Vlieland-A letter in a bottle, cast into the sea 20 years ago, has washed up on an island after an incredible 216 mile journey.

The bottle was thrown from the Isle of Sheppey, Kent, by a little girl called Susie Hampton, then 10, on 25 August 1997.

Tony Blair was only a few months into his first term as Prime Minister and Princess Diana was still alive.

Will Smith’s ‘Men in Black’ was top of the charts with Chumbawamba’s ‘Tubthumping’ hot at its heels.

Astoundingly, twenty years later, the bottle arrived on the shores of Vlieland, an island in northern Netherlands.

Pieter Schaper, who found the bottle last Monday, now hopes to track down Susie. The conservation agency worker said: ‘Wow, this is special, this letter took 20 years to reach somebody.

 ‘It would be so funny to track down Susie. She must be about 30 years old now and I hope she remembers her message in a bottle.’ Pieter had been taking part in an annual beach clean with volunteers when he stumbled across the bottle. He said: ‘It would be so funny to track down Susie. She must be about 30 years old now and I hope she remembers her message in a bottle.’ But it’s believed Susie no longer lives at the Minster address on the letter and may now have a different surname.