IT was cracked open to celebrate the completion of part of Swindon's Great Western Railway works.

Now, almost 100 years later, it has been unearthed and is going on sale as a unique reminder of the town's links with the railway.

The bottle of Dry Monopole Champagne was opened in the autumn of 1904 by a gang of six workers who had built an extension to the carpenters' shop at the GWR Works, now part of the Designer Outlet Village.

Having drained it, they buried it in the foundations of the building, along with letter to the future.

The letter reads: "October 19, 1904. Office extension gang. This bottle was duly placed in the presence of the undersigned six honest British workmen on the above date, in all solemnity and reverence."

The note is signed by J Ball, A Edwards, W Hart, WC Steele, FG Colton and JE Skew.

The bottle was recovered during demolition work at the site, prior to its conversion into the shopping centre.

And on April 11 the bottle and its message will be sold at Dominic Winter Book Auctions in Maxwell Street, Swindon.

It is expected to raise only £30-50, but is priceless as far as Richard Westwood Brookes, the auction house's document specialist, is concerned.

He said: "This is an absolute link to the past.

"If you let your imagination run riot a little, you can see things from the workers' point of view.

"They probably thought the bottle wouldn't be unearthed for 500 years or more because Swindon's steam engine works would last for centuries.

"They couldn't have imagined that the whole thing would be brought to nothing in the 1980s."

The bottle is expected to be in demand from collectors of railway memorabilia.

Mr Westwood Brookes added: "You couldn't begin to put a meaningful estimated price on something like this.

"I imagine it will be sold to somebody who is interested in railway ephemera and has an imagination."