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Lost wedding dress from 1870 found in dry cleaners after Facebook appeal

Tess Newall thought dress, made by her great great grandmother, had been sold

Saturday 11 February 2017 23:10 GMT
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Tess Newall in the dress
Tess Newall in the dress (Facebook)

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A 150-year-old wedding dress that was lost after a dry cleaners went into administration has been found.

Tess Newall thought the dress, which was made by her great great grandmother in 1870, had been sold after Edinburgh dry cleaners Kleen Cleaners went bankrupt.

She took to social media to make an appeal for the antique, which was shared more than 300 thousand times.

"I have just found out that the dry cleaners have lost my much loved wedding dress,” Ms Newall said.

"It was made by my great great granny in 1870 (I altered the top) and I wore it in June 2016.

"It seems that the dress was taken to be sold so it could be winging its way anywhere. Please share this far and wide in case anyone stumbles across it."

The administrators of the dry cleaners, Wylie & Bisset, contacted Ms Newall to say the dress had been found by the shop landlord in a crumpled heap on the floor.

Tess Newall
Tess Newall

Ms Newall wrote on social media to declare the good news: "We received this letter this morning from the administrators, Wylie & Bisset, confirming that our dress was not in Kleen Cleaners.

"However, we also received a phone call from the very kind landlord of the shop property who had read about it.

"He checked what was really left by Wylie & Bisset and found an antique lace dress in a crumpled heap on the floor."

"My Mum & Dad have just been let into the shop and to their amazement and joy it is our dress! (not cleaned but still with our ticket)," she added.

The dress will be reunited with Ms Newall at the start of next week.

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