A time capsule has been placed beneath the new floor at Hitchin Town Hall, as a memento for future generations, when the floor is next replaced in many years to come.
Wanting to demonstrate what life is like in February 2022, the box included a disposable face mask and notice asking people to wear one, a rainbow flag to signify February as LGBT+ History Month, a current issue of The Comet, as well as a plan of the Town Hall and Museum next door, menu for the museum café, and a letter from Museum Curator Keith Fitzpatrick-Matthews to the future curator.
During work to replace the floorboards on the sprung dancefloor in the hall, an old packet of Woodbine cigarettes was found. They are impossible to date accurately, as the design remained the same from the 1880s through to the 1960s, but were probably dropped (or even left behind deliberately!) by one of the workers in the 1950s, when the floor was last replaced.
The old floorboards were made from a south-east Asian hardwood, no longer an environmentally-friendly timber, which had been re-sanded so many times that the wood was becoming very thin. They have been replaced with English oak.
Keith Fitzpatrick-Matthews, Curator at North Herts Museum, said: “We were excited to put together a time capsule for people to discover in years to come, a snippet of life in 2022, as well as a link to the past – we included a printout of the Facebook post about the cigarette packet from the 1950s.
“As a listed building, we had to apply to change the floor. It’s so important to preserve our heritage but we also have to move along with the times, it’s a careful balance.”
Work is being completed this week, with the sprung dancefloor back in use for Common People, a 90's indie disco, on Saturday, 26 February – a flyer for the event was also included in the time capsule.
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