Seatown is a tiny cove on the Dorset coast, and the Anchor Inn stands at the end of the road close to the beach, under Golden Cap, the highest point on the south coast of England. The pub dates from the 18th century. The cove was well suited to landing contraband, and according to the account on Haunted Britain, the extent of the trade was such that in 1750 Seatown was given a resident exciseman.
The story goes that the post was a thankless one. One man was supposedly expected to hold back several smuggling bands on his own, and the local squire was reputedly a leader of one of the bands. Excisemen met open hostility, and one is said to have been shot dead at the top of the Anchor stairs while he listened to a group of smugglers in the bar below. His ghost is said to wander the premises, described in the source as a forlorn figure lamenting the lack of manpower that led to his death.
The same account says a cottage beside the inn, once let as holiday accommodation, had its own strange activity and that several guests found it alarming enough to refuse to go near it again. No names, dates or dated witness statements are given for either claim, and I found no independent record of the exciseman's death. The smuggling background is well attested for the Dorset coast generally, but the specific murder and the haunting rest on one popular retelling, so the entry is tagged as traditional.
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