The perfect engagement ring revealed, as voted for by Essex women

The perfect engagement ring has been revealed, as voted for by women in Essex.

There are so many different rings to choose from out there, so to offer some assistance to potentially bewildered blokes, heritage jewellers, William May, conducted a survey of 2,000 British women to find out what they would like.

Women in Essex described their perfect engagement ring as having a platinum band (31.1%), with a round cut (37.8%) half-carat diamond (27.7%) in a solitaire setting (36.9%).

To help inspire those currently in the market for an engagement ring, but with no idea where to start, William May had the UK's 'perfect' engagement ring designed using the latest Computer Aided Design (CAD) techniques and then rendered to photo-realistic quality.

Almost two thirds of women believe that men should not be allowed free rein when choosing the design. But don't get down on one knee without the ring either - more than a third (38%) of Brits say that when proposing, it is necessary to have the ring in hand.

If you've already popped the question however, has your partner really confessed what they thought about your choice of ring? 54% of women admit that if they didn't like the ring their partner chose, they would keep quiet and pretend they liked it! On top of this, almost a quarter (23%) of women admit they've lied to their friends about liking their ring when in fact, they didn't! The survey also found that engagement rings aren't exclusively to be worn by women - 52% of Brits believe that men should also wear engagement rings.