Lord Mountbatten items discovered in time capsule

A letter written to a care home by Lord Mountbatten in 1969 has been discovered among items in a time capsule found underneath the home's former site.

Demolition workers discovered the capsule underneath the site of the former Edwina Mountbatten Care Home in Romsey, Hampshire, in February.

The capsule also contained two copies of a local newspaper from 1969, detailing visit to the care home by the Mountbattens, his great-nephew the then Prince Charles, and Princess Anne.

Churchill Living, who are behind the construction of a new retirement living development at the site, said it was looking for experts who would be able to "study the items further".

Earl Mountbatten of Burma was second cousin to Queen Elizabeth II, serving in two world wars and was involved in the partition of India and the Suez Crisis.

He was killed when the IRA detonated a bomb on his family's fishing boat in north west Ireland in 1979.

Churchill Living said the lead time capsule was discovered underneath a foundation brick by a demolition worker in February.

The worker, Dave Cairns, said the discovery was a "special moment... I've done this job for 30 years and it's the first time capsule I've ever discovered," he said.

Kevin Sharp, from Churchill Living, said the discovery shed new light about the old care home's links with the Mountbatten family.

The capsule features a metal reproduction cypher of Lord Mountbatten which the letter states "was the custom in India for the Viceroy to provide".

The letter adds that the badge was worn by a member of his domestic staff in 1947, when he was Viceroy.

Also found inside were two sets of coins, including the first ever decimal coinage from late 1960s.

Mr Sharp said the capsule also revealed details about "the original construction... right down to the individual carpenters, bricklayers and plumbers who worked on it," he said.

Once completed, the development, on Broadwater Road in Romsey, will have 47 apartments for the over 60s.