TWO dog walkers who became trapped at the foot of crumbling cliffs by the rising Bristol Channel tide were rescued by Minehead’s RNLI Lifeboat crew on Sunday (May 25).

The couple, a man and wife from Hampshire, called the coastguards on a mobile phone when they became cut off during an afternoon stroll.

The pair were staying in Blue Anchor and had decided to take their two dogs for a walk towards Watchet.

But as they turned for home, they found the tide had risen and there was no way around a large landslide.

Minehead’s volunteer RNLI crew had the station’s D class lifeboat and located the couple within minutes, landing them and their dogs safely back at Blue Anchor.

Helmsman Phil Sanderson said the unstable condition of the cliffs would have made it impossible for the couple to climb to safety.

He said: “The alternative would have been for them to hang on there until the tide had turned but there was still some time to go to high water so they would have faced a three-hour wait, which was hardly an enticing prospect given the weather.”