About Pluckley

Earliest records show that the name Pluckley probably comes from Pluccan lëah from the Old English 'Plucca's clearing.'

The heavily wooded area, part of the “Andredswald” (a forest covering a vast expanse of Kent, Sussex, Surrey, Herfordshire, Hampshire and Dorset) was important to smelting and charcoal production during the Iron Age.

Early records show that a Roman road led through the village (under what is now the Thorne Estate, towards the Pinnock and on through Frith Wood) while the site of a Roman villa has been found nearby at Little Chart.

At the time of the Domesday Book (1086), Lanfranc, the Archbishop of Canterbury, owned Pluckley, then spelt Pluchelei. He gave the village to the management of a Saxon knight, John Folet. No church is recorded in the Domesday Book, but there was certainly a priest in the village.

Early in the Eleventh century, Pluckley was a larger community than Ashford whose recorded value was £5, while Pluckley's was £15. With 16 villagers, 7 smallholders and 8 slaves managing 12.5 acres of meadow and caring for 140 pigs Pluckley was a thriving community.

During the 1100's the village was spelt Plucelea and Plukele. 

Later, the main livelihood of the area, especially from the 13th century onwards, was weaving. This was done in the home from local wool and may explain the unusually high ceilings in some of the older properties in the area.

Over the years, the village gradually expanded down the hill slowly encroaching on the forest until, in the 14th century, the Black Death decimated the population.

At this time it is likely that Pluckley's survivors moved back up the hill believing it to be a healthier position. (A document of 1572 states that Pluckley Rectory was 'in a low, unhealthy place, a great distance from the church.')

In 1450, groups from Pluckley joined the abortive revolt by Jack Cade: The Kent Rebellion. Around 5000 rebels descended on London to protest against the weak leadership of King Henry VI. The rebels beheaded several favourites of the King; then looted London. A battle broke out on London Bridge from which the rebels fled. All were pardoned by the Lord Chancellor in a move to get Cade to call of his followers; however, Cade was subsequently captured and executed along with about 43 of his followers. Records show that nearly 50 pardons were issued to inhabitants of Pluckley: a surprisingly high figure for a village.

A century later blood was again spilt, this time in the church, during the Wyatt rebellions. (In 1554, Sir Thomas Wyatt led a group of rebels in protest at the marriage of Queen Mary to King Philip of Spain. The rebellion was crushed; Wyatt was beheaded and his title and land removed. However, it was restored when Queen Elizabeth, a distant relative of Wyatt, came to power.) It was then that the parish church of St Mary at Pevington was destroyed. Pevington parish was later divided between the villages of Egerton, Little Chart and Pluckley, with this last getting the greatest area.
Pluckley is also home to what is arguably one of the oldest railway stations in the world. The structure, opened in 1842, still stands today and remains relatively unchanged.

The Dering Family

The Dering family, from their early beginnings in the reign of Henry II, grew in importance, inheriting the manor of Surrenden to the east of the village and renaming it Surrenden Dering.
The title of Baronet was passed down from Sir Edward Dering, 1st Baronet (1598-1644). It is this first Sir Edward who is generally believed to have escaped from the Roundheads through a narrow, curved-topped window at the manor - a popular myth that led to the addition of 'Dering windows' to most, if not all, of the houses owned by the Dering family during the romantic Victorian era.
The Dering Manuscript, the earliest surviving manuscript text of any Shakespearean play, was discovered at Surrenden Manor, Pluckley, Kent. The manuscript provides a single-play version of both Part 1 and Part 2 of Henry IV. The consensus of Shakespeare scholars is that the Dering MS. represents a redaction prepared around 1613, perhaps for family or amateur theatrics, by Edward Dering (1598-1644), of Surrenden Manor, Pluckley, Kent.
The third baronet, also Sir Edward Dering, was commissioned by William and Mary to raise a new regiment and in 1689 the 24th Foot was born. Holding the record of the most VCs gained in a single 12-hour battle (Rorke's Drift of 1879: the subject of the film 'Zulu'), its name was changed in 1881 to the South Wales Borderers. Now part of the Royal Regiment of Wales, its roots were acknowledged at a 300th anniversary ceremony in the village in 1989. This event is recorded in the church on a plaque of Welsh slate.
The twelfth and last baronet was Sir Rupert Anthony Yea Dering; the baronetcy died with him in 1975.

Surrenden Dering

Surrenden Manor was built c1356 by John de Surrenden. He was succeeded by his daughter, Joan, who married John Haut Esq. On his death c1431, their two daughters were co-heirs, of whom the elder, Christian, married John Dering. The Manor stayed in the Dering family for generations to follow.
Between the two World Wars, Surrenden Manor served as the US Embassy (see below).
During World War Two, like many large country residences, the manor house was used as a billet for troops. The soldiers flatly refused to sleep in one of the rooms.
In 1950 the manor house was turned into a preparatory school, The Northaw School  (previously housed in Potters Bar, London and subsequently at Norman Court, near Salisbury.
The school was damaged by fire on 10th Oct 1952; a poltergeist was considered by many local people to be responsible for the blaze.

St Nicholas’ Church

“The church, which is dedicated to St. Nicholas, is a handsome building of sand-stone, consisting of two isles and two chancels. The steeple is a spire, in which are five bells.  The south chancel of this church, dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary, belongs to the Dering family; it was rebuilt by Richard Dering, who died in 1481, in which he lies buried, as do his several descendants. The monuments, as well as many of the gravestones of the Derings, still remain, with their brasses richly inlaid, on the pavement of it, as well as in the south isle.
This church is a rectory, the patronage of which was part of the ancient possessions of the See of Canterbury, and remains so at this time, his grace the archbishop being the present patron of it.” (Rec1798)

Located at the top of the first aisle in St Nicholas’s Church is the Dering Chapel, where numerous members of the family lie buried. A strange, dancing light has frequently been seen in the upper section of the window to the right. It is often accompanied by the sound of knocking coming from the family vault below.

In the early 1970s, a group of psychic researchers persuaded the rector, the Reverend John Pittock, to allow them to spend a night locked inside the church. When the vicar came to let them out the next morning they complained of having spent an uneventful night, the boredom of which had been alleviated only by the vicar’s dog, who had come to visit them from time to time. ‘Actually,’ the vicar commented, ‘I don’t have a dog.’

White Lady

St Nicholas's Church apparently has a ghostly Dering lady that may haunt the inside of the church, as well as the Dering library in Surrenden Dering.
This woman’s beauty was famed throughout the neighbourhood, and when she died, at a tragically young age, her husband was grief-stricken. He could not bear the thought of the effect that the ravages of the grave would have upon her looks, so he had her body wrapped in a priceless flowing gown. She was placed in an airtight lead coffin with a single red rose laid upon her breast. Sealed inside a further series of airtight lead coffins, she was finally encased in a casket of solid oak and buried in a deep vault in the Dering Chapel. On misty autumn mornings she apparently breaks free from these confines and manifests in the churchyard, as beautiful in death as she was in life. Her flowing black hair is a striking contrast to the white of her gown. Clutched before her she holds a single red rose.
The white lady was seen whilst Surrenden Dering was the US Embassy between the two world wars. A Mr Walter Winans supposedly held a lonesome vigil one Christmas Eve in the library with his hunting rifle. When the White Lady appeared before him, he reputedly shot her. The shot passed through the apparition. She vanished through a panelled wall which might have led to a tunnel which was supposed to link the house with the Church. The witness may have been Walter Winans (1852-1920), an American born British marksman and sculptor who competed in the 1908 Olympics winning a gold medal for shooting; and silver in 1912. He did live in Kent and as he died in 1920 it would certainly help date the sighting.

Red Lady

She is reputed to have been a member of the Dering clan from c1100 whose baby died at birth and was buried in an unmarked grave, possibly because it was illegitimate. The lady herself died shortly afterwards, some say of a broken heart, and was laid in the family vault. But her apparition, in a flowing red dress, often appears in the churchyard, drifting silently between the tombstones, calling to her lost child.

The Highwayman

At Fright Corner (once Frith Corner), an unknown highwayman was reputedly ambushed by either the law or other criminals and killed with a sword, pinning him to a hollow oak tree that once stood in this area. In some accounts there was a fight between the highwayman and his attackers and in others he was hiding in the hollow tree and was pierced when a sword was pushed into the hollow. According to legend, the ghosts appear a re-enactment of the killing is repeated. I don't know of any evidence to support the legend nor have I heard of any witnesses to the ghostly re-enactment. Ghostly Highwaymen and their stories can be tentatively dated to the time when Highwaymen were active in the 18th Century.

Alternatively: He was pursued across the fields by the forces of law and order, and made his last stand with his back to an oak tree that stood here until quite recently. He put up a tremendous and spirited fight, but was finally overpowered and run through with the cold sharp steel of several swords. His last desperate battle is, from time to time, repeated before startled witnesses who pass this spot in the early hours of winter evenings. Others see his lifeless body, slumped forwards and pinned to a phantom tree by a large sword that protrudes from his chest.

Pluckley ’s most intriguing ghost story concerns Robert du Bois, a murderous highwayman who frequented the area, surprising his victims by using an old hollow oak tree at the crossroads - so fittingly called Fright Corner - as a hiding place. When his victims were at a disadvantage – as he could tell by spying through a hole in the thin wall of the ancient tree - he would emerge from it and pounce.
Du Bois, however, made the mistake of using his trick once too often. It had become common knowledge in the district that the oak could yield a nasty surprise for the unwary, so one traveller took no chances and ran his sword through it as he reached the rotting remnant. The Highwayman was run clean through, as dead as his hiding place.

The oak tree is long gone, but it is said du Bois still haunts that crossroads, perhaps embarrassed at his stupidity and undignified end, or maybe hoping to get his own back on the long dead traveller who took no chances.

Station Road

Monk - A house called Greystones is said to have had a monk haunt its grounds. The house was built around 1863 and was called Rectory Cottage (home of the curate for St Nicholas's Church). Residents of Greystones (renamed in 1924) have denied encountering any paranormal activity there. 
The monk is said to have lived in Tudor times, and is reputed to have fallen in love with the daughter of a neighbouring property. As we shall see shortly (see below), she died under tragic circumstances and he sank into a state of melancholy and bitterness. His only solace was to walk the green fields and leafy lanes where they had enjoyed so many romantic interludes together. But, as time passed, he sank deeper into depression, pining for his dead lover, and finally died of a broken heart. His ghost, however, continued to wander the neighbourhood, and was last seen in 1989 by an American journalist who glimpsed his unmistakable brown-robed figure drifting behind the house.

Tudor Lady

Rose Court is another haunted Pluckley house which dates back over two hundred and fifty years. This ghost is again the result of another suicide.
The story goes that the lady, possibly a mistress of a member of the Dering family, fell in love with the monk who lived at Greystones (see above), and found the love triangle so distressing that she drank a fatal cocktail distilled from the juices of ivy and other poisonous berries. When her body was discovered, it was apparent that her final moments had been spent looking across the field to Greystones. The fact that Greystones wasn’t built until 1863 – should not stand in the way of a perfectly good ghost story, there could have been another house on the site then! Strange things apparently do indeed happen within Rose Court. Articles are moved around in the night, strange groans and sighs disturb the early hours and it is said that a peculiar eerie atmosphere hangs over the garden.

On another note, a lady, possibly the same one, could be heard calling for her two dogs. She is said to have haunted both house and gardens between 1600 and 1700 hours, which is when she is supposed to have died. This was also the time that the dogs in the nearby hunting kennels were fed; and when the kennels moved, the ghost and dogs weren't heard again.

Back on Station Road, more than one person walking along here has heard the sound of a man and woman chatting happily, accompanied by a dog’s playful yapping. Closer and closer they get until they are virtually upon you, and then the phantoms fade as they pass along the road – much as they have done for as long as anyone can remember.

The Screaming Wood

Dering Wood is locally nicknamed Screaming Wood. It is an eerie experience to walk these muddy paths through the skeletal trees, especially when it is getting dark.
The journey is made even spookier by the knowledge that many lone wayfarers who have come this way have been scared witless by a sudden loud, anguished scream. It comes from deep within the wood and sends the birds flapping from the trees.

Blacksmith's Forge Tea Room

The building’s origins go back to the 14th century, when it housed a blacksmith’s forge. It then became an alehouse, but it is now a charming, cosy tea room run by Gloria Atkins, who shares her home with at least two ghosts. One is a cavalier whose jovial form has been seen by several members of the family striding in and out of various upstairs rooms. The other is a Tudor maid, who stands by the fireplace slowly turning the spit, watched by bemused customers.
Gloria has experienced further phenomena, such as a line of hanging mugs suddenly clinking together as though someone had just walked by and run a finger along them. On a cold November afternoon in 1997, as she was working in the kitchen, she heard the front door open and close. This was followed by the sound of a chair being moved away from a table. Picking up her notepad, she went to take the customer’s order only to find that the tea room was empty. She could see that a chair had been moved back from the table, but there was nobody in the building.

The Clay Pit

An accident occurred at the old Brick works and clay pit that supposedly created another of Pluckley's ghosts. A man was killed when either a wall of clay collapsed onto him or he fell into a clay pit, depending upon which version of the story you are listening to. You are supposed to be able to hear his screams to this day, although no record of such an accident has ever been found.

The Dering Arms

The Dering Arms was once an old hunting lodge is said to be haunted by an old lady in a bonnet. This apparition is said to be so clear that she is mistaken as a customer whilst sitting at a table.

The Schoolmaster

On Dicky Buss's Lane (named after the Miller, see below) is said to appear the hanging body a schoolmaster that is suspected of having committed suicide after World War I. The hanging body of the schoolmaster from Smarden was found by Richard Buss a few weeks after he went missing. As far as I am aware, no one has ever seen this ghost and the tree from which he hung is no longer present.
Alternatively, in the 1920s, at the end of Dick Buss’s lane, a group of children on their way to school came upon the body of their teacher, hanging from the branch of a tree. The reason for his suicide was never discovered, but on certain nights, when a light breeze rustles the trees and a full moon sits high over the neighbourhood, his ghostly form is clearly seen, swinging back and forth, hanging from the branch where his living form breathed its anguished last.

The Miller

As with many ghost sightings this apparition is said to be a black silhouette. It haunts a ruined windmill near a house called The Pinnocks. The mill had been closed by its last miller Richard 'Dicky' Buss in the 1930's and was then destroyed by fire in 1939 when it was struck by lightening during a storm. Stories of the haunting spread whilst the mill was in disuse and could possibly be related to a rumour that Dicky's son used to set bird traps in there with long white sheets attached. It is said that the ghost appears before the arrival of a thunderstorm.

History of Richard (Dicky) Buss

Richard, born June 1845 in Pluckley married Mercy Hooker, born 1847 in Egerton; the marriage was in Dec 1873 in W Ashford.
1891 census: Richard, Miller and baker, and his wife lived with children Lilian (16), Charles John (15), Rosa (Rose, 10), Bertha (5) and a “servant”, Charles F Lusted(?) who is a baker.
1901 census: Richard Buss, Miller, aged 55, lived on the Street with his wife, Mercy (54) and daughter, Rose (20). He would have been in his late 80s in the first half of the 1930s. Lilian was a boarder in Ashford; Charles a boarder in Folkestone where he worked as a “Driver Horse Groom”; Bertha was a boarder in Ashford where, interestingly, she shared lodgings with one Frederick Ninn, “Servant”, also 15.
Meanwhile, the “servant”, Charles Lusted, is married to Beatrice and they have a 5 year old son and an 8 year old “boarder” with a different surname! They live in New Romney; he is still a baker.
Rose married Ernest John Ninn in W Ashford, Dec 1903. He was Frederick’s brother; they came from a Headcorn farmer’s family.
Bertha married Arthur Stanley Barling in W Ashford, Sep 1919. She died in T Wells on 4 Dec 1954.

Coach

Maltman's Hill is haunted by the sounds of a horse drawn coach. This ghost has been seen on at various places around the village. One October a lady was lady driving home from babysitting her granddaughter, just after midnight. At Pinnocks Crossroads she could see a coach being pulled by horses with light coming from its windows. I am unsure, but her husband may also have been in the car and witnessed the coach too. On another occasion, one local resident using the back roads to get home had the coach pass straight in front of him. In early November 1997, around 7.00pm someone who was driving through Pluckley had the inside of their car filled with the sound of horses' hooves on cobbles. The road wasn't cobbled but in the past it would have been.

Gypsy Woman or Watercress Woman

At the crossroads bridge, the apparition of gypsy woman has been seen smoking a pipe. Apparently she used to sell watercress which she found in the stream. She was a well known local character, considered eccentric but harmless. Each night as the sun went down she would sit on the walls of this bridge, smoke her clay pipe and drink gin from a battered old flask. One evening she fell asleep. The pipe dropped onto the rags she wore for clothing, and within moments she had erupted into a raging ball of flame. No one heard her agonised screams. She was found the next day, a charred pile of ashes, the battered old flask and the shattered clay pipe lying nearby. Witnesses have described her as being a misty figure sat on the bridge. In the years that followed her tragic death, she manifested as a screaming, howling figure surrounded by flame. But in latter years she has become nothing more than a faint, pink glow, that hovers in the air on the spot where the ‘Watercress Lady’ was burnt to death. Note should be taken that this area around Pinnock Bridge is apparently an area where natural mists form on a regular basis.

 Black Horse Inn

Pluckley's original Black Horse was sited in a rather modest building amongst a nest of cottages to the west of the church.  The premises which now bear the same name was built in the 14th century as a farmhouse, at which time it was encircled by a deep moat, long since filled in although still discernible in places. Then it was the bailiff's house from which the Dering estate was managed. The pub is haunted by a ghostly prankster who delights in hiding the personal possessions of staff and customers alike, and who has locked the landlady out of her pub on more than one occasion. Items, usually clothing go missing, only to reappear at a later date when they have been considered truly lost.
Laura Gambling took over the pub in November 1997 and on her first Sunday was enjoying a cup of tea just prior to opening for the busy Sunday lunchtime session. She noticed a glass on the shelf above the bar move just a little. As she watched it she was astonished when it began to slide along the length of the shelf, stopping when it reached the edge. Other ghostly activity includes: an unseen hand that lifts cutlery from the dresser and arranges it neatly on the side; a spot in the kitchen where the pet dogs stop abruptly and bark at something, or someone, that only they can see; and an upstairs room that the dogs refuse to enter and where Laura’s twelve-year-old daughter has seen a ‘nice lady in a red dress’. Indeed, so haunted is this delightful and cosy old pub that it makes the ideal place to relax and unwind at the end of your perambulation around England’s most haunted village.
The atmosphere in the Black Horse is peaceful and benign and the activities of who or what-ever is responsible for the going and coming of these items presents no more than an inconvenience to which the more frequent victims eventually become immune. It would be quite legitimate to regard the perpetrator as a 'ghost' but so far no efforts have been made to add this resident prankster to the village's spectral list and so give the pub 'haunted' status.