A message in a bottle sent by staff or students from a school that no longer exists has washed up on a beach, news agency SWNS reported — and was promptly found by a group of young people.
Hedda Traa Haukom was on the beach in Ny-Hellesund in the south of Norway with her cousins when they discovered the message in a bottle.
“We stumbled on a bottle with a piece of paper inside,” Haukom, 14 years old, told the news outlet. “It was located 10 meters from shore, under a rock. The bottle looked pretty old, so we decided to open it and read the note.”
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“There was no name, year or address on the note or bottle itself,” Haukom told SWNS.
The message said: “To the finder, Please return this bottle to Bolton County Grammar School, Bolton, Lancashire, England. And they will receive one pound or the equivalent in Francs. Written on the Channel Boat. Thank you!”
The message appeared to have been sent from Bolton County Grammar School — which changed its name 42 years ago. (Hedda Traa Haukom / SWNS)
Although it is unclear exactly when the note was written, the Bolton County Grammar School changed its name in 1982 — making the note at least 42 years old.
The note may have been dropped from a ferry as the young people were making their way to France on a school trip, the group surmised.
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“It would be really fun to find whoever wrote the message and let them know we got it and how far it traveled over so many years,” Haukom said.
Bolton County Grammar School first opened in 1881 as Bolton Higher Grade School.
Hedda Traa Haukom was on the beach in Ny-Hellesund in the south of Norway with her cousins when they discovered the message in a bottle. (Hedda Traa Haukom / SWNS)
The school moved to a single site on Great Moor Street in 1897, and in 1947 the building became Bolton County Grammar School. In 1966, the school was moved to Breightmet, maintaining its status as a grammar school.
In 1982, it changed its name once again to Withins School. Withins then closed in 2009 and a new school, Bolton St. Catherine’s Academy, opened on the same site in its place.
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This isn’t the first time a bottled piece of history has made its way into modern-day headlines.
In Sept. 2024, archaeology students working in Normandy discovered a salt bottle – complete with a handwritten note – inside a clay pot, Smithsonian Magazine reported.
It seems the bottle was dropped from a ferry as students made their way to France on a school trip. (Hedda Traa Haukom / SWNS)
“P.J. Féret, a native of Dieppe, a member of various intellectual societies, carried out excavations here in January 1825,” the note said.
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Another message, this time in an old Pepsi bottle, washed ashore in Massachusetts earlier this April, according to WCVB in Boston.
Two brothers, Clint and Evan Buffington, discovered the note while combing the beach.
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The note, written in 1976 by then-14-year-old Peter R. Thompson from West Newbury, Massachusetts, as part of an oceanography class, said, “I’m a 9th-grade student from Pentucket Regional Junior High School.”
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The brothers ended up connecting with Thompson over the phone.
They hope to get the letter back to its writer soon, wrote WCVB.
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