Original Summary

Jonathan Harwood / The letter would have been written before Michelle Harwood was born A letter written by a 10-year-old girl in the 1980s and hidden in the cavity of the stairs at her home has been found 44 years later. The house in Hockley, Essex, was undergoing renovation work when a worker found the scrap of paper and passed it to Michelle Harwood, who now lives there. Filled with curiosity, the 36-year-old charity worker examined it - noting "really neat" handwriting for a child - and posted on her local Facebook community group on Thursday morning to track down the author. Within an hour, multiple people had found and tagged Rachel Miles, now a 54-year- old teacher in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire. And she responded. 'Goosebumps' The BBC contacted Miles almost half a century after she wrote the letter. She explained that time capsules were popular in the 1980s because of the influence of Blue Peter, and recalled writing the letter after her dad found a cavity behind the stairs. "I just thought it would be quite nice to basically post a letter for the future and I'm obviously quite delighted to see that someone had found it," she said. Michelle Harwood / Harwood said she had "goosebumps" when she read the words Miles said it was "lovely" reliving her Essex childhood and "really nice" to see how many people remembered her, despite her moving out of the county. "It's nice to hear familiar names that I knew and to be reconnected with the area," she said. She added it amused her that, out of her whole family, she had only named her cat, Kizzy, who was a "legend of those parts". Harwood described the moment she saw the letter. "[Reading] 'to the finder' just immediately gave me goosebumps," she said. "I couldn't believe that note had been there longer than I've been alive." Michelle Harwood / "I couldn't really believe my handwriting", said Miles The letter is dated 12 August 1982, eight years before Harwood was born. While the Harwoods have lived at Betts Farm Estate for 11 years, Miles said her family were there when it was just a building site that she and her friends would play on. Jonathan Harwood / The letter is now stuck to the Harwood family fridge Harwood noticed parallels between her own life and that of Miles. Miles was born in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, near where Harwood's husband, Jonathan, lived as a child. They also both owned cats while living at the house, which explained why a catflap was already at the back door when the Harwoods arrived. Harwood said in her social media post that it was "a long shot" and she had no expectations of finding the writer at all, let alone in the same morning. "I think social media is great for things like that, because so many people are connected," she said Do you have a story suggestion for Essex? Contact us below. Follow Essex news on BBC Sounds , Facebook , Instagram and X .

中文概览

中文标题： 44年后发现孩子隐藏的信件

1980年代一名10岁女孩在埃塞克斯郡家中楼梯空隙藏了一封信，44年后翻修时被工人发现。现任住户发帖寻人，一小时内找到现年54岁的作者。她回忆受《蓝彼得》影响写“时间胶囊”信件，双方均感惊喜。

  • 情报分类：综合情报
  • 分类依据：英国社会趣闻，非技术、商业、项目等类别，归综合情报。
  • 信息来源：英语新闻 / BBC News Top Stories
  • 发布时间：2026/9/27 13:20:44