Smuggling history brought to life by The Yetties' Bonny Sartin (From Dorset Echo)

Smuggling history brought to life by The Yetties' Bonny Sartin

10:27am Thursday 18th March 2010 in

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DORSET’S colourful – some would say nefarious – past will be celebrated at a special evening at Bridport Town Hall.

Bonny Sartin, lead singer with The Yetties, is giving a talk on the county’s smuggling heritage.

It is the second smuggling show he has staged at the venue after last year’s sell-out.

Bonny said: “People keep telling me new things and giving me more information so the talk is constantly changing, getting longer and longer.”

The talk proves that Dorset’s smuggling industry involved a lot more than just a few ‘cheeky chappies’ running the gauntlet of the excise men.

Bonny said: “It was big business and people smuggled in whatever was taxed.

“People think it was a few cheeky blokes bringing in a few bottles of brandy, but there were thousands of gallons of spirits involved.

“At the time the Government put big taxes on things so the smugglers thought ‘yippee’ and got on with it. If it was taxed, they brought it in.”

He added that there were times when smugglers virtually ran the town of Christchurch, and gangs of 50 or 60 men roamed the countryside with little chance of being challenged by authority.

The men were popular with the locals and farm labourers turned out to help carry the contraband inland, earning as much in one night working for the smugglers as they could all week on the farm.

The talk, which is being held to raise funds for Bridport Museum, will be interspersed with songs and poems about Dorset’s smuggling heritage.

It takes place on Tuesday, March 23, at Bridport Town Hall, at 7.30pm. Tickets are £6 in advance, £7 on the night, available from The Coach House, Gundry Lane 01308 458703 or Bridport Music House 01308 425707.