A manuscript ledger, in the possession of Mr Pocock of Hooe (butcher in Old Town), covers the period 1784-1800 and almost certainly makes reference to smuggled goods. Reference include 1784, 1796 & 1800. The following are extracts from that ledger.
Bexhill family smuggling British newspapers to Napoleon.
Smuggling goods were Brandy, Gin, Tobacco, Tea and luxury items.
Battle of Sidley Green. January 3rd 1828 – lugger landed between Bexhill and Bopeep, suggested to be a site near the Sackville Hotel?
Stories of ghostly drummers at Pevensey & Herstmonceux castles
Owlers smuggling out wool 13th – late 17th century
Little Bopeep nursery rhyme a reference to smuggling.
KGL soldier was murdered in Little Common 1805
High tax on imports/exports to pay for various wars, mostly with France.
French brandy banned during the wars otherwise taxed at £1 per gallon as was gin. Tobacco taxed at 4 shillings a pound but at times it cost ten times as much to buy in England than on the continent.
A farm labourer could earn no more than 7 to 8 shillings a week but might make as much as 10 shillings for a nights work as a tubman.
There was extreme poverty and unemployment in Sussex & Kent in the 1830s, many soldiers who returned from Waterloo in 1815 became smugglers when they could not find work. Groombridge Gang; Mayfield Gang; Hawkhurst Gang; Little Common Gang; Hooe Gang
Dates
| c1677 | Building that became the Bell constructed. |
| 1695 | French ship anchored off Bulverhythe, met by John Young and Thomas Pope who was Customs Officer at Bexhill. A cargo of hats and letters landed. |
| 1714 | French sloop lands brandy at Cowding Gap (Cooden) and then moved on to pick up wool from `Cockmere Haven’. (an alternative date of 1715 mentioned) |
| 1717 | Customs Riding Officer Gerard Reeves killed during fight with Mayfield Gang, Eastbourne |
| 1729 | Bexhill Hurricane |
| 1736 | Groombridge Gang, who had links with James Blackman landlord of the Red Lion at Hooe, involved with incidents at Bexhill, Lydd and Fairlight. |
| 1743 | James Blackman led an armed convoy with a cargo of tea and brandy. It landed between Bexhill and Pevensey and was hidden at Wych Cross. |
| 1744 | Customs officers with five Dragoons intercept a landing at Pevensey Bay, they were overrun by smugglers wounded and disarmed. [June] 60 armed men raided the house of Philip Bailey in Bexhill, destroyed household goods and furniture and insulted his wife and family, John Walsh Riding Officer was also attacked. The next day three large cutters land goods at Pevensey Bay. |
| 1745 | Bill of Indictment against the smugglers not found at Assizes. Three tons of tea and some brandy landed at Bexhill, the smugglers were mostly mounted, heavily armed labourers from Bexhill. En route they raided a the house of a Customs Officer, attacked his family and assaulted another officer. 30 soldiers caught up with them and there was a pitched battle. |
| 1748 | Amsterdam (Dutch East-Indiaman) wrecked at Bulverhythe. c1750 The Grange built. |
| 1751 | First documentary reference to the Bell. |
| 1790s | Signalling station built on Galley Hill. |
| 1794 | Barrack Hall built by Mr William Russell. |
| 1797 | Thomas Pumphrey, Riding Officer, reports seizes of spirits at Bexhill 5th July |
| 1798 | Work begins on barrack site. |
| 1801 | Pococks the Butchers opens in High Street. |
| 1803 | Martello Towers built in this area by `YorIcy’ Smith. |
| 1804 | KGL arrive in Bexhill. Start of unsuccessful coalmining venture. KGL attempt to excavate the Amsterdam. |
| 1805 | Capt. John Clark commanding HM Revenue Cutter Vulture caught a lug-sail boat heading for The Sluice (Normans Bay) with 540 casks of brandy. [same day as Battle of Trafalgar] KGL soldier murdered in Little Common. |
| 1806 | Vulture caught a lugger with 500 parcels of tea. |
| 1808 | Map of Bexhill. |
| 1813 | Map of Bexhill. |
| 1814 | KGL leave Bexhill |
| 1815 | £200 offered for the men who attacked John Wilton while he was trying to seize a cargo at Cocksheath near Bexhill. [1815 Battle of Waterloo] |
| 1816 | Frigate Osprey fired on a lugger off Bexhill when it refused to stop, the crew escaped. |
| <1817 /td> | Coastal Blockade established.Turner publishes Liber Studorum on plate shows local Martello Towers. |
| 1818 | A decked lug-sail boat Fox of Bexhill captured at Normans Bay with a cargo of gin, the smugglers returned that night and recaptured their ship assaulting John Aston |
| 1819 | John Aston on duty at Martello Tower 55 at Normans Bay was beaten trying to seize a boat but managed, with assistance, to take the boat and cargo. [4th Jan] The blockade man of the Martello Tower on the Horn was taken to the Bell Inn and offered £50 and a further £50 if he would go to Pevensey and look the other way – he doesn’t. Blockademen of Tower 50 seize two French galleys [3rd Sept] Blockademen assaulted trying to seize a French boar off Martello Tower 52. “A Remarkable Instance of Longevity” dinner at the Bell. |
| 1820 | Linkwell built. 1822 Smugglers march on Martello Tower 52 (Little Common) to seize the Blockade Sentinel, one was shot dead. One version of the story says there was a lady waiting in a coach but she drove off when the boat set sail – perhaps a spy? In February 300 smugglers from the Little Common Gang gathered near the Star Inn to unload their boat the Queen Charlotte, Preventative Customs men drove them off and one smuggler was shot. Story of the lady in a coach also mentioned here. |
| 1824 | Cargo landed by Martello Tower 50, intercepted and 100 tubs of spirit and seven smugglers caught. The smugglers captured William Welch when he boarded their boat and he was stunned and drowned. |
| 1825-1827 | Period covered by Gillham account book. Written by George Gillham leader of the Little Common Gang who lived at Peach Cottage. Their boats were The Long Boat and the Queen Charlotte and operated out of ‘Willow-Tot’ between Cooden and Normans Bay (near The Star Inn). |
| 1828 | Battle of Sidley Green 3rd Jan. Cargo landed at ‘Mr Brooks 40 acre point’ (Sackville site) guarded by 16-18 batsmen. Spotted by Coast Blockade men at Tower 44 (Galley Hill) who called reinforcements and caught up with the smugglers at Sidley Green. Quartermaster Collins and smuggler Smithhurst killed. One wounded smuggler taken to the Bell Hotel. 8 smugglers caught and transported to Australia. |
| 1832 | Boat with 300 tubs of spirit beached at Worthing, the cargo was unloaded by 200 smugglers guarded by ‘a company of Bexhill batsmen with a few firearms’. There was a fight at which one smuggler died, two were injured and four Preventative men wounded. Battle between smugglers and customs men at St. Leonards. Two Customs men killed at Bulverhythe Martello 42, buried at Barrack Rd cemetery. Customs man killed at 40 Martello Tower, Bopeep. |
| 1833 | Coastguards spot landing between Normans Bay and Pevensey, tub-men protected by batsmen with guns, a two hour running battle ensued that stretched over 6-7miles. Batsmen would draw up in a line fire retreat and reform in a line. |
| 1850 | By this time most organised smuggling had ceased. [1854 Crimean War] |
| 1859 | Guns put back in Martello Towers vs Napoleon III. |