A NEWLYWED wife has told of her relief after two metal detector enthusiasts struck gold to find her husband's missing wedding ring.

Farmers Dave and Katie Gibson, from Burneside, have only been married for four months and were devastated when he lost his ring while clearing out a field they had just rented.

But two members of the Kendal and District Metal Detecting Club came to the rescue and found the ring after a five hour search in the 3.8 acre plot of land at Cunswick Hall, near Plumgarths.

"We have told so many people and everyone is amazed," said mum-of-two Katie, 28. "There would have been no other way of finding it. It's a miracle.

"Dave definitely felt worse than me. I said we will have to ring the insurance company and get a new one but he said it is not the same because that's the ring we got married with.

"When it was found I was absolutely over-the-moon. I can't describe how good it was. I honestly thought there was no chance."

The cherished ring was lost as the couple, who have 180 cows and 1,000 sheep across all of their land, set about making their new field ready for grazing.

"The field was quite bad so we sprayed off all the grass with grass killer, cleared up the logs from around the edges and made a massive bonfire," said Katie.

"We sat up in the field and had a takeaway on the grass and lit the bonfire. After food we carried on chucking branches on and about an hour later Dave said: 'Oh my god, you are not going to be happy. I've lost my wedding ring.'

"It must have come off when he was chucking everything onto the fire. We looked for about an hour and couldn't find it."

So Katie turned to Facebook for help and her dad put in touch with family friend George Robinson, who has been a member of the club for 15 years.

George and fellow club member Mark Radcliffe, of Holme, made the trip to the field to scour the area where the ring was suspected to have been lost - close to the bonfire's remains.

George, from Burton-in-Kendal, said it was found under a foot of ash and had survived the fire, if a little blackened, while Mark, who found the ring, said it was his greatest find since joining the club last year.