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