A woman who thought she would never find her lost engagement ring has been reunited with it - 54 years after it went missing on a farm near Swansea.
Marilyn Birch lives in the mountains near Pontardawe with her husband, where she lost the ring while feeding the cows.
Despite retracing her steps, Mrs Birch could not locate the ring and believed it was lost forever. That was until an acquaintance took to the land with a metal detector last month and found the elusive item of jewellery in the ground.
She said: “A few weeks ago, a chap that comes here walking occasionally on the farm with a metal detector found some old coins and was showing us what he found.
“As a joke I said to him ‘Never mind all this rubbish your finding, go and find my engagement ring.’ So, I told him the story about my engagement ring – we had a laugh about it and off he went.
“Then a week later he came back and said, ‘I think I have found your ring.’ It was found on the farm eight inches down into the ground. He went out with the metal detector from the shed and the ring had been buried there in the fields for 54 years.”
Mrs Birch never wore her engagement ring unless she went out for the evening, but one Saturday morning, she decided to wear it during a weekly shop.
She added: “I came back home. Then I decided to put some hay out for the cows so I wouldn’t have to go back out later. Then I came back to the house, washed my hands, and noticed my engagement ring has gone off my finger.
“I retraced my steps all the way to the cattle buildings again. I spent over an hour looking through the hay, looking through the cubicles, everywhere. It was like looking for a needle in the haystack.
“I couldn’t find the ring. I was really upset because my engagement ring meant more to me than my wedding ring. It meant a lot to me.”
Mrs Birch and her husband have been together for 57 years and she was lost for words when seeing the engagement ring again.
She added: “I’m never short of anything to say but I just stood there looking at it. I couldn’t believe it.
“It took me a couple of days to fully get round to the idea that he’s actually found it. It was unbelievable, I was so pleased. It felt as if my engagement ring had finally come home.
“My husband was pleased for me because he knew how upset I was when I lost it. It probably didn’t mean so much to him, but he knew how much it meant to me.”
Keith said: "As a metal detectorist, we look for ancient artefacts which we send to the museum. I love unearthing them. It’s just a great feeling to reunite Marilyn with her long lost treasure.”
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