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Monks, mistresses, servants, headless horsemen, queens and dogs…
If you're looking for spine chilling experiences, you're sensitive to spirits or you just love a good ghost story, Kent is the perfect place to spend Halloween.
The village of Pluckley has a very cool claim to fame. It is believed to be the most haunted village in England with sightings of at least 14 different ghosts, not to mention others that have been heard but not seen. The ghosts include the Red Lady, the White Lady (there's always a white lady) a monk and his unrequited love, a couple and a dog, a gypsy watercress seller (she gets our vote as the creepiest) a highwayman, a cavalier, a Tudor maid, a teacher, a prankster and even a coach and horses.
On further investigation it turns out the creepy gypsy woman liked a gin, accidentally spilled it on herself and lit her pipe. Yep, she went out in a blaze of glory so she's probably more 'Boozed Up Britain' than 'Most Haunted' but we've all been there (haven't we??) ...so I'm saying nothing.
The Black Horse in Pluckley dates from the 13th Century and has plenty of ghostly tales to make you scared to go the toilet alone. Both America's and Britain's Most Haunted have filmed here. Resident ghosts include a former owner, the Bailiff, who sits in the corner with his trusted dog and a poltergeist who some believe is a young girl. She plays tricks on customers and staff, stealing objects and hair pulling. Over the years there have been many claims from customers who say they have had ghostly chills, been pushed through door ways and even lifted off the ground.
Below: The Black Horse
The 'Most Haunted' presenters stayed at Elvey Farm when they filmed in Pluckley. A 7 room B&B that goes for it at Halloween in a big way. The owners organise a kooky Haunted Weekend with village ghost tour, paranormal investigations and guest psychic.
See www.elveyfarm.co.uk for details and for information on the village go to www.pluckley.net
Below: Elvey Farm
Around Maidstone, Leeds Castle's phantom is a black dog that is said to bring bad luck to visitors. Bad luck if that's all you see I reckon. I want monks with skeleton faces, or headless queens, not black dogs.
The Larkfield Priory Hotel is haunted by Charlotte, a 19th-century servant girl. She fell in love with the groundskeeper, but got knocked up before they got married which was a huge sin in those days. She lost the baby due to the stress of it all and the groundskeeper rejected her so she hanged herself but that wasn't the last that was heard of her. She caused so much disturbance in the mid-1980s that the hotel manager called in a clairvoyant, who discovered Charlotte was just one of a number of spirits in the building. Apparently a gallows was once situated on the site too.
On a small island in the Medway at Nettlestead, a bridge appears once every November and a monk can be seen throwing a bound and gagged woman from it. Nice. She was probably knockedup too, it seems to be a recurring theme with all these ghost stories.
The Sevenoaks area has the ghosts of two noblewomen. Combe Bank School is situated within 350 acres of parkland. It was here that Lady Ferres asked her husband for a divorce and the steward of the estate was asked to give evidence in the petition. The steward was found dead and the Earl of Ferres, was subsequently arrested for the murder. He was hanged at Tyburn. Before he died, he cursed his wife and wished that she should experience a death more painful than his own. She subsequently married Lord Frederick Campbell and eventually did die a torturous death, she was burned alive in a fire in the tower of Combe Bank. All that was found of her in the ruins was the bone of one thumb which was buried at Combe Bank. The ghost of Lady Frederick Campbell is said to still haunt the ground of the estate. Presumably all of her and not just the thumb.
The second is the Duchess of Cumberland, Lady Anne Clifford. She was the unfortunate wife of Richard Sackville, and is said to walk the dark avenue of chestnut and oak trees to the north of Knole Gate House. The area she walks was named Duchess Walk after her ghost was seen there several times, always on windy moonless nights. Lady Anne married the 'black sheep' of the family, the third Earl, who plunged into the splendour and vanity of court life and subsequently bankrupted himself. Yep, we never learn.
Old Soar Manor in Plaxtol near Tonbridge, has the remains of a medieval knight's hall with a 13th-century solar (family quarters). The manor was once owned by the Culpepper family, which looms large in Kentish history and whose menfolk were rumoured to have founded their fortunes as the biggest landowners in Kent and Sussex by marrying all the available heiresses of the day. It is said that the house is haunted by the ghost of a young servant girl called Jenny. When Jenny was 17 in 1775 she was called in to help prepare food for a great Christmas feast. While she was busy in the dairy, the family priest, who had been getting himself into the Christmas spirit, took it upon himself to initiate a nativity of his own. When Jenny's realised she was pregnant, she asked the parson what she should do about it and he told her she should marry her boyfriend. She fainted, hit her head on the font and drowned in it. When she was found, it was assumed that she had committed suicide and was buried in unconsecrated ground, from which she returns from time to time to haunt the old house.
The town of Tunbridge Wells is rich in ghostly sightings - at least 20 haunt The Pantiles and local trader Geoff Butler leads occasional ghost walks describing them. The villages around are rich in spirit wanderings too - a headless horseman, probably a cavalier, has been seen thundering down a road in Rusthall, while a young mother haunts the site of her former home in Pembury.
Over at Hever Castle Anne Boleyn crosses the bridge over the River Eden every Christmas Eve. With her head where is should be. She is also said to walk the castle on Boxing Day and her doleful love songs, sung in a minor key, can be heard from the room where Henry VIII wooed her.
Another ghost has made itself felt, in the north-west corner of the castle. Viscount Astor's housemaids were afraid of the corner and of using the spiral staircase. Others too have felt this fear and complained of a feeling of chill and unease when passing the end of the Long Gallery, as though something unpleasant had happened there.
In the Queens' Chamber visitors occasionally notice people sewing in the room but on looking again, the room is empty apart from portraits on the wall.
In Henry VIII's room children don't like the horrible looking man sitting on the chair... but adults don't see him.
In 2006 two members of staff saw what they thought was a housekeeper in the doorway along the corridor of the Tudor Village; one member of staff particularly liked the crossover 1940s style dress. They realised there were no housekeepers at work at that time and went to investigate, but no-one was there...
If you want the full experience, you can book accommodation where ghosts can be seen, or felt...
The Chequers Inn, Smarden
www.thechequerssmarden.com
Stay in the haunted room if you dare: a resident Napoleonic soldier makes occasional appearances when the mood takes him. Apparently, upon his return from the wars in around 1812 he stayed at the inn and was plied with drink one evening by a young lass. When he retired to bed suitably anaesthetised, she crept into his bedroom to rob him. He awoke however, and in the ensuing struggle she stabbed him and fled, but the poor man died from his wounds.
For the less adventurous, there's a four poster room with charm and no ghosts.
Eastwell Manor Hotel, Boughton Lees, Ashford
www.eastwell.co.uk
A White Lady has been seen and strange noises have been heard. A housekeeper is said to have left for good after a frightening experience in one of the rooms.
And it's not just the buildings in Kent... Bluebell Hill in Maidstone is a notorious stretch of road were there have been numerous reports of drivers hitting people who have vanished before emergency services reach the scene. Be careful when you drive along here in the dark...
Steeles Lane, Meopham is hone to the ghost of a young Parisienne said to visit the area regularly. In the aftermath of the defeat of the French Emperor Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, the British army was sent to occupy Paris. Its task was to keep order while the re-established regime of King Louis XVIII was installed. In the event, the French caused little trouble and the British army did not have much to do. One soldier was a private in the Buffs, Kent's premier regiment. With time on his hands, the young man had a fling with Mademoiselle Pinard, promising to marry her in due course. The regiment eventually left Paris and was sent home to Kent. Believing her lover's promises, Mlle Pinard scraped together enough money to buy a wedding dress and to pay for her fare to Kent. Arriving in Meopham at the soldier's home, the girl found herself cold-shouldered by the man who wasn't interested anymore . Distraught and penniless, Mlle Pinard dressed herself in what was supposed to be her wedding dress and hanged herself in Steeles Lane. Her ghost lurks there still, standing quietly by the side of the road on the spot where she died.
Her sad death served as a warning. In the 19th century many mothers would point to the phantom and admonish their daughters to get their man up the aisle before getting into bed with him.
These days we have Jeremy Kyle.
Tags: kent pluckley ghosts halloween
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