FORGET asylum seekers and the laden vans of today’s booze runners. Kent’s smuggling traditions go back a long, long way. visited the lair of one of the most famous smugglers in the county.

To the untutored eye Bourne Tap looks nothing much out of the ordinary; a pretty whitewashed cottage, snuggled into picturesque rolling hillside. But it hides a dark secret.

It is one of Kent’s premier smuggling landmarks, built by George Ransley, leader of the notorious Aldington Gang.

Rumour has it that he found a secret stash of booze, sold it and built the cottage at Bilsington on the proceeds.

Remote is not the word for its location, chosen with care by one of the most infamous criminals of the day to be far from prying eyes or casual callers. Bourne Tap is nestled into a fold in the hills on the very edge of Bilsington and only five miles from the coast at Dymchurch.

Ransley was well organised and even had his own firm of solicitors and a resident surgeon on hand to treat the battle scarred. The gang landed the French brandy at secluded spots along the coast between Deal and Rye.

If you want quiet, Bourne Tap is for you. No wonder Ransley managed to evade the Revenue men for so long. All you can hear in this idyllic spot is birdsong, the occasional bleat of a sheep and now and then the clattering hooves and baying bugle as the hunt passes by.

But it was anything but quiet the night the King’s men finally came for Britain’s Most Wanted.

It was on October 17 1826 at the unearthly hour of 3am that Ransley was arrested. So surreptitious were the law posse that they were at the house before the dogs could bark a warning and Ransley could get out of bed.

After his rude awakening Ransley was sent to Maidstone assizes to be hanged but this sentence was commuted to transportation to Tasmania where he was pardoned and ended up a successful farmer. The present owners of Bourne Tap are Peter and Jane Porter, otherwise unofficially known as Ransleyreunited.

At least once a year one of Ransley’s Tasmanian descendants knocks on their door, retracing their criminal roots.

The original cottage, built in the 1800s consisted of just two rooms which Ransley ran as an unlicenced pub and house of ill repute. All that remains of his legacy is a part of the old smugglers’ road in the garden. Or is there more?

These two beamed rooms are now used as a dining room and cosy sitting room with a woodburning stove while the house has been considerably extended in the 1920s and 1960s.

Jane and Peter have lived here for nearly 20 years and are only the third owners since the 1920s, a testament to the beauty of its location.

They bought Bourne Tap 20 years ago from the Fanshawe family who had moved in in 1963 with their two sons David and Simon - but it seems the spirit of the smugglers may live on. The Fanshawes added an extra bedroom for David who awoke one night in terror saying: “A man with a wheelbarrow has just trundled past my window and down to the well outside.”

Mrs Fanshawe dismissed this as nonsense until, some years later, an elderly cousin was staying in the same room. He came up to breakfast telling the same story.

But none of the Porter family have witnessed this phenomenon. Jane said of guests who have slept in the room: “They usually sleep really well after a lot of wine!”

However, she did admit to an occasional friendly presence: “I do get the feeling sometimes that people are watching and approving of what we’re doing, for example, when I’m gardening.” But they have acknowledged the legend of Bourne Tap - they installed a weathervane on the chimney after hearing that one was used to signal to the smugglers whether to turn up or not, depending on the direction to which it pointed.

Jane and Peter and their two young sons moved to Bourne Tap from Battersea when Peter, a civil engineer, began work on the Channel Tunnel construction. It was a marvellous place for the boys and she and Peter have settled into country life so comfortably that he is now chairman of the parish council while she is parish clerk.

Thanks to its additions Bourne Tap is a rabbit warren. On the ground floor are a hall, breakfast room, kitchen, utility room, dining room, study, sitting room, inner hall, two bedrooms and a family bathroom. A lower floor has been added, built into the hillside, which includes a hall, two bedrooms, one of which is en suite, plus a bathroom.

Outside in the rolling four acres is a garage/workshop, summerhouse, shed, poultry run and aviary plus a tennis court and tinkling stream and woods.

The views from all the windows are beguiling. Jane especially loves those from the summerhouse in the evening when the setting sun streams in.