What is a “Moonraker”?

21 August 2014

The Short Answer (TSA)

            Sometimes, people from the Wiltshire County in the West Country of England are called “Moonrakers.”  And, there’s a legend behind that name.

Moonraker Postcard 1903

            There was a time when smuggling was a popular past time in England.  Smugglers would unload “imported” goods from ships landing on the south coast and carry these over secret routes to inland customers.  One of these secret routes passed directly through Wiltshire County. 

            As the story goes, some county residents had hidden a few smuggled barrels of French Brandy in the village pond.  Late, on the night of a full moon, the smugglers took rakes to the pond and used them to try to retrieve the submerged brandy barrels. 

            The worst happened.  They found themselves surrounded by the King’s Revenue Men.  This was every smuggler’s nightmare. 

            Thinking quickly, one of the locals explained that they were using the rakes to try to retrieve a round cheese from the pond.  With the straightest of faces, the smugglers pointed to the full moon’s reflection on the water’s surface -- pretending that they had mistaken the reflection for a submerged cheese.

            The revenue men, thinking that they had come upon some foolish country folk, had a good laugh and went on their way. The local smugglers, wisely, retreated, but returned another night and retrieved the brandy.  The Wiltshire smugglers had the last laugh.  And, after all, he who laughs last, laughs best. 

            The legend existed long before it first appeared in print in 1787.  A good deal of research has been done find the legendary pond.  The most likely location goes to Crammer Pond at Southbroom, Devizes in Wiltshire.  But, there is another villiage laying claim to both the story and Crammer Pond. 

            Residents of the rival village, Bishops Cannings, located a few miles north of Southbroom, claim that the pond used to belong to their village.  As they tell it, a change in the parish boundaries, in 1835, replaced Crammer Pond with the neighboring village of Southbroom..  But, then, many villages with other ponds, also, claim to the be original location of the story.  

M Grossmann of Hazelwood, Missouri
(& Belleville, Illinois)
About the Author
21 August 2014