Smuggling in Essex

Essex has always been a smuggler’s paradise. Little wonder, with its 90 miles of coastline bordering the North Sea, and an even greater length of navigable rivers, tidal creeks and backwaters. From the 1700s to the 1830s, during the heyday of smuggling, there was a hugely profitable trade in smuggled luxuries including tea, tobacco, spirits, silks and lace. In more recent times, improved transport and communications alongside more sophisticated methods have seen smuggling change, with a trend towards illegal imports such as drugs, firearms, and live animals and birds. Graham Smith’s meticulously researched book describes the smuggling industry in detail, chronicling the history of each section of the Essex coast. He introduces the legendary characters involved, including Mrs Gregson, the female ‘Fagin’ of Barking who employed a gang of local boys to obtain smuggled tobacco to supply to London merchants; William Blyth of Pagglesham, dubbed ‘The King of the Smugglers’; and Michael ‘Micky’ Steele who landed a small Cessna aircraft at St Osyth in 1989 carrying £1 million worth of cannabis. Despite the romantic associations passed down by history, in reality smuggling has always been a vicious, violent and bloody undertaking. That history is brought vividly to life here.