Jamaica Inn Calls for Smuggling Memorabilia

The Jamaica Inn, high in Cornwall's Bodmin Moor, was once a crossroads for smugglers. During the 18th and 19th centuries, all sorts of dark deeds took place in this isolated and windswept place.

Daphne du Maurier drew on the Jamaica Inn's romantic past for her novel of the same name. And for fans of Alfred Hitchcock, the 1939 movie he directed is a classic.

Today the inn is a moderately priced hotel - said to be haunted by hapless victims murdered on the Moor - and the location of Britain's only Museum of Smuggling. According to managing director Kevin Moore, “Smuggling played a large part in the British economy in year’s gone past. And, as tradition holds, it was all very exciting stuff with boats arriving in the dead of night and men with horses transporting goods over secret paths across the misty moors. There was great support from the public who saw many of the taxes as unjust and smuggling developed into a culture of the time."

Said Moore, "While smuggling, like pirates, is a popular story theme for the young there is also a serious side involving the economy of Britain at the time, its trade and its law makers and enforcers. The more we find out, the more we realize smuggling played a huge role in the history of this country.”

Now Jamaica Inn is looking to expand the Smuggling Museum and is calling for smuggling artefacts and unusual information about smuggling from the public. If you have memorabilia and would like to share it, contact the Jamaica Inn by email or telephone +44 (0)1935 842094.

• Check prices for a stay at The Jamaica Inn
• Daphne DuMaurier's Jamaica Inn to buy direct
• Buy Alfred Hitchcock's Jamaica Inn direct

_{Courtesy of Jamaica Inn | UK Travel Blog | share on facebook | Twit This}