Hailsham care home welcomes pupils to re-bury 60-year-old time capsule

A care home in Hailsham has teamed up with a local school for a very important project.

Team members at Care UK’s Bowes House, on Battle Road, were joined by pupils from Hawkes Farm Academy and special guest Paul Holbrook, Mayor of Hailsham, to re-bury a time capsule from sixty years ago.

The time capsule, which was found on the site during construction, contained handwritten letters, invoices, fuel cards and photographs from 1964, that demonstrate just how much the local area has changed since 1964. 

For its re-burying, the children added in school competition sheets, hand-written notes, colourings, a small Lego set and a message from a parent to the time capsule to reflect their favourite memories at school.

The team and residents at Bowes House also added carefully wrapped homemade fruit cake, photographs and some life history so that future residents and the local community can look back on how the home and local area may change in years to come. 

The time capsule has been buried in the care home’s gardens and is not planned to be re-opened for at least another 50 years. 

Mr Cotton, Headteacher at Hawkes Farm Academy, said: “The children have loved working on the time capsule project with residents at Bowes House. It was a brilliant opportunity for the children to reflect on what matters most to them and be part of history in the making. Perhaps some of the pupils may even help to dig the time capsule back up in 2074! We have a wonderful relationship with Bowes House and our pupils certainly enjoy spending time with their older friends.”

Jonathan Johnson, Home Manager at Bowes House, added: “It was wonderful to welcome the children from Hawkes Farm Academy and the Mayor of Hailsham to Bowes House for the burial of our time capsule.

“Having input from across the generations for this project was really important to us and it’s been lovely to work with the local youngsters. The project also allowed us to share residents’ knowledge of how times have changed since the time capsule was originally buried. 

“I’d like to extend a big thank you to Hawkes Farm Academy and to Paul Holbrook, Mayor of Hailsham, for their help in re-burying the time capsule.”

Bowes House is a state-of-the-art care home which provides full-time residential, nursing and dementia care, as well as short-term respite care. Designed to enable residents to live enjoyable and fulfilling lives, the care home has it very own cinema and hairdressers and there is plenty of space both indoors and out for relaxation and recreation. The home has a comprehensive activity programme offering a mix of themed events, group activities and days out.