Stormy weather has washed all sorts of things from the sea on to Welsh shores in recent weeks.
But unlike many of the other discoveries, the object that washed on to Ferryside beach in Carmarthenshire this week was not made in the ocean or a type of marine species but instead a huge century-old, Victorian gas meter.
47-year-old Keiran Byrne from Ferryside made the discovery on Monday, February 17 when he walking down the beach with his children.
The weird and wonderful things that have washed up on Welsh beaches:
"We saw it bobbing along in the water in the sea and then eventually after a while it washed ashore and we went to have a closer inspection," said Mr Byrne.
"We didn't know what it was at first, it just looked like a huge box but I was really impressed by its condition and the fact that it hadn't rusted away. It looked like it was made of copper," added Keiran, who works as an engineer.
But the Ferryside dad said that when he went down to the beach again the next day, the object had gone: "Lots of things end up in the sea I suppose and I suspect when we went back down there the next day the waters took it again so it's probably still bobbing up and down somewhere, it was really heavy though so the storm must have been strong," he adds.
Upon closer inspection the object states that it was made by manufacturers W. and B. Cowan, a gas meter making company that was founded in 1825 and operated in Manchester, London and Edinburgh.
A spokesperson for the Association for Industrial Archaeology confirmed that the object was made by manufacturers W. and B. Cowan who operated during the 19th and 20th century and that many of the objects still reside in museums throughout the country.
"It is a large meter, the sort that would have been used somewhere like a factory or large country house. It was likely that it was taken out of use at least 45 years ago but it doesn't look as though it's been in the sea that long."
But how the Victorian piece came to land on the Carmarthenshire beach remains a mystery and now as it is thought to have been swallowed back to the sea, it is one mystery that may remain unsolved.
