In the 18th century, coal ships from Neath were the principal smuggling vessels, trading with Ireland and returning with concealed contraband. What makes the Neath area exceptional though, and possibly unique, is the nature of the involvement of women in the trade. The local smugglers were led by Catherine Lloyd, who was the landlady of the Ferry Inn of Briton Ferry.


Briton Ferry as it was when Catherine Lloyd pulled pints at the Ferry Inn.
The women were evidently of stern stuff, and when in 1726 a 'sitter in ye boat at Briton Ferry' seized some brandy and wine, four of the smugglers rescued their contraband, and 'abused' the revenue man. Eight years later Catherine Lloyd was still running the pub (now called the Bretton Ferry) and still smuggling. She made the mistake of offering contraband India cotton to an off-duty customs collector from Llanelly:

'Edward Dalton...Stop'd at the publick house to drink a Pint of ale, the woman of ye house, one CATHERINE LLOYD a widdow not suspecting him to be an officer bro't out the s'd goods and offer'd the same to sale as India Goods, moreover told they were RUN GOODS she had secured the night before...Said Widdow is very well to pass in ye world and Suppos'd to have All Her Riches by Running of Goods for SHE is an old offender and NOTED SMUGGLER'

The trade continued through the century, still under the control of women. An anonymous informer wrote from Gower to the tidesman at Briton Ferry in 1758, giving the names of four women who had gone from Neath to Bridgewater to buy uncustomed tea. What is not clear from any of these accounts is the exact role of the women involved. Most probably, Catherine Lloyd would have been financing the operation and storing the contraband in the pub, rather than a sea smuggler.

Later in the century it seems that the Briton Ferry smugglers had progressed from tea and cotton to brandy: in 1771, customs inspectors found 18 kegs of the stuff on the sands at Briton Ferry, with ropes attached ready for carrying. They commented that the brandy came from Guernsey, and probably came ashore as a raft...'as is the practice made use of by smugglers'. If this is true, it is a rare Welsh example of goods being rafted in.

Guernsey smugglers continued to land goods in the area, and in November 1787 customs men seized the Polly of Guernsey at Neath Abbey. Their searches were interrupted by a mob of colliers and copper men who tried to storm the vessel, stoning the customs men. A second attack, at midnight, was only repelled by firing on the crowd.