Mystery of 25-year-old crisps discovered in Doncaster archives with hidden note

Staff at City of Doncaster Archives made the strange find while sorting through piles of old documents and photos.

And as they leafed through a stack of faded items, they found a perfectly flattened bag of Seabrook Cheese and Onion flavour crisps with a best before date of February 1998.

Inside the 30g bag were the crushed remains of the crinkle cut crisps, produced by the Bradford-based snack manufacturer more than a quarter of a century ago.

A note left with the bag, inside a sealed envelope said: “These crisps were left here in December 2009” having been with their owner for “15 turbulent years.”

The crushed snack was found inside hundreds of envelopes of photographs of bygone Doncaster people and places donated to the archives when the Doncaster Free Press vacated its Sunny Bar offices in 2014 to move to new premises.

Sharing the photo, a spokesman for City of Doncaster Archives said: “The strangest things we find in our archive sometimes!

"Sorting through a collection deposited with us by the Doncaster Free Press, we found a flattened packet of cheese and onion Seabrook risps dating to February 1998.

"They were sealed safely in a brown envelope in 2009 with a lovely little note from their previous owner at the Free Press.”

The Free Press was based at Sunny Bar for 89 years, later moving to new premises in Printing Office Street, with reporters now working from home following its closure.