High up on the southern side of the inn is a small window through which the gang would shine a signal light to their partners up on Aldington Knoll when the way was clear for them.
[3] The gang carried out a landing near Sandgate with 250 men taking part, unloading a galley laden with spirits, tobacco and salt that had been rowed across the Channel from Boulogne and pulled up onto the shingle beach.
[5] Their leader at that time was Cephas Quested who, in the confusion of the Battle, turned to a man close by him, handed him a musket and instructed him to "blow an Officer's brains out."
[3] Ransley took over the gang of smugglers after the Battle of Brookland, and employed a doctor, with an allowance paid to a man's family if he was ill, a policy that avoided the capture of injured men by the revenue forces and helped to ensure loyalty.
In October 1826 Ransley was arrested at Aldington by the Bow Street Runners on suspicion of murder, but as it took place in the dark, the death sentence was converted to deportation[5] along with his brother-in-law Samuel Bailey as was fellow gang members Thomas Gillham and James Hogben.
The gang began to lose this special relationship as they extended their ruthless behaviour beyond that of the publicly acceptable crime of smuggling and turned on the rural communities.
A reward was offered for information after this incident which was claimed by several people and as a consequence, in October, 1826 the blockade forces together with two Bow Street Runners raided The Bourne Tap and captured George Ransley and seven other members of the Gang.
They were all found guilty of charges that carried the death penalty but their lawyer, a local gentleman from Maidstone, managed to get some of their sentences commuted to transportation.