Canvey Island

The Smugglers

The Smugglers

Published in 1909 by Charles G Harper

 

Photo: Illustrative image for the 'The Smugglers' page

 

Charles Harper's description of smuggling and Canvey Island in 1909:-

 

'Canvey Island, in the estuary of the Thames, off Benfleet, with its quaint old Dutch houses, relics of the seventeenth and eighteenth-century Hollanders who settled there and carried on a more than questionable business, was reputedly a nest of smugglers. The ‘Lobster Smack’, a quaint old weatherboarded inn built just within the old earthen sea-wall for which those Dutchmen were responsible, and standing somewhat below the level of high water, has legends of smuggling that naturally do not lose by age or repetition.'