Friends of Dover Castle competition winners help to bury the time capsule
An idea to create a 100-year time capsule to celebrate HM The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee has now come to fruition, with over 40 items of our time now buried as a historic keepsake.
Local dignitaries and competition winners attended the event by the Maison Dieu to see the capsule buried far under the ground for future generations to discover.
The Friends of Dover Castle (who support English Heritage) partnered with Dover District Council, Reawakening the Maison Dieu Project and the Princess of Wales’s Royal Regiment and Queen’s Regiment Museum with a plan to bring the community together and link the castle and town.
The Dover Community Time Capsule Project was first launched last September as part of Heritage Open Days when the team invited groups and societies from across Dover to contribute ideas for time capsule objects.
Dover Castle Art and Storytelling competitions had taken place with the winners having their entries on display at the Castle but also to be included in the Time Capsule. Joint events took place through spring and summer this year at the Maison Dieu, the Princess of Wales’s Royal Regiment Museum and at community events hosted by DDC in the town where the local community had the chance to enter a competition suggesting items to be included in the Capsule.
Over 20 winning suggestions were selected which included adults, teenagers, and children.
As well as the inclusion of individual narratives of life as it is now, other objects encapsulated underground for the next 100 years include:
- Official Platinum Jubilee photograph of HM Queen Elizabeth II
- HM The Queen Official Platinum Jubilee Souvenir Book – 70 Glorious Years
- Queen’s Baton Relay flag
- DVD of HM The Queen’s Funeral Procession and Ceremony
- Proclamation of HM King Charles III
- Photos of Dover and Dover Castle
- Newspapers recording the record summer temperatures
- Air quality records
- Objects from local community clubs – ATC badges and brassard, police cadet lanyard, Rotary Club badge
- Popular music and fashion items, including a pair of Nike Air trainers
- Ukrainian flag
- Covid tests
- Port of Dover Royal Charter
- DVD of Dover Film Festival
- Plans of the Reawakening the Maison Dieu project
- Dover District Council Local Plan to 2040
- A fired clay dragon from Claydate 2022 (Reawkening the Maison Dieu project)
Graham Hutchison, Chairman of Friends of Dover Castle and Chair of Dover Community Time Capsule Project, said: “I wanted the Dover of 2022 to be remembered positively by people in 100 years’ time. We are a great town, a great district and a great community. It is a great place to work, live and to visit – we have over 100 attractions and are genuinely a world class destination for tourists and visitors.
“I knew that a Dover Community Time Capsule would bring the community together following the tough time we’ve all had as a direct result of the pandemic. I set about creating a small but wide-ranging team of partners who have helped so much in bringing this project to fruition. It has also seen our Friends membership grow and helped to promote our wonderful castle – The Lock and Key to the Kingdom – to our local residents.”