Download or read book Suffolk Smugglers' Pubs written by Terry Townsend and published by PiXZ Books. This book was released on 2017-09-18 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On Monday, 4 February 1734, Walter Plummer MP told the House of Commonshe had recently been in Suffolk where smugglers went about in such formidablebodies, that if something was not done to put a stop to them: `they might soonthreaten danger even to the Government¿. He went on to say he had often metthem in gangs of forty or fifty together, all so well mounted, that even theDragoons `could not come up with them¿.In English maritime counties the nerve centre of smuggling operations waspredominantly the local pub. It was here that plots were hatched, arrangementsfor transportation agreed and runs commissioned. The smugglers¿ pub servedas a meeting place, recruitment centre, secret storage facility, distribution depotand valued customer.This book explores smuggling connections of Suffolk down the whole of theeastern seaboard from the northern border with Norfolk to the southern borderwith Essex. It is a guide to a significant number of authentic pubs patronised overtwo and a half centuries ago by Suffolk smugglers.These wonderful old buildings with their low-beamed ceilings, flagstone floors,inglenook fireplaces and secret hiding places are where, with a little imagination,one can sense the desperate days of the free traders.