PETE Doré has rarely taken off his wedding ring in more than half a century of marriage.

But now it has gone missing after falling off his finger while he was manning a stall at Old Town Festival.

The retired gents outfitter, who cut a dapper figure behind the counter in his shop, Jensons of Gorse Hill, for nearly 40 years, only discovered the much-loved signet ring had disappeared when he went to fiddle with it. Now he is hoping someone may have spotted the square-shaped ring , engraved with the initials PLD.

“I’ve gone through the pawn shops and I’ve talked to the police,” he said.

He and wife Brenda will have been married for 51 years this October. He told her about the loss and luckily she took it well. But he said: “I think she is very upset inside.”

She put the ring on his finger at the Methodist Church in Swindon when she was 21 and he was 23. Shortly afterwards the young couple moved to the home in Wroughton where they brought up their family and have lived happily ever since.

Pete, 76, got involved with the Wilts and Berks Canal Trust’s after shutting up his shop for the last time and was helping with the group’s stall during the festival at The Lawns on Sunday when he realised it was missing.

“Sometimes I fiddle with my ring, I turn it round. I put my finger where the ring should have been and it wasn’t there,” he said. “I don’t think it’s worth much, but it has very, very sentimental value.”

A search of the area revealed nothing and Pete can only hope someone has picked it up and handed it in somewhere. “I had it before I went to the show and I was on the stand between 2pm and 4pm, but by 2.30pm it had gone.”

He explained his fingers were getting thinner and because of that he had had the ring altered recently. “I feel naked without it,” he said. “I leave it on even when I’m in the shower.”

Anyone who believes they can reunite Pete with his ring can hand it in to the Advertiser office at Richmond House, Edison Way, SN3 3RB or call the newsdesk on (01793) 501817.