Husband loses 26-year-old wedding ring in council recycling skip...but there's a happy ending!

But the 65-year-old was reunited with his precious ring thanks to Cumbria Waste Group skip driver Josh Waite.

The ring, which Mr Taylor has worn since marrying wife Janet in 1969, slipped from his finger as he put plastic into a recycling skip in Berners Close car park, Grange over Sands.

But it was not until he was at home later in the evening that he realised the ring was missing.

MORE TOP STORIES:

Mr Taylor said: “My first thought was that it had fallen off while I was washing up so I looked in the sink and down the plughole but didn’t see anything.

“I then looked down the back of the sofa but when it wasn’t there either, I knew that it must have fallen off when I was doing my recycling.”

Mr Taylor, who lives in Kents Bank, contacted Cumbria Waste Group, which is responsible for collecting, emptying and recycling the contents of the skips.

He was then put in touch with Mr Waite, who was due to pick up the skip.

Mr Taylor added: “Unfortunately this happened when the skip was fuller than usual but Josh said he would take it back to the depot and sort through the contents.

"I thought it would be a painstaking search and like looking for a needle in a haystack so when he called me to say he had found it I couldn’t believe it.

“The ring means everything to me and I am so grateful to Josh and Cumbria Waste Group.”

Mr Waite said: “I’ve looked for car keys that people have mistakenly thrown away in the past but this was my first time looking for something as small as a wedding ring.

“Luckily, Mr Taylor was able to tell me whereabouts in the skip he was doing the recycling, so before I started searching I had a good idea of where I was likely to find it.

“It was then a case of unloading the recycling onto the floor and looking through it piece by piece.

“I was around a third of the way through when I noticed the ring.

“I was delighted because I knew how much it meant to Mr Taylor.”