WHEN Tony Honeysett lost his wedding ring during a trip to the Four Pillars Hotel, he and his wife Becci thought the weekend would be forever marred by the memory.

That was until the Swindon-based Wyvern Historical and Detecting Society came to the rescue and managed to find the ring in one of the lakes and return it to its owner.

The couple, from Eastbourne, had been walking across a bridge near the hotel when Tony’s ring slipped from his finger, rolled off the edge of some decking and fell into the water.

The couple had had matching rings made for their wedding and were particularly distraught at the loss, so they started thinking about ways of recovering it.

When they got home, Becci decided to look online and see if anyone could help – and it was there she came across the Wyvern Historical and Detecting Society, who advertised a free jewellery finding service.

She got in touch with John Clark who had all the equipment necessary, including a waterproof metal detector and a wet suit.

On the day of the search, the hotel, near South Cerney, loaned John two sets of ladders so he was able to lower himself from the bridge and into the water to search with his detector.

The grass and reed roots in the water were thick, which made searching particularly difficult, but after an hour of searching, mud scooping and a few false alarms, John heard a positive signal from his detector and was able to use his scoop to retrieve the ring from within the tangled roots.

“I was amazed at how deep it had settled into the mud in such a short time,” said John, who was then able to leave the cold water and hand the ring back to the smiling couple.

Becci was full of praise for John. “He was wonderful,” she said.

“I would like to extend my thanks to the Wyvern Historical and Detecting Society for their jewellery finding service. Without them the ring may have been lost to us forever.”

She also wanted to thank staff at the Four Pillars Hotel, whom she desribed as ‘absolutely fantastic’.

“The guest relations were out of this world,” she said.

“There were so good, I can’t fault them at all. They have a lot of people staying and a lot of parties going on but they were super and helped in any way they could.”

For more information about the Wyvern Historical and Detecting Society log on to www.wyvernhds.co.uk