It has been just over 10 years since Chesil Beach was the subject of national media attention when tonnes of cigarettes washed up on the shore.

Thousands of packs found their way onto four miles of the beach from a beached shipping cargo container which was found to be washed up at Axmouth in Devon.

Making their journey from Rotterdam in the Netherlands to Sri Lanka, the legitimate cigarettes were lost from the ship, the Svenborg Maersk, somewhere in the Bay of Biscay during stormy conditions.

Locals awoke on February 25 to discover the beaches covered in cigarettes. 

Dorset Echo: Cigarettes found on Chesil BeachOverall, the ship was reported to be carrying around 11 million cigarettes when it lost a number of its containers overboard. It was believed that more loose containers were in the channel approximately 75 miles off Land’s End.

Items from the cargo ship were found all over the south coast from Devon, to West Bexington and up to Hengistbury Head, where bags of Iams cat food were also found, along with packets of tea, feta cheese and olives.

Dorset Echo: Cigarettes washed up on Hengistbury HeadMembers of the coastguard, police and local authorities were collectively working on the clean up and the collect and secure the cigarettes.

On March 7 2014, it was reported that the Dorset Waste Partnership had already collected between eight to 10 tonnes of litter from Chesil Beach following the incident.

Dorset Echo: A beach clean up in West BexingtonPolice launched warnings at the time, advising the public from making their way down to the beach in the hopes of free cigarettes.Dorset Echo: Police seizing bags of cigarettes at Chesil BeachHowever, it was reported that members of the public had other ideas and were trying to make off with the bags of fags.

Mobile police teams were reportedly waiting at various locations watching people collect their cigarettes and then intercepting at the last minute to take them away.

At the time, a member of the Border Agency staff on the beach said: “We are letting them spend, in some cases hours, collecting the packets and we then intercept them up after all their hard work and relieve them of their cargo.”

More were anticipated to be washed up in the weeks after, and an HRMC spokesperson told the Echo that the washed up cigarettes were ‘not going to be worth smoking.’

The community came together to help clear away the rubbish on the beach, with public beach cleans at Osmington, Ringstead, Fleet lagoon and Chesil Beach. 

What were your memories of the cigarettes washing up along the beach? Comment below.