Did you know Smuggling in Looe


If you wake at midnight, and hear horses feet, Don’t go drawing back the blind, or looking in the street.


Them that asks no questions isn’t told a lie, Watch the wall, my darling, while the Gentlemen go by!


It’s as Cornish as a pasty or a cream tea: smuggling.


The legends associated with this most ancient of trades abound everywhere in the county, but especially in coastal communities like Looe.


How many of them, are founded in fact is another matter…


For example stories of


smugglers’ tunnels abound near the coast: the furtive routes used by the ‘gentlemen’ to transport and hide their illicit goods.


The Smugglers Cott restaurant in Looe is said to have one such tunnel.


This medieval building dates from 1430, and is one of the oldest buildings in the town.


Many of its internal timbers come from a wrecked galleon of the


Spanish Armada when the building was partially reconstructed at the end of the 16th century. The tunnel is said to lead to the harbour.


Smuggler’s Cottage, now holiday accommodation, is also said to have access to a tunnel.


There’s reason behind the legend, of course: to a smuggler, being caught in possession of the incriminating goods was literally a matter of life and death in the 18th and 19th centuries as the excise man sought to enforce tarriffs and duties.


So places to hide contraband were of great value - and this is the origin of the many stories of smugglers’ caves and tunnels.


Some tunnel stories turn out to be very plausible. For example, a tunnel at Hayle really does seem to have been built specifically for smuggling. In other instances the tunnel either doubles as a storm drain or some other functional channel, or else is an extension of a natural fissure in the rock, as at Methleigh and Porthcothan.


There were other ways of hiding


goods, of course - involving less hard work than digging a tunnel.


Smugglers were quick to recognize that the sea that brought their contraband over from France and Holland could also conceal their cargoes. Tubs of spirits were tipped into the sea for later recovery. Adding a weight anchored the barrel in shallow water, and tying an inflated bladder and a bundle of feathers to the tub-rope marked the spot.


There was a risk of course: if tubs could not be recovered, the sea- water seeped through the cheaply-made barrels, rendering the spirit undrinkable. In the west country, spoiled French brandy earned the nick-name ‘stinky- booze’.


Caves were also used as hiding places, of course, one such being Smugglers Cave at Penrocks, East Looe.


Looe Island is rich in tales of use as a smugglers’ hideout and a store for contraband.


Fyn and Black Joan, a brother and sister team with a bloody history, are said to have guarded


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the precious cargo. They are said to have hidden barrels and boxes in a secret cave, although the location has never been confirmed.


Talland Bay is also said to have been a favourite landfall for smuggling boats from the continent.


Near the door of the church is a tombstone commemorating Robert Mark. Local legends differ about Mark’s identity.


One story has it that while on a smuggling trip he died from wounds inflicted by a revenue man’s pistol ball. In fact, a smuggler of the same name was sentenced in May 1799 for resisting arrest when the smuggling vessel Lottery was captured.


However, another account makes him not a free-trader but a revenue man who was shot in a cellar on dry land; Jonah Puckey, the ringleader of a smuggling gang, reputedly fired the shot that killed him.


The truth? The truth will probably now remain as elusive as… well, as elusive as a smuggler’s tunnel.


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LOOE NEWS MAY JUNE 2018 19


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