Local historian: Catching smugglers in 19th-century Sidmouth

It was a cold, snowy winter's night on Thursday 3 January 1833, when a band of 60 smugglers met at John Miller's house in Woolbrook.

Under the cover of darkness, the gang split into several groups and made their way to a field overlooking Ladram Bay.

At approximately 5am, a smuggling vessel was spotted about a mile off shore. The ship landed, and 100 kegs of fine French brandy were offloaded onto the beach.

Caught red-handed

But Sidmouth Coastguard George Parkes and Budleigh Coastguard Thomas Fouracres had received a tip-off and were lying in wait.

As the preventive officers made their move and tried to seize the boat and its cargo, the group became unruly and Parkes had to fire a warning shot over their heads.

So close was his shot that the musket ball passed through a smuggler's hat!

A fight ensued, and Parkes had his pistol knocked from his hand and was badly beaten and Fouracres ended up with a broken leg.

Justice

However, despite his injuries, Parkes, assisted by a Mrs Joslin (the wife of Lord Rolle's gamekeeper) managed to light a blue flame which brought reinforcements from Sidmouth preventive station.

On 23 March 1833, the leader of the gang James Bacon was sentenced to seven years' transportation, later reduced to two years' imprisonment and hard labour.

Also convicted were Sidford men, blacksmith James Teed and mason Charles Musgrove, each receiving a prison sentence and a £100 fine.

More by Graham Symington:

1. The history of the now-demolished Blackmore Hall
2. The history of Sidmouth's Connaught Gardens
3. A dancing bear, girls of bad character and smuggling: The history of Sidmouth's The Old Ship Inn
4. Sidmouth, Jane Austen and ITV's Sanditon
5. The history of The Byes, in pictures
6. Tar Barrels... in Sidmouth?
7. Remembering Pike's Cottages
8. Sidmouth's old toll houses
9. Policing in Victorian and Edwardian Sidmouth
10. The history of The Ham
11. Early Sidmouth houses
12. Fishing in Sidmouth, in pictures