Consett woman's joy after finding lost ring after 50 years

LOOKING back at the week that was July 24 to July 30, five years ago.

A DEVOTED husband described his elation after a dog walker found the wedding ring he lost while playing cricket in 1965 – buried in a riverbank beside the pitch – on July 25, 2018.

The recovery of the golden band followed a chance encounter between Eddie Stokoe’s brother and the woman who found it, 52 years after it was lost.

Had she not taken her dog for a walk and slipped on a muddy bank, dislodging it from its hiding place, it may never have been unearthed.

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Retired teacher Eddie, 73, of Bridgehill, Consett, County Durham, said his wife Jean, 75, cried tears of joy when he told her it had come to light on a bank of the River Derwent, just beyond the perimeter of Shotley Bridge Cricket Club.

Eddie said: “It feels strange having it back on after all this years. I can only wear it on my little finger now.

“A magpie could have picked it up and dropped it there. If the ring had a voice, it could tell a story of the last 52-and-a-half years.”

When the couple got married on October 16, 1965, they exchanged matching rings inscribed with their names, Edward and Jean, and the date of the wedding.

Six months later, at the first game of the season for the club, Eddie lost his ring. “We had to take rings off for the game in case it damaged the ball,” he said.

“When I got home I realised I didn’t have my ring. I searched my bag and the changing rooms and for two weeks I literally quartered the field and scoured it for the ring.

“After a couple of weeks I decided it had gone for good. I was devastated."

In early July 2018, his brother Billy telephoned and asked him if he had ever worn a wedding ring.

“I said ‘yes of course I did. For about six months before I lost it’. He asked if there was anything on the ring and I told him we had matching engravings Edward and Jean.

“Billy said he had been walking around the cricket field and fell into conversation with a couple who were watching their son play for Burnopfield’s Lintz Club.

“They said they had found a wedding ring. She explained it was found in the in the treeline along the edge of the mud in between river and cricket field and it was inscribed in the side when they cleaned it up.

“Well, Billy was my groomsman. When he rang me up and told me I was flabbergasted. The chances of a ring being found with those names. It had to be mine."

AN alien made from scrap metal and standing at 7ft tall unwittingly became one of the most popular attractions in a County Durham town in July 2018.

Children and adults queued up to take selfies with the monster ever since its creator John MacMurray decided to move it from his shed to the front garden of his Shildon home.

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Inspired by his love for horror films, the great-grandfather fashioned the Alien-meets-Predator creature using his imagination, scraps of donated metal and his bare hands.

He may be a care home maintenance worker by day but thanks to his passion for welding he became somewhat of a local celebrity.

The grandfather-of-six was entirely self-taught and had always been interested in welding.

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