Masons from Chichester specialists CWO, who have dismantled Temple Bar from Hertfordshire in order to return it to London, have found a time capsule hidden in it more than 115 years ago.

The masons, who dismantled the 2,500 stones of the arch one at a time, found the capsule near the foundations.

The arch has been the gateway to Theobalds Parkfor more than 100 years, but was originally built in Fleet Street, London, and was one of the gateways to the City of London.

The time capsule contained six coins dated between 1875 and 1887, newspapers, including an 1887 edition of the Sporting Times, and some pieces of card that are thought to have been photographs originally.

Gary Collins, CWO\'s site manager, said: "We always knew there was supposed to be a time capsule but we didn\'t know where it was. The discovery was very exciting."

Specialists from Oxford Archaeology have been surveying the finds, which are to be put on show in the Museum of London.

Temple Bar, a Scheduled Ancient Monument, was one of the original gates to the City of London. An earlier, wooden, gate was burnt down in The Great Fire of 1666 and the Portland stone arch that survives today was built in 1672, probably to Wren\'s design, and removed to the country estate in 1878 because it was causing traffic congestion.

It is now going back to London in a £2million move that will see it rebuilt in the newly recreated Paternoster Square, adjacent to Wren\'s St Paul\'s Cathedral, where it can be enjoyed without disrupting the traffic flow.