The Smuggler Story
Ye Olde Smugglers Inne has a remarkable history. The building is crawling with curious nooks, crannies and peculiar design. The Inne dates back to 1385, however its most adventurous period was during the high-tide of smuggling. It was owned by a man called Stanton Collins and during his time as proprietor he transformed the building into the smugglers den as we know it today.
During the Napoleonic Wars with fears of an invasion from France, Alfriston was suddenly inhabited by the troops of the Middlesex and Hampshire Militias. The multitude were billeted in cottages around the market square and in nearby farms. For a time the village bloomed with bawdy prosperity, however, the departure of the troops in 1815 impoverished the village, leaving a taste for lawlessness.
The King at the time was George III and much of his army and navy were preoccupied with the war this left a space for illegal deeds to brew at home, it was a time in which smuggling prospered. Many of the local villagers were sympathetic to the smuggling trade and supported it in secret, only giving away with a knowing wink how they came by certain unattainable goods.
When the lantern flashed and night was at its most concealing hour, columns of men would snake down to the shoreline and return scurrying and laden with ‘hot’ cargo. By, daybreak nothing could be seen. So it was for a time, with the smugglers standing tall in the shadows, known but not mentioned by name. Stanton Collins among them, would in his time had profound influence over the village. On one occasion when the local minister, Mr. Betts, was high-handedly suspected from his pulpit after his opposition to marrying a trustee of the chapel to his deceased wifes-sister. Collins and his gang served their own justice, ejecting the new minister, replacing Mr. Betts in his pulpit and mounting guard around the chapel so he could continue the service undisturbed. Reportedly, Mr. Betts, advocated the gang’s actions in his own manner by giving out the hymn “God moves in a mysterious way”.
The golden age of smuggling eventually had to come to an end and by the 1830s The Alfriston Gang had dispersed. The fate of Stanton Collins is not quite clear, some say he was sent to the gallows for stealing sheep and other claim he was transported to Australia for burning a barn. Either way, what is clear is that his mischievous deeds caught up with him, and all that remains today is Ye Olde Smugglers Inne, a building full of clues that still remembers in its rafters the strange coming and goings of a smuggler.
