Day 198 - Cawsand: A Smuggler's Paradise

So which side do we smuggle into? 

A work day today, and with Angela in London and my friend Lez visiting in order to do the work, I have decided to be brief today and provide a quick backgrounder on why Cawsand was a smuggler's Paradise. It's because of the villages location near Plymouth where illegal goods could be sold even though the Royal Navy has been based in the city for centuries.

The local coastline is also dotted with numerous caves for storing these goods and in some cases tunnels were built from these caves to more accessible locations on land. The most common contraband was booze and it was said that in one year alone, 1804, more than 17,000 kegs of spirits of all varieties were smuggled into Cawsand.

Smuggling had become profitable because the British government was taxing imports such as tea and spirits. In the 18th and early 19th centuries the tax was about 30%. The south coast of England was popular because of its proximity to France where much of the contraband was sourced.  In Cawsand, smugglers formed their own bands and violence between them and the navy was not uncommon.  Even among the smugglers there was competitive violence with rival gangs being organized in Cawsand and Kingsand and though the villages lay so close together, there was no love lost between them as they competed for to smuggle goods through their respective shores.

Eventually the government lowered duties and the advantages of smuggling disappeared and the activity declined. Today, the only smuggling that takes place is when tourists bring their lunch on the ferry to the beach.

Ale of Day: Legend, Dartmoor Brewery, Princetown, Devon

Out of town update

Amanda can't take any more of this walking and history ... or is it me ... so she's heading off to Wales for the long weekend ahead. Little does she know the walking has just begun. Bwa ha ha!

I dropped her off at Paddington station for her train to Carmarthen to visit a friend. Then I waited a few hours for my cheap train to Plymouth. Again, I had planned to write, but I couldn't take my eyes off the countryside...that is until I fell asleep somewhere around Exeter.

Phil was waiting for me at the station...yeah!!! Despite his previous rocky experience, we braved the ferry back to Cawsand...last one of the day.