AROUND the coast of Britain charity walker Tim Jones has thanked the people of Watchet for the hospitality they showed him and his dog Monty when he made a stopover in the town.

Mr Jones, aged 33, from Exmouth, is walking clockwise around the entire British coast to raise £500,000 for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI).

He started in January and expects to take four to six years to complete the estimated 8,000-mile journey and has been averaging 60 miles a week.

After an overnight stop in Minehead, Mr Jones and Monty were met in Watchet by the town’s deputy mayor Cllr Loretta Whetlor, town crier David Milton, and a number of local residents.

He spent three nights in Watchet, staying in the West Somerset Hotel courtesy of the owners Lee Stirrup and Sarah Carter.

Mr Jones said: “We were greeted by them and treated like family from the start.

“We were invited for dinner at The Star on the Thursday night, The Bell on Friday night, and London Inn on Saturday night.

“I would like to say a massive thank you to each establishment for the huge amount of support, and a special thank you to Lee and Sarah for welcoming us to Watchet and putting us up.

“Watchet is certainly a place I will be venturing back to at some point.”

Mr Jones’s journey is being documented on his Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/groups/691090702501293/?ref=share and his online fund-raising page can be found at https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/timsrnli.

His personal online ‘survival fund’ for anybody who wants to help him continue the trek can be found athttps://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/MontyTim.