The Sussex Smuggler

The Hawkhurst Gang Season 1 Episode 3.   The Battle of Goudhurst 1747. Goudhurst, a pretty village in the Kent weald countryside was to host a significant battle between the infamous Hawkhurst gang and the villagers of Goudhurst led by 29 year old 'General' George Sturt (a former soldier) who led the militia group.   "that on the 21st of April 1747 He would attack Goudhurst, kill the residents (broil their hearts)......and burn the place to the ground." - Thomas Kingsmill about the village of Goudhurst. Thomas Kingsmill a native of Goudhurst and now the Boss of the gang faced his first challenge since the incarceration of Arthur Gray and the capture of his brother William Gray by the lesser known Cranbrook Association. The gang must have been demoralised by the loss of such senior members and therefore it now fell to Kingsmill to raise morale and assert his authority not just with gang members, but with locals too. Kingsmill had to control of the roads to ensure the...

The Hawkhurst Gang Season 1 Episode 2 As the gang entered the 1740s, expansion west to the more accessible and flat beaches of West Sussex was an obvious business move. Gray and by now the notorious bunch of men who followed, were expanding by amalgamating with other gangs  through alliances and hostile take overs. This could be described in contemporary terms as a 'turf war'. Arguably, the struggle for Gray was not necessarily the Revenue and Dragoons as they were thinly spread, it would have been the other gangs.  Smuggling was a battle of survival, hearts, minds and only the fittest or maybe in this case the cruelest would survive. The lawlessness continued..... Mermaid Street, Rye. On right pub sign for the Mermaid Inn. A regular haunt for the gangs as well as other villains was Rye, East Sussex. The Transport gang led by Jeremiah Curtis (aka Alexander Pollard) worked with John Grayling in the Hastings area. Hastings would have been rich pickings in the 1740s with its beac...

        The Hawkhurst Gang Season 1 Episode 1.       The 18th century made for a hard life and arguably, the Civil war made no material difference to working families as they remained poor and isolated, usually tied to an area for labouring purposes. There was no welfare state to take care of these families. If you were poor you were poor ! The smuggling gangs (or free traders) offered relief for all. For example, a tub-man could earn more money than his day job walking overnight contraband to a tavern. The said tavern could then sell that contraband with no tax paid and enhance its profit to customers in need of a beverage. The big profits of course went to the financiers and city merchants in London who also were slave traders and the wealthy, what could be described today as the the elite and richest one per cent. Some of those families and companies exist today and it is worth mentioning they are still very good at avoiding tax...

The Ossuary of Hythe. The Port of Hythe. Hythe was an international port from the medieval times and had cinque port status granted by the Crown. The Cinque port status gave  ports the right to determine self governance and taxation, However the port in return had to raise a navy to defend the coast from attack. Hardly a professional navy !  Hythe attracted a lot of international trade and the evidence of this is found in the skulls and thigh bones found in the Ossuary at St Leonards Church. The time death from the bodies linked to the skulls range from the 12th century to the 15th century. The excavation of the bones started in the 13th century when the church was being extended   The Edwardians started  studying skulls.  The skulls were silent witnesses to their identity and cause of the death. Some showed disease or violence as there cause of death, this can be determined by the condition of the skull. Some have holes suggesting violence or extensions l...

Deal and Smuggling.  Deal and the Goodwin Sands. It would be doing Deal a disservice not to mention the Goodwin Sands when putting Deal into a maritime context.  Deal, Kent is a strategically placed town twenty five miles from the French coast. The town has been used for crossings to Europe for hundreds of years due to its close proximity. Deal is also a town of military importance since at least King Henry the eighth's rein for harbouring the Royal Navy. The Royal Navy would anchor in the 'Downs' the local name for the Goodwin Sands guarded by three castles. Taking advantage of this were the skilled fisherman and smugglers of Deal. However, between Deal and France stands the treacherous Goodwin Sands visible at low tide. The Goodwins are six miles off the Deal coast and ten miles long. The sands rest upon a chalk rock and proves difficult to navigate without local knowledge. The Goodwin Sands is responsible for between two thousand and three thousand five hundred shipwreck...