Evening Press Leader

When the owner of the Barbican Hotel, Michael Morgan, found an unmarked package under the floorboards, his heart must have leapt. What could it be? A bundle of banknotes? Priceless gems? But the treasure was more precious than that. Unwrapping the brown paper, Mr Morgan discovered an Evening Press from nearly 40 years ago.

The note attached read: "For your interest and amusement". Whoever wrote it knew that there is no more fascinating reading than the headlines of a previous age. In this case, the front page was consumed by the devastating impact of Hong Kong typhoon Wild Wanda, and a fancy dress ball held at Imphal Barracks.

Long-gone prices always raise a few eyebrows. The paper was three old pence; but then, you could buy a new house in Badger Hill for less than £3,000.

Mr Morgan plans to return the paper to its hiding place, along with a copy from 2000. Many others have also left recent editions of the Evening Press in Millennium time capsules for future generations to discover. What will they make of our world?

They will certainly be baffled by references to the Millennium Bug. One minute this computer RAM-raider was due to end civilisation as we knew it; the next it had scuttled under a mousemat never to be seen again.

And who knows, with a little luck a child reading this week's headlines in 40 years time may look up and ask: "Mummy, what was flu?"

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.