“Contraband Corner Smuggling in Thanet Legends and Folklore” booklet. Back in 1986 there was a project in Thanet run through the Manpower Service Commission this booklet. It was compiled by a group of local historians, Peter Douch, Gillian Hinton, Margaret Irving, Timothy Jones, John Land, Caroline Mills, Robert Parker, John Williams.
The booklet itself was published as crown copyright and at that point its reprinting became something of a matter of Thanet local history as the copyright is held by the government and the only book on smuggling in Thanet became very rare and expensive.
I have now just received permission to reprint it and have produced a cheap facsimile (A5 staple bound £5.99) which is available at Michael's Bookshop in Ramsgate.
Sample pages
A5 size staple-bound booklet, reprint of the 1986 publication. The text is quite small but well spaced. Some of the photographs are grainy and too dark for definition. B&W illustrations, but overall an interesting read. Smuggling in the Thanet towns with descriptions of their haunts, the development of the coastguard, Customs and Excise services, Glossary of smuggling terms, custom's reports from the Thanet area, important dates in the history of smuggling, and some poems. Also includes newspaper reports, maps of the tunnels and caves in Thanet, and a bibliography.
If it proves popular I will do an enhanced edition sometime.
