Firefighter reunited with time capsule

A former firefighter has been reunited with a time capsule he buried at a fire station more than 60 years ago.

Mr Jim Booth, 89, who now lives in Radcliffe, buried the tin containing National Fire Service button at the station in Bulwell along with a hand-written note stating it was buried on September 21, 1948.

The tin was dug up last year, when the Cinderhill Road site was torn down and Mr Booth has since been tracked down.

After serving in the army during the Second World War, Mr Booth started his career as a firefighter at Central Fire Station before transferring to Bulwell.

The station was built in 1944 and four years later he and a colleague were asked to build a fireplace by the officer in charge.

Mr Booth said: "We were filling in a space at the back of the fireplace with rubble and, on a whim, I just decided to put something in there. I found the tin and wanted to put a newspaper in, but didn't have one to hand so I wrote a note on a piece of paper, put the button in and then chucked it in there.

"It wasn't something I'd planned to do and I only did it on the spur of the moment. I've not thought about it for 60 years and I certainly didn't expect to see it again."

Builders discovered the time capsule and handed it over to Stockhill Fire Station, where it raised a great deal of interest due to the unusual NFS button.

The NFS was the single fire service created in the UK in August 1941 during the Second World War. The service was the amalgamation of the wartime national Auxiliary Fire Service and the local authority fire brigades.

It existed until 1948, when it was split by the Fire Services Act 1947, with fire services reverting to local authority control.

Mr Booth has donated the time capsule and its contents to Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service and it will now be displayed at the service's museum at Mansfield Fire Station.