Message in a bottle travels 33 miles from Crakehall – in 19 years

On Sunday, April 14, 1996, 12-year-old Jonathan Mc Gee was out as usual playing with friends in Crakehall when he wrote two messages slipped them in a bottle and cast them into the waters of the village beck. Now nearly twenty years later the bottle has resurfaced and he has received his sought-after reply.

His handwritten message was discovered three weeks ago by a group of walkers who had paused for a coffee break at the side of the River Ouse just outside York.

A former Thirsk resident, Peter Bilton, who now lives in York explained. He said: “ Six of us were out walking at Overton on the Ouse and had stopped for a break and we and noticed a bottle up a tree.

“When we looked at it we saw there was something inside that looked like a piece of paper.”

The bottle was old-fashioned one inscribed Garnett’s of Middlesborough and opening it up, Mr Bilton discovered there were two handwritten notes inside. One was barley legible, the other had a name, the date, and importantly a phone number on, which his wife Dorothy later telephoned.

Mr Bilton continued:” We were all a little shocked, it’s the first time I have ever had a message in bottle. I thought it could have been there a long time because as you know we do get a lot of flood water here in York. “

The news of the bottle’s discovery was received by the young message sender’s parents Chris and Angela McGee, who although they have moved, still live in the area and fortunately retained the same telephone number.

They immediately contacted their son Jonathan McGee, a former pupil at Crakehall and St Francis Xavier, Richmond, now a successful Leeds-based field sports photographer and filmmaker.

He said: “I remember the occasion as it was my dad’s birthday, me and my friends were always outside playing by the beck.

“As a 12 -year-old I just wanted a response, but I never really expected one. It was lovely surprise, when I heard my message had at last been found.”

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