A metal detectorist who has made a habit of reuniting people with sentimental jewellery believed lost to the sea says he doesn’t do it for the money and “enjoys the challenge”.

Brendan Sansom, from Saltwood near Hythe, spends his weekends scouring the sands searching for precious items people have reported missing on social media.

His most recent triumph found him reuniting a man with a ring given to him by his grandmother that he had lost while paddleboarding in Dymchurch nine months before.

The signet ring was made from his grandmother’s melted down jewellery and given to him on his 18th birthday.

Despite the family believing it to be “lost to the sea”, Mr Sansom was able to recover the ring after a staggering nine months adrift.

The sentimental object was finally returned to its owner by his dad as a surprise on Father’s Day.

Mr Sansom said: “I belong to a bunch of Facebook groups for the local area so I keep an eye out for people posting about things that have been lost.

“Then I make contact with them and tell them I’ll let them know if I ever find it.

“With the most recent ring, I spoke to them back in September last year and then the other week I got to tell them I’d found it.

“They were so grateful. Most people are – because once they’ve lost something on the beach they assume it’s basically gone forever.”

Mr Sansom found the treasured item by first asking the owner to try and pinpoint its exact last location and then followed that up with sheer determination.

He said: “You walk over the same spot millions and millions of times, most days you won’t find it but some days you will.

“The sands on the beach change daily, going up and down.

“So it could potentially be too deep to find for several months and then one day you go and it’s there.

“To be honest the historical stuff is more of interest to me, especially if the object is from a part of history that is not very well discovered.

“That is what I enjoy most but I also enjoy finding things that have been lost that people want back, and that is certainly more of a challenge.

“It is a good feeling, a very good feeling to be able to reunite people with what they have lost.”

The 48-year-old first took up the hobby as a child but gave it up as a teenager when he moved onto other interests.

Then during lockdown Mr Sansom found himself, like many others, taking daily walks along his local beach.

Deciding to take advantage of his time spent wandering the sands, he bought himself a metal detector and quickly started finding treasures.

Since then he has discovered artefacts dating back to the Vikings, the Saxons and the Medieval period and reunited at least eight pieces of jewellery with their grateful owners.

His hobby has brought home two separate couples’ wedding rings, a signet ring a man had been wearing for 45 years and a bracelet with a sentimental connection to the owner’s relative who had passed on.

Despite being offered rewards by those he has reunited with treasures he has always refused them, happy to accept just thanks and a round of drinks.

Mr Sansom added: “People think you are finding things all the time and even making a living out of it.

“This is certainly not the case because you dig a thousand items of rubbish to any one really decent find.

“All the rewards I’ve been offered for finding lost jewellery I’ve just told people to donate to charity but many of them have bought me a drink as well. For me personally it's certainly never been about the money.”