A message in a bottle sent by school pupils and staff nearly 50 years ago has now washed up on a beach in Norway. The bottle appears to have been dropped over the side of a boat as students from Bolton County Grammar School were making their way to France on a school trip.
Although it is unclear when exactly the note was written, Bolton County Grammar School changed its name in 1982, making the note at least 42 years and three months old. Norwegian youngster, 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.
The message read: “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!”
Speaking about the moment they discovered the bottle, Hedda, 14, said: “We stumbled upon a bottle with a piece of paper inside. It was located ten meters from shore, under a rock. The bottle looked pretty old, so we decided to open it and read the note.
“There was no name, year or address on the note or bottle itself and we became curious, so we decided to contact the newspaper. It would be really fun to find whoever wrote the message and let them know we got it and how far it travelled over so many years.”
Bolton County Grammar School first opened in 1881 as Bolton Higher Grade School in Albert Place, School Hill, with 50 scholarship pupils. The school moved to a single site in Great Moor Street in 1897.
In 1947 the building, which is located on Great Moor Street, became Bolton County Grammar School and in 1966 the school was moved again, maintaining its status as a grammar school.
For the first time in history parents were afforded the opportunity to improve things for their children. It became a comprehensive school in 1982 and changed its name once again becoming Withins School. Withins closed in 2009 and new school Bolton St Catherine’s Academy opened on the same site in its place.
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