It's quite amazing at the breadth of history our town has for such a young place. Search statistics on my blog show that one of the most popular queries is for Tunbridge Wells Tunnels. I have covered some of these before, namely the Second World War tunnels under Hargate Forest but did you know that there are more under our very feet in the town centre?
Lots of people have told us about tunnels which apparently run from Bedford Terrace to Mount Sion (access, reportedly, for gentlemen to call on the ladies of the red light district without being spotted), there are also plenty of mythical tunnels under the common (donkey drive to vale towers) and there is of course the biggest tunnel of all, is the gigantic half-mile tunnel that carries the railway conveniently under our town without spoiling the view. It is important to note that there are no tunnels near the Common car park, the building you see there is an old public convenience that has since been turned into a bat hibernaculum.
But there are more interesting tales of tunnels than even those, and for them we need to step way back in our history to the early 1700's, a time of pirates and smugglers, to a humble local Tunbridge Wellian bricklayer called Gabriel Tomkins.
It seems that the building trade was upon hard times and life was getting a bit too tough for Gabriel, so like some other tradesmen of the time, he turned to smuggling.
By the early part of 1700 he had become leader of the Mayfield Gang, a group of rather pleasant but ruthless smugglers, choosing instead to tie up and disarm their opponents and then later free them rather than the usual cruel violence of your typical Smuggler.
The gang were actually quite popular with the locals too, as in true Robin Hood style they put some of the money they made smuggling back into the local community. Gabriel was an owler, a term for a smuggler of wool, particularly from England to France, in which the French would return the favour with brandy and silks. The gang would ride in parties of 20-30, well armed and fuelled with rebellion, to the coast at Hastings, Seaford or Lydd where they would load up the French vessels and then ride back to town with their payment, storing them in tunnels around Tunbridge Wells, possibly even in the mythical tunnels under Mount Ephraim that until recently were fronted by a well-known chain shop.
But by 1717 the life of crime had caught up with Gabriel and he was charged with the murder of Riding Officer Gerard Reeves during an affray at Langney Bridge near Eastbourne, but luckily was subsequently acquitted. Except that just four years later he was arrested again, this time for his role in breaking-free other gang members from the hands of the law. But again he evaded sentence by turning snitch and giving the authorities valuable information.
He went on to have a mixed career as both smuggler and customs officer, being Custom House Officer at Dartford in Kent in 1735 and Bailiff to the Sheriff of Sussex, but the pull of crime was too much and couldn't be suppressed and he soon fell back into his old ways by robbing the Chester Mail stagecoach for which he was hanged in 1750.
Could the mythical tunnels on Mount Ephraim be Gabriel's Tunnels? Does his ghost wander them guarding his still-hidden spoils? Anyone else picturing scenes from The Goonies of water slides and huge underground pirate ships?
p.s apologies for the non-Tunbridge Wellian photographs but they're actually photos from Seaford, where the loot was loaded. For the life of me I just couldn't find any smuggling-type shots in town
