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Thomas Knight of Barry Island

Barry Island, Vale of Glamorgan

A smuggler who ran Barry Island as his private fortress.

In the 1780s a smuggler named Thomas Knight took over Barry Island, then a real island, with an armed ship and a gang of men, using it as a base to land goods from France and Ireland. The authorities struggled to remove him.

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When
1780s
Where
51.3920, -3.2700
Group
Pirates

Visiting

Barry Island, now joined to the mainland, has a famous beach and Pleasure Park.

Cover of Blood and Gold by Cale Mills
Read the full story in the book

Blood and Gold

Sixteen true stories of mutiny, mercy, treasure and the gallows from the Golden Age of Piracy: Henry Every, Bartholomew “Black Bart” Roberts, Edward England, Howell Davis, Christopher Moody, Anne Bonny, Mary Read, Charles Vane, Benjamin Hornigold, Blackbeard, Stede Bonnet, Israel Hands, Calico Jack, Edward Low, Captain William Kidd and Samuel “Black Sam” Bellamy. Where the record is uncertain, the book says so.

Buy on AmazonAll books by Cale Mills

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