HISTORY of SUSSEX
Blinker Pays his debts: Page 1
Westwards from Beachy Head the chalk cliffs of Sussex rise
and fall in a series of undulations so remarkable that they have earned
for themselves the name of ' The Seven Sisters '. Within a mile or so of
the Head its 500 foot cliffs have shrunk to less than 30 feet, and here
there is a cutting to the beach.
Its very name - Birling Gap - would seem to link back to a very distant
period, for the name "birling" for a boat is Gaelic; and that
this is the same word seems almost certain in view of the possibility of
access from the shore to the sea here. There was a coastguard station at
Birling Gap, and, if you make your way further west, you will embark on
the billowy voyage across the Seven Sister's.
The sharp observer will probably object that there are eight and not seven
hills, and this is true; but one of them, the third, attaining a height
of but 10 feet, is not dignified by a place in the sisterhood.
Beyond it comes Flagstaff Brow, from the top of which the traveller looks
down on to the now disused coastguard station of Crow Link where, at the
beginning of the century, a slipway to the beach existed. Erosion, which
is going on all along this part of the coast, has, however, removed the
lower part of the cutting, and the old path is no longer accessible. With
four hills now behind you, you have yet four more to go ere you find yourself
overlooking the Cuckmere Valley with the old site of the Cuckmere Coastguard
Station visible across the Haven.
Thus, within the short span of about five miles, there once existed no
less than four coastguard stations - Beachy Head, Birling Gap, Crow Link
and Cuckmere. There can be little doubt that this prodigality of defence
on the part of the Government in bygone days was due fully as much to the
determination to stamp out the smuggling traffic as to any fear of a foreign
invasion.
Changes in the physical features of this district have somewhat obscured
the problem which faced such an enterprise a century ago. Donald Maxwell
reminds us in ' Unknown Sussex ' that Alfriston, now some four miles up
the insignificant Cuckmere, was a " port " once'.
To look at the lower Cuckmere Valley today might well make one wonder
how such a thing could have been. Yet prior to 1844, when the New Cut from
Exceat to the sea was made, the valley was more or less in flood all the
winter, and every spring-tide must have brought about similar conditions.
Imagine then, how different must have been the spectacle presented by the
Haven at such times.
At spring-tide the water, instead of being confined, as now, within the
narrow limits of the embankments which determine it's course, would have
spread from the slope of Cliff End ( the western side of Haven Brow, the
last of the Seven Sisters), right across to the western hill. The flood-water
would reach right up to Alfriston and would thus provide a width of waterway
extremely acceptable to the smuggling craft who could then convey their
booty to that metropolis of contrabanders with the comfortable assurance
that nothing short of a whole fleet of preventive boats could patrol such
an area.
Communication between the coastguards was maintained by a path which
connected Beachy Head, through Birling Gap and Crow Link, to the bank of
the river, where a ferry completed the link. This path was marked at regular
intervals by small heaps of fresh chalk whose whiteness showed up remarkably,
even on a dark night.
These remains of these heaps may still be seen today by the sharp eyed
observer, although they have lost their former size due to neglect. If you
pursue the trail from Birling Gap, you will walk over the first of the Seven
Sisters and on into Michel Dean and - over the cliff edge! A large fall
of chalk here has not only carried away the path but a considerable portion
of the corner of a cultivated field.
This introduction may seem long winded but an understanding of the topographical
details is essential to the story which is to follow.
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Smuggling in Sussex
