Many children exploring a new beach on holiday dream of finding a clue to a new adventure.

Whether it's a piece of treasure buried in the sand, a fossil or an uninhabited cave, everyone loves a bit of mystery to add to their sunbathing.

But for one family holidaying in east Sussex this week, their beachcombing efforts were rewarded as they found a message in a bottle resting on the shoreline.

Victoria Lees said: 'My sons and my husband went off down the beach looking for fossils. My husband likes to pick up litter if we're out on walks and such like and dispose of it, but when he noticed a message in a bottle he picked up.'

The family of four were staying in Newhaven.

Mrs Lees continued: 'My son George, who's four, brought it back to me. He thought it would be a treasure map.

'We took it home and dried it off- the top of the bottle was quite damaged so the note inside was wet through. We didn't want to try to take it out before it had dried as it would rip.'

The Hampshire resident said: 'We finally got it out and opened it up, to see a note from a child called Jenson who lives in Cromer. It was dated from January this year.

'This all happened on April 11, and a day later I put a public post on facebook trying to find Jenson. It was really interesting to watch it spread, with people tagging each other if they thought they knew him, and eventually it made its way to Cromer.'

Finally the elusive writer of the note was found, and Jenson's mother got in contact with Victoria.

The pre-school manager said: 'This is where it gets quite funny. Jenson's mum had no idea he'd even sent the bottle out to sea, but told us it was actually dated from when he was on holiday with his Dad... in Newhaven.

'The bottle had just gone out to sea and then come back in again!'

Mother to George and David, 7, Mrs Lees added: 'We don't know is Jenson yet knows, but his mum is sending me some pictures and will let us know when she's told him!'