Dairy farmer’s Rolex, that was eaten by a cow, found 50 years on

It’s journeyed through a cow’s four stomachs and languished in a field for four decades. So perhaps it’s not terribly surprising that former dairy farmer James Steele’s Rolex watch doesn’t keep time any more.

What’s more, the face has assumed a rather unhealthy colour.

Nevertheless, Mr Steele, now 95, is delighted that it has at last been found and returned to him.

He lost the watch when the strap broke in the 1970s. Searches drew a blank and a vet told him a cow probably ate it with a mouthful of grass – so he gave up his search and replaced it.

But now metal detectorist Liam King has given the watch back to the owner of Treflach Hall in Morda, Shropshire.

“I never thought I would see the watch again,” said Mr Steele. “But I have got it now.

“I only have half the bracelet – the other half must have disintegrated. The face has gone a funny colour but it has not rusted up.”

He praised the detectorist who found the watch, saying he could have “quite easily not owned up” to the discovery.

It will remain just a keepsake because it would “cost a bomb” to repair, he added.

His family have farmed the land at Treflach Hall, with his son Andrew taking over the reins, for decades.

Assuming the Rolex was lost inside a cow and never to be seen again, Mr Steele immediately bought another to replace it.

The Rolex became a family story for Andrew and his siblings but nobody expected to see it again.

Mr Steele said he scoured the field over and over again after he lost the watch “one frosty morning when we were getting the cows in for the vet”.

He added: “We’ve been ploughing the fields every three years but now it’s just grass.”

Cows have four stomachs to break down the coarse food they eat.