Why are they called "Smugglers Cliffs"?

Long ago Smugglers were working in the caves and cliffs of Bectan Sands.

Smugglers would stand at the top of the cliff during the day, spying for cargo ships sailing by. When they saw the mast and sails of a large ship heading towards Rivermouth Harbour nearby, they would wait until the evening and then go to the lighthouse where they would put out the lighthouses burning wooden fire.

Once the lighthouse light had been put out the smugglers would go to the bottom of the cliff and light lots of lanterns. The lanterns were placed amongst the rocks at edge of the ocean.
Then the smugglers would go into the caves and hide from the ship and wait.

The captain of the ship, once he saw the lights of the lanterns would head towards the rocks, thinking that they were the lights of the harbour.

As the ship hit the rocks and broke open the smuggles would watch and wait for the crew to head towards the village to get help. Once the crew had moved away the smugglers would take the ships cargo and hide it inside the many tunnels of the cliffs.

After years and years of ships being wrecked on the coastline, a cottage was built beside the lighthouse for a lighthouse keeper to live in. It was the lighthouse keepers job to keep the fire burning in the lighthouse.

As a result of the lighthouse being watched all of the time, the smugglers left Bectan Sands, but the name 'Smugglers Cliff' remained and is still used today to describe part of the coastline.

Southwold Primary created this entry.