A village postman who lost his wedding ring days after his first anniversary is celebrating a “miracle” after it was found on a customer’s gravel driveway.

Adrian Moor, who delivers mail around Horton Kirby and South Darenth, had given up hope of ever finding his treasured jewellery after noticing it missing while out on his rounds.

Trudging more than 11 miles through leafy, gravelly and muddy rural roads, around The Street, School Lane and Saxon Place, the 42-year-old thought it was definitely gone for good.

Adrian, who lives in Bexleyheath, had only just returned from a luxury holiday in Grenada to celebrate his one-year wedding anniversary on November 14.

Heading back to work the following day, he only noticed his ring was missing when he got back home.

Panicking, he headed straight back out and spent two hours retracing the 30,000 steps he does on his regular route and digging through leaves and mud.

“It was like looking for a needle in a haystack,” he said.

“I was panicking. I really didn’t think I would ever find it. There are leaves everywhere and gravel. It could have been anywhere.”

After returning home empty-handed and having spoken to a number of villagers during his search, Adrian put out a plea on social media asking residents to keep their eyes peeled for his lost band.

He even rang pawn brokers to see if they had been handed in a ring.

“They said they wouldn’t take it without a receipt though, so I knew they didn’t have it,” Adrian added.

Returning to his regular route on Monday, the letter carrier spent his shift with his eyes firmly on the floor hoping he might catch a glimpse of something shiny.

On Tuesday, he got a text message which answered his prayers.

“A lady I had given my number to whilst I was out searching on Saturday messaged to say she thought her neighbour had my ring. I rang her straight away,” he added.

“She said it was engraved with the wedding date inside, which mine was, but I still didn’t want to get my hopes up.”

As soon as he’d finished his round Adrian drove straight to the house and was delighted to be reunited with the platinum band.

“I was so surprised. It was a miracle that she found it,” he said.

Shena Franklin, who lives on The Street, was the eagle-eyed customer who spotted the jewellery resting on the gravel next to her skip.

‘It was so lucky it wasn’t buried under the gravel’

“We are having lots of work done on the house,” she explained. “We have a skip on the drive and I spotted something shiny on the drive next to it.

“It was so lucky it wasn’t buried under the gravel.”

Realising it was a wedding band, Shena, 58, asked her builders if it belonged to them.

“I told them where I had found it and got all the typical jokes about it being chucked away with the rubbish,” she added

Keen to keep the ring safe while her house was in chaos, Shena put in on her finger and decided to use the power of social media to try to find the owner.

“I hadn’t seen the postman’s previous post,” she said. “But as soon as I put up my message up I got lots of responses telling me about the previous post.”

The lady who had taken Adrian’s number messaged him about Shena’s post and he rushed straight down to collect his ring.

Adrian later presented Shena with a box of biscuits and a bottle of Prosecco and said it was thanks to the power of the community that he was able to get it back.

“It’s a small village and a really close community and they worked together to get it back to me,” the postie added.

“My wife had tried to hide her disappointment, but she was very pleased when I arrived home with it back on my finger.”