Battle of Mudeford

[1] On 5 July 1784, the Revenue cutter Rose patrolling in the English Channel sighted sail and pursued the vessel to check its cargo.

Meanwhile, the owner set about mustering 300 men, 100 wagons and 400 horses to move the goods from the Avon beach just east of Mudeford Quay where the cutters traditionally dropped off their illegal cargoes.

A pitched battle ensued but it was an uneven contest: the smugglers were firing from trenches they had dug along the beach, whereas the preventive forces had to take aim from rocking open boats without cover.

[1] John Streeter managed to escape punishment and continued his activities using a tobacco processing plant next to the Ship in Distress as cover.

He was still hunted by the authorities and in 1787 William Arnold the collector of customs at Cowes wrote The battle highlighted the activities of the Christchurch smugglers; however, the size of the cargo does not seem exceptional as there are many accounts and stories illustrating how widespread the free trade was.

Another local landmark, The Black House, on the opposite side of the Run from Mudeford Quay, is the subject of a local story, which claims it obtained its distinctive colour when a group of free traders took refuge in the building; the excise officers set fires to smoke the occupants out, blackening the buildings walls, which are still painted black to this day.

A creek flowing across Stanpit Marsh on the northern edge of Christchurch Harbour is named Mother Sillar's (sic) Channel after Hannah Seller, the landlady of the Haven House Inn.

It is reputed that this creek formerly gave secretive access to the rear of John Streeter's property and the adjacent Ship in Distress Inn at Stanpit.

However, the common claim that Hannah Seller was the landlady of the Ship in Distress Inn is unsupported by any known documentary evidence, whereas her tenure of the Haven House is recorded in the Poor Rate Book until the year before her death in 1802.

At the same ceremony an adjacent William Allen Memorial Bench was unveiled by Higher Officer Andrew Finn of UK Border Force, the modern equivalent of the 18th century Revenue service.