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Crowton School's Visit to the Hazel Pear Wood
Burying a Time Capsule, 18. October 2001

Here is a report on the visit by staff and pupils of Crowton Christ Church Primary School to the Hazel Pear Wood in Acton Bridge, so that a Time Capsule could be buried. It's a compilation of several articles, written by various pupils, and is all in the children's own words, though not necessarily in the order in which they were written.

Samples have been taken from each of the 40-odd reports, retaining a degree of duplication, to show some variation in interpretation and to give a representative flavour of the children's experiences of the outing.

Burying of the Time Capsule

On Thursday 18th October Crowton School went to bury a time capsule at the Hazel Pear Wood to step back in time. The Woodland Trust helped the school bury the time Capsule. Chris Maddock who works at the Homebase had sent the time capsule to school for the children. She introduced two gentlemen called Simon and Simon, who belonged to the Woodland Trust. The school had their photograph taken by the Northwich Guardian.

First we had some photos taken, then we walked round to bury the capsule. The field was very big and it had a pond in it. I found out that the wood had two ponds. There were lots of little trees because the people of Acton Bridge had planted them in the ground. I estimated that there were 1400 and I was right.

We did the time capsule so people will know how we lived today when they open it in years to come. Crowton took up the task enthusiastically and soon the time capsule was full. The school had filled it up with things from the millennium, pieces of school work, a newspaper, and pictures of their families. There were a couple of toys in it. I put in the time capsule some photos and some writing with a MacDonalds dog toy. I put in the time capsule a picture of me and my family in Spain. I put in the time capsule a picture of me tackling my dad.

A digger dug a hole before anyone got there and it was approximately one and a half metres deep. Everyone was standing around the hole. Two children, the oldest in our school and the youngest in our school, came forward with the capsule. Then Simon stepped in a 1½ metre square hole. There were two time capsules one from our school and one more other school but sadly they couldn't come. Unfortunately Plymouth Grove Primary School couldn't come because they were short of teachers to look after them! I think!

There was another picture taken of the school, then Simon jumped in the hole and placed the time capsule in it, the hole was so deep he had to stand on the time capsule to get out. He then told us it would be buried under a very big rock called a Mere Stone. A Mere stone was placed on top of the capsule so no-one could dig it up for a long time. I had to admit the Mere stone was gigantic. There was a bulldozer that was going to move the Mere stone into place. I was worried the time capsule was going to get squashed and cracked and all the papers were going to spread.

Mere Stone Soon after he told us about the Mere stones. The Mere stones had come down from Scotland in a big glacier in the ice age. 1000's of years ago it was blocks of ice. This is called a glacier so the Mere stone slid in the ice and some people moved it a bit and that's how the Mere stone appeared. The ends of the stone were very smooth, it was thousands of years old. The stone was ½ a ton.

Simon and Simon then showed us around. First they took everyone to the pond. It was quite interesting because in one end it was deep and in the other end it was shallow so the animals could lay their eggs. The frogs and newts lived further down in the middle of the pond, and at the deep end the ducks wouldn't bang their heads on the bottom when they duck their heads down.

Nearby was an old oak tree, Simon asked us if we knew how to see how old the tree was, without cutting it down. He said you had to measure up to one's chest and then get a tape measure and measure the girth. Each two and a half centimetres round it is one year. The tree was approximately 250 years old. He also asked if anyone knew another way of guessing how old the tree was. I had seen this nature programme where it said you could measure a tree by counting how many rings there were. So I put my hand up, but he didn't ask me. Oak

He then told the school how to see how old the hedgerow was by counting how many shrubs and other plant were in each 30 metres of the hedgerow. Each plant counts as 100 years so the hedgerow here was about 500 years old.

Thank you for putting me in the photograph in the ground. I'm sorry I didn't come yesterday to the wood.

The funny bit was when I put my foot in mud. When we started walking the ground was very muddy and wet but I liked the mud. The wood was good I like the pond. I like the trees and when Henry went down the hole. I like when the dog went in the pond. I learnt a lot about the wood. I liked the bit when the man talked about the Mere stone. I liked the Hazel Pear Wood because of its wildlife and ponds. I liked burying the time capsule.

I think everyone had a great day. I had a fabulous day with the Woodland Trust and Homebase. Crowton really enjoy themselves! I thought it was a really interesting day! I liked the mud and the pond. I really enjoyed it all and had a good morning. It was a very good day all of it. I loved the day it was wonderful. Everybody loved the day! We had a wonderful time.

Click to learn more about the planting of the Hazel Pear Wood.

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