Seaside fun at Dymchurch, Kent in 1964.

Not sure if this is August Bank Holiday Monday, but it probably is as the weather is so miserable.

The narrator comments that the whole village “gets together like one happy family really enjoying itself with home-made fun, a rare thing in these days of ready made entertainment”.

And apparently this is a re-enactment of a scene from a novel; but the novel is not named.

I think the re-enactment is to do with the Doctor Syn novels of Russell Thorndike.

The story idea came from smuggling in the 18th century Romney Marsh where brandy and tobacco were brought in at night by boat from France to avoid high tax. Minor battles were fought, sometimes at night, between gangs of smugglers and the Revenue, supported by the army and local militias in Kent and Sussex.

The novels detail Dr Syn’s adventures and his attempts to help the people of Dymchurch and the surrounding area evade the Excise tax. They are:

Doctor Syn: A Tale of the Romney Marsh (1915)
Doctor Syn on the High Seas (1935)
Doctor Syn Returns (1935)
Further Adventures of Doctor Syn (1936)
Courageous Exploits of Doctor Syn (1938)
Amazing Quest of Doctor Syn (1939)
Shadow of Doctor Syn (1944)

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