Child's letter found under stairs in Hockley home after 44 years

A remarkable discovery was made in Hockley, Essex, when a renovation worker uncovered a letter concealed within the cavity beneath a set of stairs. The note, penned by a 10-year-old girl in the early 1980s, was handed over to the current resident, Michelle Harwood, who has lived in the house for 11 years. Intrigued by the neatly written letter, Michelle, a 36-year-old charity worker, shared an image of it on her local Facebook group in hopes of identifying its author. Remarkably, within just an hour, several people had tagged Rachel Miles, a 54-year-old teacher from Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, who responded to the post.

Rachel Miles shared with the BBC the context behind the letter, recalling how time capsules had been a popular trend during the 1980s, inspired by the television program Blue Peter. She wrote the letter after her father discovered the cavity behind the stairs in their then-new home. Miles expressed her delight at knowing someone had found and read her message from the past, saying, “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.” The letter evoked strong emotions in Michelle, who described getting “goosebumps” upon reading the words addressed “to the finder.”

Reflecting on the experience, Miles said it was a wonderful opportunity to revisit her Essex childhood and to reconnect with the community despite having moved away from the county. She enjoyed hearing familiar names and memories from people who remembered her, adding with amusement that her letter was the only place where she mentioned her beloved cat, Kizzy, who was well-known locally. Michelle noted some intriguing coincidences between her life and Rachel’s, including that both women had cats when living in the house, explaining why there was already a catflap installed when the Harwoods moved in. She also highlighted that Miles’s family had lived there when the area was still a building site where children played.

The letter dated 12 August 1982 predates Michelle’s birth by eight years. The Harwood family has resided at Betts Farm Estate for over a decade. Michelle admitted that posting the letter on social media was something of “a long shot” with no real expectation of finding the writer so quickly, but she praised how such platforms connect people in unexpected ways. The letter now holds a place of honor, affixed to the family’s refrigerator, a tangible link between two generations sharing the same home decades apart

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