Wedding ring found after 8m-gallon lake is drained
WHEN Matt Walker’s engraved wedding ring sank to the bottom of a murky lake, he thought he had lost it for ever.
The father of two was swimming with his children when the white gold band slipped off his finger. He desperately tried to retrieve the ring but soon realised it was lost in the eight million-gallon seaside lake.
As a last resort, he contacted the committee managing the lake in Clevedon, Somerset, and was told it would soon be drained for maintenance.
He then recruited a team of metal detectorists to scour the dry lake bed two months later. After two hours of painstaking searching, the £250 ring was eventually found buried a foot deep in mud.
The 47-year-old lost the ring just a few days before his 13th wedding anniversary with Rachel, 46, who works in HR.
Mr Walker, who works for children’s charity Achievement For All, said: ‘I was swimming with the kids at Clevedon Marine Lake and I got over to a raft in the middle. When I climbed up, I realised it was missing. I was gutted. It is just a ring but it was a few days before our anniversary.
‘So I had a quick look for it but the lake is massive. There was no chance I’d find it.’
Mr Walker got in touch with the Somerset Artefact Seekers metal detecting club. Five enthusiasts volunteered their time to trudge through the thick, wet mud last week in search of the tiny ring. At first, they only unearthed bits of metallic junk. But two hours in it was found.
Mr Walker, who is father to Thomas, 11, and Rosie, ten, said: ‘It was buried about a foot deep in really deep clay-like mud. I was surprised – I had started to give up hope.’
Morley Howard, of Somerset Artefact Seekers, said they started by retracing Mr Walker’s steps.
He added: ‘It took a good couple of hours. We were quite surprised to find it. It was like looking for a needle in a haystack.’
Mr Howard, whose 14-year-old son has cystic fibrosis, said he did not ask Mr Walker for payment but asked him instead to donate to the Cystic Fibrosis Trust.