A WOMAN from Canada is trying to return a lost heirloom.

The item belonged to Ted Robinson, a member of Hexham’s football team in the early 1900s.

Ted was born in 1905 to a family of miners. In 1926, he left to move to Australia during the miners' strike and later moved to Canada where the item was found.

The antique item is called a Vesta case and was a small box that contained wax or matches. It is engraved with Hexham and District Junior League Season 1921-1922.

Heather, from Port Alberni, on the West Coast of Canada, is a volunteer costume designer and wardrobe manager for her local theatre, Portal Players at the Capitol. She discovered the item when Ted's daughter was helping her mum clean out her house.

Heather said: “She gave us a few Jane Austen dresses, some men’s jewellery including a watch, and this one item I had not seen before.

“I received the item in July, but with Covid, I did nothing with it until September, when I brought it home, cleaned it up and that’s when I found the engraving.”

Since then, Heather has been trying to return the antique to Hexham as a reminder of the early days of the Hexham Football club.

Heather asked her friend Stephen Turner to post the message in the local community group Hexham matters which got a lot of reaction by residents intrigued by the item.

Heather said: “If no organisation claims this for their archives. I will keep it here, and become its caretaker.”

Heather herself has connections to the UK. Her maternal grandfather, Thompson Harper, was born in the North of England. Heather said “It is indeed a small world.”