Here's why this cathedral is not removing a tennis ball stuck in its archway for over 100 years

For many people in the world, it's a dream to make their mark in history. To be remembered, one doesn't always need to do extraordinary things showcasing their intelligence or valor. Sometimes, all it takes is a cheeky act to make a lasting impact. The best example of this would be the story of a boy from 1914 who hit his tennis ball a bit too far that it has now become an ancient relic. In the archway of the Lincoln Cathedral in the UK lies wedged a 110-year-old tennis ball and no one has noticed it for several decades, as reported by the Talker. 

A young boy named Gilbert Bell was playing tennis with his brother in 1914 when he threw the ball too high. The ball got jammed in the cathedral's moldings and they couldn't retrieve it back then. The archaic ball had weathered several decades ever since World War I and remains intact. Despite countless visitors passing by that part of the cathedral, no one has managed to identify that there was a tennis ball stuck up there. For 91 years, the presence of the ball remained unknown until in 2005, a nephew of Gilbert Bell wrote a letter to the cathedral authorities asking for the ball's return, as per a 2005 article in BBC.

A then-78-year-old David Bell wanted to see if he could get the ball back as a joke. However, Gilbert's nephew secretly hoped that the ball would permanently become a part of the ancient cathedral for future generations to see. "The story in our family goes that Gilbert threw the tennis ball up to the cathedral against the wall and it stuck in a crevice. Every time we go up to Lincoln now, we go and see if it's still there," David told the outlet. "We wrote the letter tongue in cheek to ask for our ball back. It really tickled us. Personally, I would rather it stay there," he added. In 2023, the Lincoln Cathedral's X handle (@LincsCathedral) revealed the tennis ball on social media, asking people to try to look for it around the corner of the Galilee Porch.

It turns out that the ball was historically important. It was the oldest tennis ball ever to be found. In 2005, Carol Heidschuster, a spokesperson for the cathedral, expressed their astonishment after David Bell's letter about the ball. Wondering how she had never noticed the ball, Heidschuster pointed out that the plan to clean the stonework at that part of the cathedral wasn't expected for another 10 years. Jane Cowan, Head of Conservation at Lincoln Cathedral, who recently spoke to Talker regarding the plans for the tennis ball, hinted at preserving it where it was wedged.

"At such point as our cycle of conservation reaches that part of the Cathedral, we would have to assess how best to approach the tennis ball as the nature of the materials it is made from is very different from the stone, glass and wood that we are used to dealing with on the Cathedral," Cowan explained. The authorities intend to leave the ball stuck in its place because its story and its connection to the cathedral are crucial. "The stories are intertwined and are both much the richer for that," Cowan added. Before Gilbert's ball was discovered, a 1916 tennis ball held currently at the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Museum was known to be the oldest.