Farmer William Lawrence Bailey wanted to make his mark when restoring a cottage he owned in the village of Ainderby Steeple, near Northallerton, nearly 100 years ago.
He decided to leave a message for the future and then placed the handwritten letter in a bottle to preserve it as a time capsule from 1905.
The bottle was buried in the floor of the cottage where it lay undisturbed until more recent renovation work. The bottle and the letter have resurfaced and are in the hands of Mr Bailey's great granddaughter Wyn Place, who is in her 70s.
The cottage is still in family hands and it was during the latest refurbishment that the message came to light.
She said the builders found the letter with a 1902 threepenny bit.
"We managed to get the letter out in one piece. It was a fun letter to find and very interesting."
She took the letter to the county records office in Northallerton, where conservator Stephen Allen was delighted at the find. He said: "There's speculation in the letter that the cottage could be one of the oldest properties in Ainderby Steeple because of a coin discovered in the foundations and the discovery of a wall made of stones, clay and chopped straw."
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