The Hawkhurst Gang Smugglers

For roughly two decades in the middle of the 18th century, The Mermaid Inn belonged to the Hawkhurst Gang in every way that mattered. They did not own it. They occupied it. They drank in its rooms, stored their contraband in its cellars, and ran their operations through its network of secret tunnels. They sat at its windows with pistols on the table and dared anyone to challenge them. The violence of that occupation has not fully left the building.

The Legend

The Hawkhurst Gang were the dominant criminal force in the south of England during the 1730s and 1740s. Their business was smuggling: tea, spirits, tobacco, silk, anything that carried an excise duty and could be landed on the coast and moved inland for profit. They were not romantic figures. They tortured and murdered informants, attacked customs officers, and broke open the King’s warehouses to retrieve seized goods. The Mermaid Inn served as their Rye headquarters, a secondary base to their main stronghold at the Oak and Ivy Inn in Hawkhurst. The gang built and maintained a tunnel running from The Mermaid’s cellars to the Old Bell Inn on the parallel street. A revolving cupboard concealed the tunnel’s exit, enabling rapid escape when the authorities eventually dared to approach.

The History

A contemporary resident of Rye left a vivid account of the gang’s presence at The Mermaid Inn. He described seeing the smugglers, after successfully running a cargo of goods on the seashore, seated at the windows of the inn carousing and smoking their pipes with their loaded pistols lying on the table before them. No magistrate daring to interfere with them. The gang’s leaders included Thomas Kingsmill and William Fairall, both of whom were eventually captured and executed. The gang’s collapse came after the murder of customs officer William Galley and informant Daniel Chater in 1748, crimes so brutal that they provoked a determined government response. Several gang members were hanged, and their bodies were displayed in gibbets across the region as a warning. The violence that defined the gang’s existence, their willingness to kill without hesitation, and the terror they imposed on an entire port town concentrated at The Mermaid Inn over a period of years.

The Hauntings

The gang’s presence at the inn does not take the form of identifiable apparitions. Instead, the phenomena are physical and environmental. The Giants’ Fireplace Bar, where the gang once sat with their weapons openly displayed, is one of the most active areas. A barman working near the fireplace witnessed bottles falling from the shelf with no vibration, no structural movement, and no logical explanation. Unexplained light anomalies have been recorded in multiple rooms during the early hours of the morning, small points or flashes of light that appear and disappear without source. The cellar areas, particularly near the former tunnel entrances, produce cold spots that shift position and vary in intensity. Staff describe a change in atmosphere when entering the cellars, a heaviness and a sense of hostility that differs from the simple discomfort of being underground.

Witness Accounts

The bottle incident is one of the most cited accounts at the inn because of its physical, observable nature. Staff working in the cellars have consistently reported the sensation of being unwelcome, as though the space belongs to someone else and the living are trespassing. This feeling is most acute near the blocked tunnel entrances, where the gang’s smuggling routes once ran beneath the streets of Rye. Guests have reported hearing sounds from empty rooms, particularly during the quietest hours of the night, including what has been described as the murmur of conversation and the scrape of chairs.

Investigation and Evidence

The Most Haunted programme investigated The Mermaid Inn and recorded activity in the bar and cellar areas. The tunnel system used by the Hawkhurst Gang is documented in multiple historical sources and elements of it remain visible in the building’s structure. The gang’s violent history at the inn is among the best-documented criminal occupations of a private establishment in 18th-century England, providing an unusually strong historical foundation for the paranormal activity reported within its walls.

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This ghost story is part of the haunted history of The Mermaid Inn.