
for inclusion and my first task was to review this list. I took into account the following: -

From Wikipedia: -
“According to time capsule historian William Jarvis, most intentional time capsules usually do
not provide much useful historical information: they are typically filled with "useless junk",
new and pristine in condition, that tells little about the people of the time. Many time capsules
today contain only artefacts of limited value to future historians. Historians suggest that
items which describe the daily lives of the people who created them, such as personal
notes, pictures, and documents, would greatly increase the value of the time capsule
to future historians. “

The 1989 Oxford English Dictionary defines a time capsule as “a container used to store for
posterity a selection of objects thought to be representative of life at a particular time.”

The Collins English Dictionary defines a time capsule as
“ a container holding articles, documents etc, representative of the current age, buried in the
earth or in the foundations of a new building for discovery in the future “

The objects were reviewed by members of the Wokingham Society, and I took guidance
from the International Time Capsule Society.

Based on the above I recommended that the items should only relate to April/May 2018 to
provide that snapshot in time and this was agreed by the Town Council. As a result, a small
number of candidates were rejected.

6 Retrieval Date

We needed to agree a timespan, i.e. how long until the capsule is retrieved.

The International Time Capsule Society says the following: -
Select a retrieval date. A 50-year or less time capsule may be witnessed by your own
generation. The longer the duration, the more difficult the task. Centennial (100-year) time
capsules are popular.
A key element of the project was to engage with schools in the town and for letters from
children describing their life in 2018 to be included in the capsule. The time span was set to
50 years in the hope that the school children who had written letters would still be residing in
Wokingham when the capsule is opened.

7 Records

A recommendation from research was that a detailed record of the objects that are placed in
the time capsule should be made to help future conservationists identify the contents inside.
A copy of the contents should also be secured outside of the Town Council. I obtained
agreement for a copy to be lodged in the Berkshire Records Office.

Below is a list of the objects included together with a description of their purpose and/or
reason for inclusion.