St Nicholas' Church, Pluckley
We were warned about visiting Pluckley, we also had explicit instructions about not bringing any spirits back home with us as sometimes they will latch onto you. Of course we visited Dering Woods a few weeks prior to this and were scared witless, but that didn't stop us from coming back to visit the little church we spied when we were last here.
Of course, this turned out to be the most haunted church in the Britain, not sure what we expected considering its in the most haunted village in the Britain, but hey ho. We didn't see anything, but we did capture the White Lady on camera and we did get a very strange feeling when out on the green where the Witch Trials took place.
We do intend to do a post on Pluckley as a whole, but certain places deserve a post all to themselves and this adorable little church and churchyard is one of them.
The Church of St Nicholas in Pluckley is an Anglican church made of Kent Ragstone. It's one of the seven parishes that form the Benefice of Calehill with Westwell. While the current church has sections dating back to the Norman period, there has been a church in Pluckley since at least 1090AD.
The current iteration of this House of God had been heavily influenced by the Dering family who lived nearby and reside within a grand tomb in the churchyard. Many plaques commemorating the family are within the church and the south chapel is even named after the family. When the church was renovated in the 15th century the font took the Dering Family Arms.
In the churchyard there is a large plot fenced off which houses the Dering family. There is a tomb below ground which houses most of them, while also separate graves nearby including one of the second son of Lord Henry Dering, Bart, who died when he was 6.
Aside from the Derings', the churchyard consists of 18th century chest tombs and 18-19th century gravestones. Rumoured to also contain the remains of the White Lady herself who is said to be buried within 7 coffins and an oak sarcophagus.
Speaking of ghosts, also haunting the churchyard is a little white dog and the Red Lady who is said to be one of the Lady Derings who is mourning the loss of her stillborn child.
The churchyard also expands into an almost empty plot of land nextdoor. This contains a labyrinth and only 3 graves, all dated within the last 5 years. We assume this is a space exclusively for recent burials rather than disturbing the much older graves within the original churchyard.
As mentioned beforehand, we didn't actively see any ghosts HERE, but when looking back over our photos we caught the trail of a white dress walking away from us behind a tree. We believe this to be the White Lady. It was when we exited the churchyard at the other end and walked along the green that we felt a little strange. Based on local history we believe this to be the space where the local Witch Trials were held and those convicted were hung, but more information on this sad and gruesome leg of history will be included in a different post.
It was on our way back to the car, outside The Black Horse (the haunted pub of Pluckley) that we actually saw a ghost. It was in the upper windows that we both saw the ghostly white face, which we had actually captured on camera the last time we were here. Many other people have seen this face in the window as you can see it online, but having seen it ourselves we got a little spooked and decided to go home. We plan to have a nice pub lunch there during our next (and hopefully final) visit to Pluckley. We have nothing against the beautiful little village, we just dont go much on its ghosts. It's our own fault really, we know the consequences, but we just wanted to find out about the history which led to these infamous stories.
We'd visit again in a heartbeat as we love looking at the little houses nearby and respectfully exploring the graves and paying our respects to those long forgotten. We just encourage respect and being careful, these are peoples family sand a graveyard, they dont need tourists tearing up the place.
DISCLAIMER: Now for the official bit. This blog does not receive any paid promotions from the places mentioned above. We have not been approached to promote or act as spokespersons for any attraction mentioned within this post and this is simply a post intended to act as a day in the life of a couple on a cute date. All photos included are taken by ourselves and as such the rights for these images our ours, no links, brands, or companies mentioned otherwise belong or are associated with Phantom Adventures UK. We are responsible only for this blog. Opinions are our own and not influenced by any third party source..
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