The first specific reference to a Customs Watch House was in 1752, a letter of 7 August 1782 from Collector to Board states that the rent has been paid for the premises since October, 1756 and was given as £16 per annum
On 8 March, a drug smuggler was jailed for 26 years for leading an operation to bring a record £90 million consignment of cocaine into Britain by yacht. He and five of his accomplices were caught by 150 customs officers on the Isle of Wight after the smugglers' landing was hampered by storms at the end of a 3,000-mile voyage across the Atlantic from the Caribbean.
These cottages were built in 1881 and stand looking out across the harbour entrance to West Cowes and the Southampton/Lymington coastline of the mainland.
