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Moonrakers

Moonrakers is the colloquial name for people from Wiltshire, a county of South West England in the West Country.

This refers to a folk story set in the time when smuggling was a significant industry in rural England. The story goes that some local people had hidden contraband barrels of French Brandy from customs officers in a village pond. While trying to retrieve it at night, they were caught by the revenue men, but explained themselves by pointing to the moon's reflection and saying they were trying to rake in a round cheese. The excise men, thinking they were simple yokels, laughed at them and went on their way. But, as the story goes, it was the moonrakers who had the last laugh.

See also

• Moonshine

Further reading

• Wiltshire, R Whitlock ISBN 0 7134 3117 2
• The Story of the Wiltshire Regiment, Colonel N C E Kenrick (1963)

External links

• The Legend of the Moonrakers. Swindon Life. Retrieved on 2008-02-11.

• Smugglers myth lives. Wiltshire Gazette and Herald. Retrieved on 2007-06-03.