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Millennium mementoes hit the shops

Shops have already begun to stack their floors with the usual seasonal memorabilia - but this year there is an extra twist.

Millennium mugs, millennium champagne, and furry millennium bugs have filled the shelves - and now, of course, shoppers can make their small mark on history with millennium time capsules.

Even high street favourite Marks and Spencer has produced a range, which is made of plastic, took two years to design and is meant to last about 100 years.

The shop expects them to sell well as stocking-fillers and Christmas presents.

Designer Robert Erskine said: "What better way to become famous in the future?

"If someone discovers your time capsule in the future, no matter how ordinary you think it is, it's actually a unique insight into who you are."

But what would you put in it?

Outside one high street store, various suggestions from shoppers included mobile phones, a favourite battered leather jacket, an old pair of trainers, and wedding photos.

Designer Richard Knight suggested a diagram of the wheel, "to stop people reinventing it in the future", a Barbie doll "for men to worship and women to understand", and two magnifying glasses, "because it took Galileo such a long while to work out how to make a telescope".

Time capsules are already being buried across the country.

One built into the wall of a new study centre in Yeovil College, Yeovil, Somerset contained newspapers, magazines, CDs, a letter from former Liberal Democrat leader Paddy Ashdown and a National Lottery scratchcard.

Teenagers in a survey conducted by the Royal Mail last year said Trainspotting, the drugs novel by Irvine Welsh, was the ideal inclusion.

The most popular choice of book to be preserved for future generations was The Bible, but a video of television series Only Fools and Horses was also a popular choice.

Also suggested in the survey were a National Lottery ticket, a newspaper, a Spice Girls CD, and a picture of Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Relevant Stories

Minister backs Dome ticket cost (22 Sep 99 | UK)
100 days to plan a party (22 Sep 99 | World)
Hogmanay's hottest tickets up for grabs (20 Sep 99 | Scotland)
Bridges 'blocked to millennium revellers' (25 Sep 99 | UK)

Internet Links

Millennium Commission
Millennium Dome
Millennium Time Capsule Project

The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

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