Ring lost in field near Oswestry 61 years ago back with owner Published duration 23 December 2019

image caption Roy Beddows said he had never expected to see the ring again, which was engraved with his initials

A man who lost a gold ring while working in a field in the 1950s has been reunited with it 61 years on.

Roy Beddows lost the nine-carat gold ring - engraved with his initials - while working on a farm in West Felton, Oswestry, Shropshire, when he was 17.

It was found by metal detectorist Robin Kynaston, who traced Mr Beddows after the landowner realised it may belong to an ex-employee of her late father.

Mr Kynaston said it was "amazing" to return the ring to its rightful owner.

image caption The ring was lost in a field near Oswestry 61 years ago

He has now struck up a friendship with Mr Beddows, 79, and the pair realised they knew people in common.

"I make a point of always returning everything I find to the landowner or at least offering it to them, good or scrap," said Mr Kynaston, who took up metal detecting three years ago.

"But this was the first gold I'd ever found. It was a little bit of a difficult thing to pass it back, but I did pass it back and look what's come out of it - something amazing."

image caption Robin Kynaston took up metal detecting three years ago

Mr Kynaston said after he contacted the farm, the landowner posted the signet ring through his letterbox.

It was accompanied with a note saying she had "wracked her brains" about who the initials RAB referred to and believed the ring could belong to Roy Beddows.

The detectorist then contacted local Facebook groups and realised people knew Mr Beddows and he still lived locally.

"Everybody knows everybody here - they are either friends or related. It's a little bit like Emmerdale," he said.