The premier website for SE England - visit Kent today!
The specially signed long distance Saxon Shore Way runs from Gravesend to Rye in Sussex, and passes Cliffe Marshes, Conyer Creak and other smuggling sites. (Leaflets from Kent Rights of Way Council, 2 London Road, Faversham.)
Joss Bay and Kingsgate Bay, Thanet
The most scenic area to explore. Only public car park off the B2050 at Joss Bay. Kingsgate was named to commemorate the landing of Charles II and his brother James when rough seas drove them ashore in 1683. A stone gateway was later built over the narrow gap down to the beach (now re-erected in nearby convent grounds). Kingsgate Castle and other gothic structures were built by Lord Holland, who owned the estate in the 1860s. Caves used for storage can be seen, and the Coastguard cottages which replaced the Blockade Watch House here. The Riding Officer killed during the Battle of Botany Bay of 1769 died in the Captain Digby Inn. From here a footpath leads north to Foreness Point, passing Kemp's Stairs (where Joss Snelling made his escape).
South of Joss Bay are other points of interest. The present North Foreland Lighthouse is the successor to one erected in 1634. Just beyond here is Lanthorne Road. Despite high walls you can still see Stone House on the corner, and Joss Snelling's former home (now Farm Cottage) halfway along the north side of Lanthorne Road.
In central Broadstairs there are several old house off Harbour Street with cellars and hiding places. When Charles Dickens stayed at Bleak House, he could watch local smugglers at work below Stone Gap, and a smugglers' museum in the basement now tells something of the story.
Seasalter and Whitstable
The beach at the Blue Anchor Inn (with car park) and Seasalter Parsonage Farm in Genesta Avenue, close to the Rose in Bloom Inn at Seasalter have the strongest associations with smuggling. Wallace Harvey's two books give details of other places intimately linked to the trade. A mile west of the Blue Anchor on the coast at TR 069649 is the Coast Blockade Watch House (now called Old Coastguard Cottage). Before the sea defences were built, this looked out directly onto the shore. In Whitstable itself, the narrow street called Island Wall, which runs from the Oyster Company offices to the Neptune Inn, is at the heart of the smugglers' territory.
Herne and Herne Bay
At Herne village the best starting point is the very fine medieval church. Midshipman Snow is buried just west of the tower. The Smugglers Inn and Smugglers Cottages opposite may well have been associated with the trade. A little higher up the hill and set back to the left is a building known as Box Iron, from its original shape. When water mains were laid there in 1907, workmen came on a honeycomb of arched cellars, approached by an interior staircase. A passage led out to the side of the road, where there was a trapdoor and chains for lowering barrels. There were also cellars under the road itself.
At Herne Bay the most immediate link with a violent past is the Ship Inn on the seafront, where Midshipman Snow was fatally injured. Further along the seafront towards the pier is the Diver's Arms, built in 1836 by William Hooper Wood, a smuggler who returned from five years penal service in the navy to become a successful salvage diver. On two occasions he was found to have dug a convenient passage linking the inn cellars with the culvert taking the town brook to the sea! Herne Bay library has a grappling device used for creeping up tubs.
Reculver
Here, the main points of interest are the surviving portion of the Roman fort, built to protect ships in the Wantsum Channel, and the ruin of the 12th century church, which contains fragments from a Saxon foundation. The site has been menaced over the centuries by coastal erosion, and most recently by a sea of caravans. The smuggling beaches are still there!
Pegwell Village
The village was a notorious haunt of smugglers in the 18th century but later became an elegant small resort, famous for its shrimp paste. The sea has destroyed the steps down to the beach and the pier where regattas were once held. A smugglers' tunnel leading from the Belle View Tavern has now been blocked up. Much contraband was landed in Pegwell Bay and taken up through an arched tunnel to the clifftop. A brooding line of Coastguard cottages built to control the situation after 1831, stands directly over the caves the smugglers used for storage.