On Tuesday afternoon a stream of Year 7 and 8 pupils stepped from the spring sunshine into the dimly-lit dining halls of St John’s and Corpus Christi Colleges to write a letter to their descendants, not to be opened for a hundred years.

Conceived as part of the University of Cambridge’s 800th celebrations, the Letters to the Future project enabled 250 pupils from 15 local schools to make a small piece of history for themselves. It was a momentous occasion summed up by one pupil as “I can’t believe I’m here – it’s all so amazing”.

Sitting at long tables, each child used a special pencil to write a letter on acid-free paper, describing their daily lives for a reader a century from now. Carefully folded and sealed into envelopes, the letters will be archived in the University Library, where they will join collections of precious manuscripts studied by scholars all over the world.

The excitement at St John’s, where rows of children sat under portraits of college patrons and founders, was palpable. Children busily transcribed the rough drafts of their letters, produced at school. Their research had encouraged them to look at letters from the past – and how small details of day-to-day life become fascinating with time and become vital sources of information about the past.

Each letter was personal and confidential so it wasn’t possible to ask the children exactly what they were writing. But topics ranged from “friends, family and football”, “rabbits with floppy ears” and “dogs especially my Labrador” to worrying things like “wars and recession” and items they couldn’t live with such as “my iPod” and “gadgets”.

The project encouraged pupils to look at how life had changed and how it will continue to change. “A hundred years ago people didn’t waste things – they were better at recycling. Now we throw too much stuff away – we need to learn from the past and look after the environment better,” said one pupil.

Before they sat down to write their letters the children had looked at some of the letters from the archives at St John’s which gave them a flavour of life in Edwardian times. “I think we are much freer today as we don’t have so many rules about how to behave and what to wear – and adults were stricter then,” said one girl.

Each writer was given a certificate with a number matching their archived envelope. This slip of paper will enable a future generation to read the contents and step back in time – right back to a sunny Tuesday in March 2009 when 250 school children filed through the ancient gates of two Cambridge colleges to write their letters to the future.
 

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