A COUPLE who bought a grotty old chair for £5 (US$6.55) found diamond jewelry worth £5,000 hidden inside it.

    Angela Milner-Brown, 50, and husband Angus, 47, bought the bargain at auction 10 years ago and kept it in their attic as they could not afford to have it upholstered.

    It was only when they finally took it down to have it restored that they discovered the gems hidden inside.

    Angela, a scientific proofreader, said, “We bought the chair at an auction for £5 but that was years ago now. It looked like a dog had slept in it and was in fairly bad condition.

    “We couldn’t afford to have it reupholstered at the time so my husband put it in the attic and it ended up staying in there for around six years.

    “Eventually we were able to get the chair reupholstered and it looked really nice, I never expected anything else to come out of it.

    “But a few years back my husband surprised me with a diamond ring for our wedding anniversary. He’d found it hidden down inside the chair.

    “The following Valentine’s Day, he gave me a pair of diamond earrings and then a diamond broach at Easter.

    “They must have been hidden inside the chair by previous owners. We just couldn’t believe it.”

    Angus discovered the diamond jewelry as prepared to have the chair renovated — but kept the find secret from Angela in the name of romance.

    She added, “My husband was taking off the cushioning material of the chair to have it reupholstered.

    “There were about three or four layers that he had to rip off, and that was when he found the jewelry hidden under the final layer of material.

    “My husband is very romantic so he decided to keep the items secret and surprise me with them over the next few celebratory occasions for us. It was a really lovely thing to do.”

    The story emerged as the Antiques Roadshow rolled into New Lanark Thursday as the couple from nearby Biggar took the chair and jewelry along for valuation.(SD-Agencies)