Fred Mew recounts an unusual hiding place for contraband in Mottistone:

It was about the year 1872, when John Cook, a carter could be seen ploughing a deep wide furrow in a field near a withy bed. Farmer Brown, who was passing at the time remarked on its dimensions to the old man, ‘That’s throwing it well open, carter!’, to which John replied, ‘I must do summat to please the old man.’ The furrow was left open at night but by the time morning came it had been ploughed in again and that part of the field lay fallow for many months. When the new bailiff questioned why that part of the field was not being used, he was put off by an evasive reply and never discovered that a crop of contraband tubs lay concealed in the furrow for seven months. The larger tombs in Mottistone churchyard were also reputedly used for this purpose.