At a Glance
- Chef Richard’s inscribed wedding ring slipped off wife Natalie’s thumb into Lake Windermere five years ago
- A trio of freedivers used a five-second video and metal detectors to pinpoint the band under rocks and silt
- The couple reunited with the jewelry on camera, calling the moment “unbelievable” and “a massive surprise”
- Why it matters: The recovery shows how specialized volunteers can restore lost sentimental treasures thought gone forever
A five-year lake-bottom search ended in tears of relief when freedivers returned a chef’s wedding ring that his wife had accidentally dropped off a jetty at Wray Castle on Lake Windermere.
Richard, a chef who has vacationed at the lake since childhood, brought wife Natalie and their children to the same spot for a family day out half a decade ago. Before diving in with the girls, he handed over his ring so it would not slip off in the water. “Nat said to me, ‘Give me your ring. Pass me the ring to you so you don’t lose it,'” he recalled during the Lost and Found in the Lakes episode.
Natalie slid the band onto her thumb, but, “when I opened my hand, it just slid off straight in the water.” The couple watched the ring drift down, powerless to stop it. Inside the band were the words “My partner, my lover, my best friend,” making the loss feel even deeper. “I’ve lost something that means the world to us and it’s hard, isn’t it?” Natalie said.
Richard spent roughly three hours diving that afternoon, yet ferry traffic stirred clouds of silt, burying the ring further. “It’s a needle in the haystack, really, of finding it,” he admitted.
Enter freedivers Angus, Renée and Mike. Armed only with the five-second clip filmed moments before the drop, the team mapped the jetty zone and began a systematic search. They first removed modern litter-straws, spoons, discarded cups-then used a rapid fin-kick technique to lift the top layer of rocks so metal detectors could sweep exposed patches.
Obstacles piled up. Passenger ferries passed overhead every few minutes, swirling fresh sediment back onto the search grid. Still, the divers persisted, clearing trash and returning other recovered items to guests who had reported them missing.
Natalie carried guilt the entire time. “He entrusted me with the ring, and then I go and drop it,” she said. “If I were to get that ring back, it would mean the world. I think it would be a bit emotional.”
After hours of rock lifting and detector sweeps, Renée’s machine pinged. Buried beneath a thin layer of gravel lay the band, dulled but intact. The team surfaced, and cameras captured Richard sliding the ring back onto his finger.
“It still fits after five years, so that’s a good thing,” he said, as Natalie wiped away tears. “That is literally unbelievable. I’ve probably not been that shocked before. It’s a bit worse for wear, but I think that tells the story… Fingers crossed now, it stays with us.”
The recovery closes a chapter that began on a sunny family afternoon and ended with a small circle of gold traveling from hand to lakebed and, finally, home again.
