Island Life Magazine Ltd August/September 2007 | Page 37

INTERVIEW life Mark Tucky outside Newport Church he was. In fact the ghost walks became so popular that, after the first year, Eddie asked Mark for some rent because he insisted that he could rent out the stable bar, but Mark wasn’t happy about this. “At the time the pub was not doing any business, and Eddie simply wanted to jump on the back of our success.” “I thought blow this for a laugh so asked the Wheatsheaf if I could start the ghost walks from there and the landlord was more than happy to oblige. And this is where we start them to this day. It’s better really because we have the square outside the pub.” During the following years the business continued to grow even though Mark was still in full time employment at West Island Printers. Out the blue one day, a friend of Mark’s, Paul Smith who had recently sold a large commercial property for development and, happily, was sitting on a rather large amount of money. “Paul said to me over a curry and beer that he liked my ghost walk business and he could see an opportunity for expansion. His idea was to open an all-weather 19th Century Victorian Visitor Centre which would also incorporate the g