Roofer finds picture of son he stashed 24 years ago on Discovery Museum’s roof – while his now grown-up son was on-site
A roofing contractor working on Newcastle’s Discovery Museum discovered a picture of his young son that he had hidden under a slate while working on the same section of roof in 2002
Remarkably, when he found it more than 20 years later, his son—now an adult—was also working alongside him on the same site.
Alan Needham, 60, is working for F & I Group who are restoring the Grade II listed roof of Blandford House, home to Discovery Museum.
He has worked on large-scale roofs all over the North East – but this is the first time he’s worked on the same roof twice, let alone find the picture he stashed for future generations to discover – while the photo subject was there!
Alan has left these secret ‘time capsule’ pictures on several jobs he’s done over a 42-year roofing career including Newcastle City Hall and Gateshead Town Hall.
In 2002 I came to Discovery Museum to take a section of the roof off at the front, and I decided – again - to leave a little treasure, of my son, one of my sons, Ross Alan Needham, a picture from when he was 13.
Alan also said,
“I never thought I would come back to this job 24 years later, doing the same area of roof and finding what I had left. I’m 60 now and I am glad I - eventually – remembered where it was.
“When I found it, I started to ‘fill up’, and I showed Ross. The only thing you’ve got in this life are your family – I constantly do everything for my family, everything I have ever done, I’m not interested in material goods.
“It’s just something nice for someone to find in 50 or 60 years to say ‘I wonder if he’s still alive?’ – that’s why I leave them. I will leave something again – with my two sons on, my grandchildren, whatever foster child I have at the time – and possibly my wife!”
It’s pretty amazing to meet Alan – knowing that Alan was the man to have worked on that specific part of the roof 24 years ago – and where better to leave a personal time capsule than on a museum roof?
Nick also said,
"The big Burlington slate tiles have to be removed one by one and stored carefully before being replaced in exactly the same order. Alan is the man removing each tile and has to work along each row to remove them.
"It’s a very tricky, precarious job, and it been great to hear such a story from Alan during the process. We’re well underway now with the roof works – but Discovery Museum is open as usual, and we’ve got lots planned for the summer holidays when families will be looking for fun, low-cost days out."
Discovery Museum is open weekdays 10am – 4pm, weekends 11am 4pm and closed on Bank Holidays. It’s always free entry.
