In Search of Smugglers

Up and down the coastline of Britain, in the dead of the night, at the crack of dawn or right there there in the blaze of daytime, men with tubs, sacks, wooden crates and nondescript bundles took part in what must have been surely the biggest ongoing crime eve in the 17th and 18th centuries, smuggling!

The Bald Explorer is heading to the shores of Kent and Sussex in search of these men, there doings and their plunder. I want to know why it was so endemic, how they got a way with it and why so little was done to prevent them.

Smuggling in the Tudor times and Stuart England was rife and as the Georgian period was reached probably was at its most intense. Everybody was at it, but many against their will. Gangs, just as now with their various organised crime activities, became dominant. They were also violent and many an innocent farmer, publican or peasant were forced to assist the illicit trade.

The research into episode three of the Bald Explorer has commenced….

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.