AFTER reading the story of the walkers on the sands at Lydney, I remembered when we moved to the Forest 50 years ago with our family of four small children, how on hot summer days, we would go out to the sandbanks and even swim in shallow pools.

We thought how lucky we were to live in this beautiful forest and to have the seaside on our doorstep.

We used to wonder why there were no locals out there. There was a harbour master in the little brick hut on the pier with a clock in his window and a tide timetable, so we knew if the tide had just gone out, it was safe to go for a paddle.

– E Tyrrell, Coleford.