Tess Newall on her wedding day wearing her great grandmother's 150 year old dress. Photo / Seth Baines
Tess Newall on her wedding day wearing her great grandmother's 150 year old dress. Photo / Seth Baines
A bride has been reunited with her beloved wedding dress, made by her great-great-grandmother, after it was found in a crumpled heap in the dry cleaners where she had taken it.
Set designer Tess Newall, 29, from Haddington, East Lothian, wore the antique gown at her wedding in a Scottish village church to Alfred Newall, in June last year, the Daily Mail reported.
She believed it had been lost or sold when she discovered the dry cleaners had closed after she dropped it off, but the heirloom was found in a 'crumpled heap'.
Posting on Facebook, she shared a letter confirming the find, and said: "We received this letter this morning from the administrators, Wylie & Bisset, confirming that our dress was NOT in Kleen Cleaners.
"However, we also received a phone call from the very kind landlord of the shop property who had read about it. He checked what was really left by Wylie & Bisset and found an antique lace dress in a crumpled heap on the floor.
"My Mum & Dad have just been let in to the shop and to their amazement and joy it is our dress! (not cleaned but still with our ticket)BUT a representative of Wylie & Bisset insisted that for 'procedural reasons' he must take it back to his office in Glasgow.
"They have assured us that it will be delivered safely back to us on Monday.
"My family can't thank you all enough for creating this frenzy which allowed us into the shop before it was cleared, and are over the moon to be *almost* reunited with Dora's dress.'
She said that losing the heirloom had been 'awful and distressing' and added: 'hate the thought that something which has spent so many generations in my family has gone missing after I wore it.'
She told the BBC News channel: 'My parents received a phone call this afternoon from the landlord of the property where the dry cleaners is, whose nephew had read about the dress.
'He really searched and he found a pile of old lace which he realised was what he thought was the dress.
'My parents went straight there and were just overjoyed and couldn't believe it was the dress, not cleaned, and still with its ticket.'
The antique gown was made and first worn by Dora Torin, who married her hat-maker husband Ernest in Edinburgh, and was rediscovered by Tess in pristine condition in her 88-year-old grandmother's attic.
The dress is priceless to the family and they launched an appeal on Facebook for the return of the family heirloom, which went viral in minutes on Friday.
It was shared more than 15,000 times in a matter of hours with people around the world promising to spread the word - after Tess said that 'more family memories need to be woven into its threads'.
A letter from Accountants Wylie + Bisset, liquidators for a dry-cleaning company that lost Tess Newall's 150 year old wedding dress. Photo / Facebook
Ironically the family had chosen to take the dress to Kleen Cleaners because they believed it would be in safe hands.
However Tess's father Patrick Gammell, the Vice Lord-Lieutenant of East Lothian, discovered to his horror that Kleen Cleaners in Edinburgh, the oldest in the Scottish capital and holders of a Royal warrant, had gone into administration when he went to collect Tess's dress.
Handing over the ticket, he was told there was no item in the shop that matched the number and the family now fears it has been sold off. When contacted on Friday, the Insolvency Department told MailOnline they were unable to comment on garments left at the premises.
Tess married in a church in Morham, East Lothian, Scotland's smallest parish, in June 2016 and the couple held their reception in the walled garden of her parents' home, a former manse.
Tess said: 'The dress was one of the most special things about the day, it made it complete and I was overjoyed to have been able to wear such a beautiful family heirloom.
'I didn't even know of its existence until my grandmother brought it up when I told her in August 2015 that Alfred and I had got engaged.
'She said that her mother's wedding dress was up in her attic in a box and she thought that I might like it as I love antique things.
'I went up to the attic and found it in the box all wrapped up in tissue paper and when I held it up I couldn't believe it, it was just so beautiful and it didn't need all that much alteration.
'I had the top altered a little. I found some new ribs and antique lace in a shop on [London's] Portobello Road and the alterations were exactly as I wanted them.
'After the wedding the dress had to be cleaned and we were very concerned about who might be the best people to do it.
'My dad was aware of the reputation of Kleen Cleaners and the fact they had a Royal warrant. They seemed a safe choice to take the dress to.'
She recalled: 'But when we went back to pick it up we found that the shop was closed and there was a notice saying administrators had been called in to sequester the company.
'There was no sign of the dress, nothing to match the ticket we had and we're worried that it has been sold off. I don't want any kind of witch hunt against the company, the only thing that matters to me is getting my dress back.
'I put an appeal on Facebook and I was amazed at how quickly it was being shared and how many people were prepared to help me.
'It's so unique that I'm hoping someone will see the pictures and if they see it for sale anywhere will get in touch.
'I hate the thought that something which has spent so many generations in my family has gone missing after I wore it, it's been awful and very distressing.'
The dress was kept in the loft of Joanna Torin, 88, and didn't see the light of day for decades before Tess got it out.
Her mother Sally Gammell has also been devastated by the loss of the dress and has joined her daughter's appeal.
