Rubbish collectors thought it was a joke when they were told a Mrs Goldring had lost her jewellery among her household refuse.

And when Janet Goldring turned up at the landfill site preparing to wade through a 10ft heap of bin bags, they certainly didn't expect her to find her lost gems.

But Mrs Goldring, 56, clad in a fluorescent coat, helmet and heavy boots, managed to locate the small jewellery box containing her treasured diamond bracelet and sapphire pendant, which her husband had accidentally thrown out.

The jewellery - antique family heirlooms handed down by her late grandmother - was among holiday luggage at her home in Mannings Heath, near Horsham.

The day after returning from a break in France, she went to unpack and realised a plastic bag containing the box had disappeared.

After searching her entire house, a call to husband Richard, who works in London, revealed the worst. Mistaking the bag for rubbish, he had put it outside for collection early that morning.

Mrs Goldring said: "I just didn't know what to do but I rang the council, totally distressed, and asked for their help.

"I thought it would be a waste of time calling but the jewellery is very important to me sentimentally and I really thought I had lost it for good."

Customer care staff at Horsham District Council raised the alarm and the operators of the Small Dole waste tip, Viridor Waste Management, managed to stop the truck.

The contents were then dumped and Mrs Goldring was allowed to search the rubbish.

Mrs Goldring said: "We eventually spotted a bag we recognised so we knew the bag with the jewellery couldn't be far away. It wasn't too bad because I was wearing all this protective gear.

"But I wouldn't have wanted to go there the next day."

She added: "I didn't think it was going to work at all, finding a tiny box in all that rubbish. The man there said they had had people looking before but no one had ever found anything. Richard was relieved.

"In typical male fashion he said it meant he would never have to put out the rubbish again."

Mr Goldring, an engineer at Lloyd's of London, said: "I really didn't expect them to find it. It was a close shave."