A short history of Cowes Customs

Cowes has been a customs port since 1575. With the Solent offering a sheltered anchorage and a thriving shipbuilding industry there was a need for customs to collect duties on cargoes arriving from foreign ports and in a period of great trade expansion for Britain to give preference to her ships by a ship registration and crew control system (clearance for foreign ships being harder to obtain).

Until the late 19^th Century the chief customs officer in a port (the Collector) was often the only representative of the government and consequently customs officers had immense powers to control all forms of shipping around the ports and coast of the Isle of Wight – indeed as recently as the 1980s commercial ships had to notify customs of all their coastwise voyages (ie from one British port to another) that included every Red Funnel ferry trip from East Cowes to Southampton!

Cowes Customs were until May 2005 based in the Custom House, this is the building at the end of the Parade next door to the Island Sailing Club. Cowes has had a number of customs offices: a Custom House, originally at East Cowes and the Waterguard Watch House. When the East Cowes Custom House shut in the 19^th century the functions were carried out initially in Birmingham Road, then the old General Post Office, Northwood House and finally in the Watch House in 1980. The Watch House was the building where the uniformed staff were based, it had two rowing boats in a boathouse on the ground floor (only converted to accommodation in 1986) its own slip down into the River Medina and a very tall flag pole. The pole originally carried a customs ensign 21ft (7m) long as did the flag pole at the Custom House in East Cowes, from 1703 until the East Cowes Custom House closed these huge ensigns were the only reliable means of communication (fog permitting!) between the two offices on opposite sides of the harbour and proved very effective.

  Until 1979 all yachts arriving from a foreign port had to report to Customs and their crew remain on board until an officer physically boarded the vessel and customs operated launches to carry out this function. Cowes was the fifth largest Registry of Shipping port in the UK (in terms of new registries). All the records relating to registry from inception in 1796 to 1986 were in the office until quite recently. In 2000 the Cowes-based officers played a significant role in Britain’s largest ever coastal drugs seizure (400kgs of Cocaine near Ventnor). The last full time officer retired in April 2005 which means after 430 years the Isle of Wight no longer has a customs presence.

Taken from a article written by Mark Southwell for the Cowes Heritage Summer 2005 exhibition

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21/05/2005