CONTENTS of a time capsule hidden in a wall when Saints were league champions more than 100 years ago have been revealed at a special opening ceremony in Hampshire.

The metal box, buried in 1899, was bricked up inside of Leigh House Hospital in Cuckoo Bushes Lane, Chandler's Ford, when the building, which started life as a workhouse, was built.

Southampton FC had just won the Southern League and Queen Victoria was on the throne when the box was buried. Alfred Hitchcock, Ernest Hemingway and Al Capone were born that year. Robert Bunsen - who designed the eponymous burner - and Johann Strauss died. Robert Cecil, the second Marquis of Salisbury, was prime minister and Aston Villa had won the football league.

A wrecking crew gingerly removed bricks from the wall so as not to damage the box before the special opening ceremony attended by councillors, historians and developers.

Inside was a copy of the Southern Daily Mail which led on a story about British gold that had been stolen by Boer farmers from a train they held up in the Transvaal.

The capsule contained another local paper, The Hampshire Advertiser - published by the Daily Echo - which put coverage of the America's Cup on its front page. Three national newspapers were also packed in - The Times, The Daily News and The Daily Graphic.

Now the capsule's safe resting place will be bulldozed by David Wilson Homes to make way for 98 houses on the 12-acre site.