THE WAKEFIELD TIME CAPSULE

OUR MESSAGE TO THE FUTURE

A year ago it was suggested that we should lay down a time capsule at Sandal Castle in the Platinum Jubilee year. Accordingly, the SCA and the Friends of Sandal Castle have worked with Wakefield Council and have obtained Historic England Consent to lower a time capsule into the well at the castle, where it will remain for the next fifty years.

Her Majesty's Platinum Jubilee seems a very apt time to leave a time capsule for posterity. It has been an historic period on many levels. Brexit, the pandemic and now the Ukraine War have all been major events in our lives. It has been a time of stress, anxiety and deep sorrow for many people.

Our two organisations want to give people in Wakefield, half a century in the future, a snapshot of what life has been like at this time. This will be living history. We therefore invite people throughout Wakefield - individuals, schools, organisations and societies to send us by email or mail, messages or short descriptions of their experiences over this time. We will scan pictures, paintings, letters, documents and messages and place them on discs and memory sticks, along with actual paper messages and even suitably small artefacts that symbolise this time. Face masks, vaccination leaflets, fliers, perhaps even small flags. We will endeavour to include as much as possible in the capsule.

It is our intention to hold an event at Sandal Castle when the capsule will be lowered into the well. The exact date of this will be decided later, but we are aiming for around the Platinum Jubilee weekend.