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Fox News
30-04-2025
- General
- Fox News
Teens discover beach message in bottle written decades ago: 'No name or address'
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." "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!" 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. "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. 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. 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. "P.J. Féret, a native of Dieppe, a member of various intellectual societies, carried out excavations here in January 1825," the note said. 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. For more Lifestyle articles, visit 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." The brothers ended up connecting with Thompson over the phone. They hope to get the letter back to its writer soon, wrote WCVB.
Daily Mirror
28-04-2025
- General
- Daily Mirror
Message in a bottle from UK school almost 50 years ago washes up on Norway beach
A young Norwegian girl found the message while playing on the beach with her family, and hopes to find the sender who dropped the message into a bottle and left it floating in the ocean 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.
