Walkers fight the tide for fort walk

Annabel - I stand corrected! Apologies to you and thanks to Mr Walker! Good luck to the walkers today!

Many weaver fish were caught from ryde pier in the early 70's As a kid I caught a fair few myself So i am fairly sure they would have been just as common around st helens. And yes they were definitely weaver not blennies 'cos i got stung more than once showing off with them.

Annabel, its doubtful that it was a weeverfish sting as in those days they were mainly found in the South West of England, having only fairly recently (perhaps co-inciding with global warming) migrated further east and north. It is faintly possible that it was a jellyfish or more faintly still a stingray, but most likely some broken glass or a sharp shell or stone. That said, I can't find fault with your advice regarding footwear, or indeed hot water treatment for a weeverfish sting - spot on.

My grandfather told me that in the early days, it was traditional for the lighthouse keeper to offer a cup of tea and a biscuit to each walker. However, in the walk's heyday in the fifties, when numbers regularly numbered 6000 a year, Trinity House had to charter a coaster full of tea bags and digestives in the days preceding the low tides, to cover the overwhelming demand. Mind you, my grandad had never even been to the Isle of Wight so I don't know how he knew.

May I offer a word of advice for tomorrow's walk? Wear something on your feet, such as flip-flops or jelly shoes. I did the walk in 1976 and was unfortunate enough to be stung on my right foot by a weeverfish. Even worse, I urinated on the sting (which at the time was the acknowledged wisdom) but it seemed to aggravate it, and considering that today's advice is to immerse the affected area in very hot water, I now realise that there was no need whatsoever to have publicly demeaned myself in that way. I haven't done the walk since.

Nostradamus now a cub reporter on the IWCP? Tomorrow's news today, Mr Bond?

This is why these forts were vulnerable, on one day of every year the French could march out and attack them.
Carisbrooke Castle was the worst one with a major design flaw, it was found that the enemy could easily get in through the gift shop.

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