A major renovation project at one of an English town’s most historic buildings has revealed a surprise no one saw coming: a perfectly preserved time capsule hidden beneath the Old Town Hall’s clock tower since 1858.
The find was made just days into a £6.3 million ($8.52 million) restoration of the Grade II‑listed building in Middlesbrough’s St. Hilda’s district—known today as Middlehaven. The discovery is already reshaping local understanding of the area’s earliest years, when the town was rapidly transforming into an industrial hub.
Middlesbrough is a northeastern English town built during the Industrial Revolution after the Stockton and Darlington Railway extended to the area in 1830.
Workers uncovered the capsule sealed inside the tower’s foundation stone, originally laid by Henry Thompson, Middlesbrough’s mayor at the time. Inside, conservators found handwritten documents bearing the signatures of figures considered the town’s founding fathers, including Henry Bolckow, John Vaughan and Isaac Wilson.
Walter Thompson Managing Director Paul Hammerton said: “Uncovering a time capsule dating back to the Victorian era, just days into the project, was an extraordinary moment for our whole team.”
One parchment notes that the clock tower was built “within the walls of the existing Market House,” adding that only 30 years earlier, the same site had been nothing more than grazing land with “one solitary house.” The document also states that the tower’s bell was cast using the same model as the bell at Balmoral Castle, Queen Victoria’s Scottish residence.
The contents were accompanied by a pristine copy of the Darlington & Stockton Times dated September 25, 1858, as well as an 1857 silver threepence coin, supporting the theory that the tower was constructed more than a decade after the main building opened in 1846.
Hammerton said: “To discover documents signed in 1858 by the men who built Middlesbrough, as well as an 1857 silver threepence coin, is a rare privilege and a powerful reminder of why preserving buildings like these matters so much.
“We’re not just restoring the Old Town Hall—we’re safeguarding the story of this town, and we couldn’t be more proud to play our part in preserving a piece of Middlesbrough’s history.”
Helen Kendall, a conservator with Teesside Archives, said the condition of the materials was unusually good for a capsule of this age.
“I was excited to be asked to visit the Old Town Hall site to rescue the contents of the time capsule. The newspapers and parchment document are in remarkably good condition with little sign of water or oxygen degrading the materials,” she said. “The Victorians did a great job sealing the contents in the capsule and then the foundation stone.”
Kendall said the items will now be preserved for future generations.
The building, which last served as a library and community center before closing in 1996, is undergoing extensive work funded by Middlesbrough Council and The National Lottery Heritage Fund. Over the next year, contractor Walter Thompson plans to develop the structure into commercial space within the town’s growing Boho Zone. The project includes demolishing a 1970s addition, conducting structural repairs and restoring the clock tower.
A new marketplace extension will eventually link the building’s past with its future, timed to be a centerpiece of Middlesbrough’s bicentenary celebrations in 2030.
Middlesbrough Mayor Chris Cooke described the find as a moment that sheds new light on the town’s earliest days.
“The Old Town Hall survives as a powerful symbol of Middlesbrough’s incredible origins,” he said. “This project is already revealing new insights into the town’s remarkable past, and I’m sure there will be further revelations to come.”
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