Colin Dixon

I have always wanted to write a book from an early age, but could never find the right subject until I stumbled upon the Hawkhurst gang, the most infamous gang of their time. They roamed the south of England and abroad turning their hand to smuggling to make a living. I've enjoyed the long evenings of reading and researching and making their story unfold and bring them back to life. I've been to most of the locations that are in the book during the research and picked up intriguing information along the way. There's a house in Greatstone, that i visited that had been transported from East Sussex to the shores of Kent, moved brick by brick. The bottom of bottles can be seen pushed into the cement at the very apex of the roof on all sides, just where the tiles meet, this house does look a bit out of place for the area. The builders didn't know why the bottles were placed there so rather than remove them they put them back into place. I visited the house and told the owners that the bottles were placed there to denote that their house was a safehouse for anyone in the gang, that in the early days any member of the Hawkhurst gang could find a safe place to stay for as long as they needed to get away from the customs men or the dragoons. I visited another such property in Catsfield in East Sussex to the surprise of the new owners who were curious as to why the bottles were there. And visited George Stanford's house in Hawkhurst, lovely house, took a lot of pictures, but when i got home half of the pictures i took had disappeared off my phone, spooky.