Safe houses / Tunnels

There were many ways that the Hawkhurst gang could hide from the customs men and the dragoons, one of those was to use a safe house for which to hide should the need arise. These were spread across Kent and as far away as Dorset, a bottle placed into the apex of a roof would denote a safe haven for any gang member to hide away till the coast was clear. So far i have only come across two houses which show signs of being a safe house, and as you can see the bottles neatly places for everyone to see, but only a gang member would know the meaning of why it was there. I'm sure they would have used other methods as a visual sign, but ill have to dig further into the history books to find any answers.

Bottles were placed in the apex of the roof to denote that this was a safehouses for members of the Hawkhurst gang

Another house situated in Cattsfield

House located in Greatstone, in Kent, on visiting this house i found out that the house had been transported from East Sussex brick by brick. The builders didn't know why the bottles were placed in the apex, but still added them anyway.

Cattsfield

I caught up with Eddie Lee Sampson not so long ago in the Royal Oak, this is in the centra of Hawkhurst on the crossroads, next to where Arthur Gray was born. Eddie took me to the rear of the pub and showed me a doorway down a few steps, that Eddie and his team knocked through and told me they found a tunnel which went about 100 yards down the hill as an escape route.

I went to visit another pub in Tunbridge Wells and was shown a trap door to a tunnel that was used by the gang, I'm sure there are many such tunnels waiting to be found that have been forgotten in time, waiting to be uncovered, and you never know what could be stored in them.

Many tunnels were dug, with the main one being from the Oak and Ivy to Tubs lane and the pond where the gang used to store their goods, by sinking them in the pond, if that went from the Oak and Ivey to the pond then that would be a distance of just over 1 mile, but i should imagine they would have resurfaced again well before they reached the stream that crossed their path. They also stored a lot of their goods in Goudhurst pond until they were defeated during the battle that ensued there.

If anyone has any information of any tunnels or knows of any safe houses used by the gang, please let me know and I'll add it to the website.

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