13744/1A MESSAGE in a capsule has been sent to the future generations that will use the new Savernake Hospital on the outskirts of Marlborough.

Raymond White, president of the Friends of Savernake Hospital, presided at the ceremony to bury the time capsule last Tuesday afternoon.

Among the items buried were a list of matrons, secretaries and medical staff at the hospital between 1866 and 1966; an early photograph of hospital staff; pamphlets from the openings of Lavington Ward day room on May 25 1968 and the extension to Ailesbury Ward on September 29 1982; an aerial photograph of the hospital taken around 1996; and a certificate from Wiltshire County Council recording the planting of a cherry tree on the occasion of the hospital's centenary in 1989.

The original plans for the hospital, drawn up by the celebrated architect Sir Giles Gilbert Scott are also in the capsule along with a survey of the part played by local health campaigning group SHIFT, the Savernake Hospital Inquiry Fund Trust.

There are also 1950s photographs showing the Savernake Nursing School, later Ailesbury Ward.