FOR Catherine and Alistair Andrew, the appearance of a mysterious black cat as photographs were taken following their wedding last year, was an unexpected good luck charm.

However, what the bride and groom failed to realise was that this was no ordinary black cat.

Sid, as he was known, appeared just a couple of days after 17th Century Pinchinthorpe Hall, opened as a hotel ten years ago.

From then on, the cat adopted the former manor house as his own and regularly turned up unannounced whenever there was a wedding - crossing the happy couple's path right on cue.

Unfortunately, Sid, who became a good omen for so many newlyweds, ran out of luck himself recently when he was knocked down on the busy A173, which skirts the hotel grounds.

Mrs Andrew, 26, from Chester-le-Street, responded to an appeal by The Northern Echo for wedding photos showing the much-missed cat.

After delving through her collection, she found two pictures with Sid on them, taken at her wedding reception at the hotel last August.

She said: "I remember this cat suddenly appearing in front of us. No one had warned us about him, so we had no idea who he was.

"But he was such a nice cat, it seemed right that he should be in the wedding pictures. In any case, we didn't really have a choice because it didn't look like he was going to budge."

Sid is believed to have appeared at about 40 weddings over the years at the hotel, near Guisborough, east Cleveland.

Staff, who adopted Sid as the hotel mascot, cut a small hole in a shed so he could snuggle up inside in the dry during bad weather.

The cat became so popular that wedding couples even started insisting that he should appear in their official photographs.