I knocked down my fireplace and found a secret message from a century ago – I learned something incredible

A BUILDER who knocked down his fireplace was stunned to find a message in a bottle from nearly 100 years ago.

Dan Dafforn, 32, was working on the family house when he discovered the glass bottle with two pieces of paper inside.

WNS

Dan Dafforn was working on his own family house when he discovered the glass bottle with two pieces of paper inside the fireplace[/caption]

WNS

The handwritten note and newspaper cutting discovered in the fireplace[/caption]

One was a hand-written history of the house from 1931 – and a newspaper cutting from 1926.

Dan said he was “breaking out an old fireplace” when he saw the tip of the bottle inside the wall. “Luckily I didn’t smash it,” he said.

The hand-written note Dan found, titled “A history of Min y Mor”, dated back to 14 September 1931.

He also found a newspaper article about the writer and occupier Henry W Evans dating back to 10 July 1926.

“I could tell it was something really special, the really old style handwriting was cool to see,” he said.

His mum Penny shares the house in Solva, Pembrokeshire – and was just as excited by the message in a bottle.

She said: “We’ll get advice on how to frame it so it doesn’t get damaged by the sun.

“It’s a pretty fascinating thing to have come across. I took a photograph of both the handwritten history of Min Y Mor and the article describing the chap that wrote it.

“He was an astronomer, and self-taught architect and a taxidermist.”