Riverside Cottage was a 17th century thatched building that was by a clearing which led to the ferry and some of these cottages have rather quaint names to them, Tranquility, and Quality to name but two.

The most famous person who lived here was 'The Wicked Man of Wick', Sam Hookey was born here in 1725 and he was the son of a fisherman come part time smuggler who on one of his sorties   to the Channel Islands abducted a lovely Spanish girl and brought her home, He was one of ten children and was a 'bit of a lad' and once dug into a burial mound near Hengistbury Head and was cripple when the tunnel caved in. He set himself up as a farrier and took part in many smuggling activities he was fearless and in one skirmish with the Revenue men he lost an eye and had to wear a patch.

The story goes that in Christchurch harbour in 1764 he split his men into two groups with the smaller group unloading brandy barrels near the mouth of the River Bourne at Bournemouth, suddenly the Riding Master and his troop arrived and his men put up a good fight but soon dispersed. When the Excise men broke open the barrels they  found them full of sea water!

While this was going on Hookey's other group sailed three luggers into Christchurch Harbour with 12,033 barrels of brandy, two tons ot tea and five bales of silk which they unloaded on marshland where the Wick Ferry Holiday Camp is now. The contraband was soon hidden away by the local villagers. Hooke died at the age of 71 in a bizarre but apt manner, when he was caught in a surprise raid one night in 1796, while running tea across the Stour, a panic started and Hookey stepped into a hole in the river bed and being weighed down by having so much gold  in his pockets he sank straight down and drowned.