Mapping Change in Place and Society

This Section shows some of the images related to smuggling in the past which are available in the archive. Examples of how they might be used are included.

Smuggling has a long history. In Britain, it can be traced back to the 13th Century when tax was imposed on wool exports. Once taxes were imposed they had to be collected and so the history of smuggling is also a history of prevention. In France, taxes on the movement of goods have been recorded since the 12th century with customs houses at both provincial and city levels.

In this 1824 image of Bridport Harbour , you can see some of the buildings around the harbour. Although a Customs House and a Coastguard Station both appear on the Ordnance Survey Map of 1880, only the Coastguard Station is recorded on the Tithe map of 1843.

There are very few detailed historical charts of the coast, but there is a chart of Lyme Bay which the Preventive Guard and Revenue cutters might have used, especially if they were coming from further along the coast, say from Kent . It shows detailed charts of both Lyme Regis and Bridport harbour. It would be possible to ask students about the different view of the land they might get from the sea as compared to the view above from the land.

Interactive Maps on the DCDA site provide access to the Tithe maps and in some cases earlier estate maps that show the buildings, roads and tracks that could have been used by the smugglers. Some of the existing websites, for example www.thedorsetpage.com , describe the places used by smugglers such as Isaac Gulliver but do not map them. So a map could be constructed which shows this. Pupils might then develop this through ICT and Geography.

Map of Lyme Regis showing the New Customs House.

When caught, smugglers were subject to a variety of punishments. Gaol records list the names, parishes, occupation and sentences of smugglers. For example, the Dorchester records include for Osmington parish, five individuals: James Champ, Joseph Waters, Henry Bayley, John Charles and William Waters, alias Walters.

If you go to the Tithe Apportionments you will find that plots 72 to 79 were occupied by William Walters and others as tenants of Robert Serrell Wood. You will find the location of these plots on the Tithe Map by going to Interactive Maps.

Similarly, using the same links, you discover that Robert Woodcock (Fisherman of Burton Bradstock Parish) was convicted of smuggling in 1836. He was the tenant of a garden (Plot 35) owned by the local Vicar.

SAMPLE LEARNING ACTIVITY

From this information you can build up a map which shows which smugglers owned land or were tenants.

Where were the Coastguard Houses (also known as Preventive Houses) along the coast? Use the Tithe and Six Inch maps to locate them. For example at Burton Bradstock, the Tithe Apportionment of 1843 lists Plot 345B

Clicking here takes you directly to the Tithe Map and the OS First edition of 1888. This provides views of the landscape as it was both in the 1840s and the 1880s. The aerial photographs of the 1940s and 1970s allow you to trace features, buildings, tracks and field boundaries from one time period to the next. You could ask what still remains in this landscape and would it be useful for smuggling today?

Smuggling in the past

Descriptions of smuggling are found in newspapers, official reports, gaol records, local legends and myths, novels, and even opera. Sometimes the smugglers' activities were romanticized, especially as most people hated the taxes which were imposed. Life as a Preventive Officer was often hard, dangerous and subject to accusations of corruption.

SAMPLE LEARNING ACTIVITY

Old reports in the DCDA help build up a picture of smuggling and its control, but the way in which we react to some of these reports may reveal our own attitudes to the relationship between citizens and the law and its enforcement. The following activity uses a report of an incident involving customs officials and a smuggler. It needs to be read and reacted to.

Expected outcome

An appreciation of our reactions to old reports about smugglers

Activity

Introduce smuggling

Students read the piece below. A transcript is provided

Ask them to write down their first reactions to it.
Discuss with the whole class what these reactions were.
What do they tell you and them about attitudes to smuggling?

The most factual information about smuggled goods is usually in the auction lists describing what had been collected by the Customs officials.

There are other documentary sources, for example, smugglers provided receipts for payments, such as this one for £13 paid to Peter Le Cocq on 14th March 1776.

SAMPLE LEARNING ACTIVITY

What is smuggling? Who smuggles? What do they smuggle? Why smuggle? Who controls smuggling? What happens if you are caught? Have attitudes to smuggling changed? Are the issues the same today as in the past? Box 3.2

This provides a set of newspaper reports of several dates. It is an opportunity to examine a selection of contemporary newspaper reports about smuggling.

Intended outcome

By the end of this activity, it is expected that students will have gained an understanding of the types of goods being smuggled.

Activity

Students are asked to read at least one of the following newspaper extracts.

Newspaper Extract 1
Newspaper Extract 2
Newspaper Extract 3
Newspaper Extract 4
Newspaper Extract 5
Newspaper Extract 6
Newspaper Extract 7
Newspaper Extract 8

They should be able to answer the questions

•  What was being smuggled?
•  What was done with it once the Customs had seized and legally condemned it?

An activity could be to draw up a list of smuggled items for about 200 years ago.

Now direct children to the following sites and ask them to make a list of items smuggled today.

The following three sites give a very good view of the amazing range of things which are smuggled.

EU Items Stolen
Smuggling Today Site
National Geographic Site - has lots of stories about smuggling – including some strange things – prickly pear, abalone, snakes, fossils, caviar, cheese, poultry. To access them, use the link and then enter ‘smuggling' in the search box

It should now be possible to produce a table which shows new items being smuggled and items which are no longer smuggled.

A further development of this would be to investigate which places are most involved in smuggling and what goods are smuggled there.

A good example of using maps to describe and understand the global scale is given by the following web sites:

Smuggling World Map
EU Statistics on Piracy
Canadian View on Organised Crime

What is smuggling? Who smuggles? What do they smuggle? Why smuggle? Who controls smuggling? What happens if you are caught? Have attitudes to smuggling changed? Are the issues the same today as in the past? Box 3.3

What happened to smugglers in the past? BOX 3.4

What happens today? BOX 3.5

The above is a public notice issued by The Commissioners of His Majesty's Customs 6th December 1810 Offering reward for apprehension of two men who violently assaulted a Customs' Officer near Wool BOX 3.6

What is smuggling? Who smuggles? What do they smuggle? Why smuggle? Who controls smuggling? What happens if you are caught? Have attitudes to smuggling changed? Are the issues the same today as in the past? Box 3.7

The community's attitudes in past centuries to smuggling and to those who benefited from smuggling are seen not only in romanticized descriptions, myths and legends but also in the way in which communities were involved in smuggling. The life of a Preventive Officer could be very difficult, but it also offered opportunities to benefit by taking bribes and receiving parts of the smuggled goods just for keeping out of the way.

Several of the web sites already given provide detailed descriptions of events when smugglers were involved in fights with Preventive Officers, but they also describe the involvement of other people in smuggling activities. Women's dresses could hide smuggled goods and so could tombs. There are many stories of churches being used and of landowners turning a blind eye to lines of laden horses crossing their land.

Customs officer attacked

Gravestone

Grappling hook to recover kegs

The tea-men newspaper item

These items warn that men are offering tea for sale illegally.

;

http://map.dcda.org.uk/imgsearch/details.php?ItemID=17436

Newspaper history

http://map.dcda.org.uk/imgsearch/details.php?ItemID=20089

http://map.dcda.org.uk/imgsearch/details.php?ItemID=20083

http://map.dcda.org.uk/imgsearch/details.php?ItemID=20030

http://map.dcda.org.uk/imgsearch/details.php?ItemID=20082

Goods seized http://www.dcda.org.uk/images/jpg600/dcm_txt_17438d3.jpg

Photograph of Kinson Parish Church , showing an altar tomb believed to have been used as a smuggler's hide. BOX 3.8

Smugglers Cottage at Ringstead BOX 3.9

 

Where smugglers landed and hid their goods can sometimes be linked with the maps of the time. Some buildings are described as smugglers' cottages or houses, but often the maps do not refer to places as having any connection with smuggling. Maps of Ringstead from 1888 and the 1840s, for example, show a cottage (Myrtle Cottage) but the photograph above simply describes a cottage in Ringstead as “Smugglers Cottage”.

Many of these images and reports are part of the myth and legend about smuggling. For example, do place names mean that smuggling took place here? How can we be sure? After all, smugglers would not necessarily have wanted others to know what they were doing. Present-day street names sometimes suggest links, for example Smugglers Lane in Highcliffe, but they may be fanciful as much as factual. Names on the maps of different dates may provide clues about the origins of the names.

An early 20th Century image of The Smuggler's House at Lyme Regis.

Other examples are the Smuggler's Walk at Abbotsbury

and Smuggler's Cove at Lulworth

Section 2: Smuggling Resources

Section 3: Exemplars from the DCDA

Section 4: Sample Learning KS3 Activities

Section 5 - Sample Learning Activities for KS4 Citizenship