Slate discovery stirs old memories
Man raises the roof to find time capsule picture of his young son. Tony Henderson reports
It was 24 years ago that roofer Alan Needham added a piece of family history to a listed building on which he was working.
Alan has left ‘time capsule’ pictures on jobs over a 42-year roofing career, including Newcastle City Hall and Gateshead Town Hall.
He continued the tradition when in 2002 he tackled part of the roof at Discovery Museum, formerly the 1899 Blandford House headquarters of the Co-operative Wholesale Society.
The building was a warehouse and distribution centre for more than 100 Co-operative stores in the region, and also included salesrooms and offices, grocery, clothes, shoes, furniture and stationery departments, and mock-up shop front displays.
Alan added to its history by placing a picture of his son Ross Alan Needham under a slate for workers of the future to find.
At that time, Ross was 13, but the picture his dad chose showed him on the day he won a Bonny Baby competition in Blyth.
Nearly quarter of a century since the photograph was left Alan - now 60 - returned to the building while working for F & I Group, which is restoring the roof, and found the picture… while son Ross was also on site.1
He said: “In 2002 I came to Discovery Museum to take a section of the roof off at the front, and I decided – again – to leave a little treasure, of my son.
“I never thought I would come back to this job 24 years later, doing the same area of roof and finding what I had left.
“When I found it, I started to ‘fill up’, and I showed Ross. The only thing you’ve got in this life is your family – I constantly do everything for my family, everything I have ever done, I’m not interested in material goods.
“It’s just something nice for someone to find in 50 or 60 years to say ‘I wonder if he’s still alive?’ – that’s why I leave them. I will leave something again – with my two sons on, my grandchildren, whatever foster child I have at the time – and possibly my wife!”
Nick Butterley, customer and facilities manager at Discovery Museum, said: “Where better to leave a personal time capsule than on a museum roof?
“The big Burlington slate tiles have to be removed one by one and stored carefully before being replaced in exactly the same order.
“Alan is the man removing each tile and has to work along each row to remove them. It’s a very tricky, precarious job, and it’s been great to hear such a story from Alan during the process.
“We’re well underway now with the roof works – but Discovery Museum is open as usual.”
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