LONDON (TIP): A 150-year-old hand-made antique wedding gown has been retrieved following a social media plea by a distressed bride in Scotland, months after it was lost.

The dress was a family heirloom from the 1870s, which had belonged to the great-great grandmother of Tess Newall from the town of Morham in the East Lothian region of Scotland. It went missing when Kleen Cleaners in Edinburgh closed down permanently as a result of bankruptcy last year. The 29-year-old wore the antique lace gown when she married husband Alfred Newall, 30, in June 2016 and gave it in for dry-cleaning later that year.

A recent Facebook post about the loss of her dress was shared more than 200,000 times across social media. She posted an update this week saying the dress was found “in a crumpled heap” at the closed shop. “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,” she told BBC.

“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,” Newall added.

She said she still planned to have the dress cleaned, but probably at a lace specialist in London. She added: “Somewhere where we can’t let it out of our sight”.