A Golden Key to Unlock a Piece of History

On the day that Chris and I got married, each of my Kappa Kappa Gamma sisters in attendance lent me their much-treasured golden key fraternity badges to carry with me as I walked down the aisle (these were my ‘something borrowed’).

Unfortunately, unbeknownst to me, one of these precious little keys fell off my bouquet and was lost at some point in the afternoon following the ceremony. 😢

One of my Kappa bridesmaids noticed and, after a brief discussion with a few of the other bridesmaids and Chris, it was decided to organise a covert search party including various wedding party members – but to keep me and the sister who owned that badge out of the loop so that we wouldn’t spend the rest of the day worrying (in hindsight, probably the wisest course of action…). Unfortunately, despite the search party’s best efforts, the key was not found. 💔

The day after the wedding we had a final drinks reception to say goodbye to our guests, so it wasn’t until late on Monday morning that Chris finally shared the news that I had accidentally lost one of the badges.

To say I was devastated was an understatement – I felt horrible that I had let the sister in question down and to make matters worse, following some embellishments on Chris’s side to stall for more time to find it, she had left for the airport without her badge, still unaware it was missing.

I couldn’t bear to think that I’d never be able to return my sister’s badge to her – it felt like such a betrayal. There was no question – the badge had to be located as soon as possible.

But how were we going to find such a small item in a 6 acre garden without any firm idea of where it might have been lost? All we knew was that we hadn’t yet sat down for the reception dinner when the alarm was raised. As we pondered how on Earth we would find the badge, we had a light bulb moment – could a metal detector help find the key?

Chris immediately went on to the local Facebook group and asked if anyone with a metal detector would be interested in helping us, and within minutes, a lady called Monica, a hobby detectorist, offered to come out to have a look around. We arranged for her to come out in the early afternoon and I, certain that Monica and her magical metal detecting machine would solve my problem, spent the rest of the morning plating up wedding cake leftovers for our neighbours and friends with my mom.

Sadly, it was not to be. Monica did come, magical metal detecting machine in tow and all, but despite her best efforts, the little golden key was not found. My certainty that we would find the badge shattered and I swung back to desperation. We thanked Monica profusely, and, after promising her she could come out with her detector some other time as a thank you for trying to help us, waved her and the magical metal detecting machine goodbye.

By this time, my family had departed for the next part of their trip to Scotland and it was just the two of us left, along with a car load of wedding cake to deliver. I marshaled my feelings of frustration and we left to drop off the cake. However, by the time we made our last cake stop to our friends Gill and Charlie, I couldn’t hold them in anymore and the whole story spilled out.

Right away, Charlie and Gill, lovely dear friends that they are, offered to come help us search for the badge. We gratefully accepted their offer and, leaving them behind to pack up their kids and dogs to come over, we hurried back to the house.

When we got back to the house, I thought I might just try retracing my steps again on the off chance that I had better luck.

Chris and I headed back to the grove where, just two days earlier, we had said our vows. We started our retracing from there, and walked back down the ‘aisle’, out of the grove, past the dry stone dyke, past the kitchen garden, past the barn, and into the walled garden. No luck.

We continued a few steps further to where Chris and I had stood to greet our guests for the drinks reception following the ceremony. I tried to remember exactly where I had stood, and when I found my ‘spot’, I looked down, not really expecting anything – but …there it was, right on top of the grass: the little golden key!

We were ecstatic – we had FOUND it! After all our friends and family’s searching and Monica’s kind help with her metal detector, it was a last-ditch effort to retrace our steps once more that found it. It could have been trampled into the grass or kicked out of place by any of our guests, but it was right on top of the grass like it had been waiting for us. What were the odds?

Charlie and Gill, including kids and dogs, arrived a few minutes later and we opened something fizzy to celebrate our extremely lucky find. I also texted a photo of the badge to the sister in question to let her know it was safely tucked away with mine in my jewelry box (don’t worry – I did tell her the whole story a few months later when I figured she’d laugh rather than cry; thankfully, she saw the funny side!).

Now, why am I telling you all this (very long) story about the missing key?

Remember the kind lady who came out with her magical metal detecting machine to look for the key? Yep, Monica! I told you this whole story to introduce you to her so you would have some context for the next part of the post 😁

This year, one of my goals was to keep our promise to Monica that she could come out detecting another time – so, in early March, I reached out to Monica to ask if she’d like to come out once again (this time without a specific search objective – just for fun!). She agreed and we arranged for her to come out a few weeks back.

Following a few hours in the garden detecting, accompanied by her daughter’s boyfriend, Monica had a few interesting finds, namely a button featuring a wolf’s head and a pendant with a floral motif.

Monica took them home and tidied them up – here are the pictures she kindly shared with us following a gentle cleaning:

Monica and her detecting pals did some research to try to identify what these might be – here are some eBay/auction site pictures they found of similar items:

If we go by these comparisons, the first item might be a livery button (potentially Georgian) and the second might be a harness pendant.

It seems entirely plausible that either item might have been lost here once upon a time, and it wouldn’t be surprising to me to find Georgian buttons (or, indeed, other items!) on site given the age of the property. It’s hard to judge for certain whether the second item truly is a harness pendant or not and I have no idea whether it’s as old as the item in the auction (the oldest parts of the house date from the 1400s, so you never know!) – but it’s a cool thought nonetheless.

So, there you have it – the story of a lost badge luckily found, and how that led to the discovery of these other fascinating items that may be a small part of the house’s past – of which we can only form shadowy impressions thanks to such shards of history left behind by those who came before us.

As a closing thought, as I write about these two newly found items, it occurs to me how easily my sister’s little golden key badge could have joined the collection of things lost to time in this place – and how someone in the future could have uncovered it and catalogued it just as Monica and I are doing for these items now. Wild.

And with that thought, I will leave you until next time!

💙🗝🦉