Pluckley is one of Kent's most stunning villages.

But while it may look picturesque during the day, Pluckley is known as a place where you will often hear something go bump in the night.

With more reports of ghost sightings per person than any other village in the country, it’s said to be England’s “most haunted”.

It was even recognised as such by the Guinness Book of Records in 1989.

First pictures show the new rules in place inside socially distanced Wetherspoons

Back in 2019 - before COVID-19 was even in vocabulary - myself and fellow reporter Lauren set off on a dark Friday night to find out if there was any truth in the legends or if the stories of hauntings were little more than tales to scare children and attract tourists.

Both fairly cynical towards the idea of paranormal activities, we went without any real fear of what we might encounter.

Our cockiness would not last long.

As we arrived at our hotel, just as things were getting dark, we encountered our first spook, and perhaps the scariest thing imaginable for any Millennial: we suddenly lost all phone signal.

It wasn’t the only sign of electronics playing with our minds, Lauren’s Fitbit buzzed for no reason.

A digital hiccup? Or a message from beyond?

After settling in our room we discovered another fright - we were not alone.

An incredibly large spider had taken up residence inside the room's bathtub. It felt like a menacing sign of things to come.

When we spoke to the lady behind the bar about the so-called haunted nature of the hotel, she scoffed: "It's nonsense."

Reassured by this, once darkness fell we walked out of the hotel’s main entrance.

But in what felt almost cliché we were greeted by a black cat.

Equal parts ominious and adorable

He seemed friendly but we both agreed it was definitely a sign of something.

Following us in the dark for a mile-and-a-half down a path away from the hotel, we wondered if he was trying to shepherd us back to safety.

If so, his warning fell on deaf ears; we were here on a mission.

Sign up for the free KentLive newsletter

Signing up to the KentLive newsletter means you'll get the latest news direct to your inbox twice a day.

It couldn't be simpler and it takes seconds - simply press here, enter your email address and follow the instructions. You can also enter your email address in the box below the picture on most desktop and mobile platforms.

You can also sign up to our website and comment on our stories by pressing here and signing in.

'I had stuff happening'

After stopping in at The Rose & Crown, the barmaid Becky Ward told us while she had never experienced any horrors there, when she had been working at The Plough in nearby Stalisfield Green, she had seen some things that defied explanation.

“I had stuff happening there,” she said.

“Glasses falling off the shelf, we had a glass one time, it went flying off for no reason.”

Becky Ward said she had experienced some unexplainable situations while working at another pub

Next stop was the Black Horse Inn, allegedly the most haunted pub in Kent.

A manager of the bar had once claimed that she had seen a glass move of its own volition along a shelf until it reached the edge.

She also said that cutlery had been arranged to the side of a dresser without anyone being nearby to have done it, that dogs would refuse to enter an upstairs room and that dogs would bark at a specific spot by the kitchen, for no reason.

As we got there at 11pm, the darkness of the building put us slightly on edge.

Phantom hounds

Quietly approaching the door, we realised the reason for the eerie silence was that the pub had closed.

We stayed to see if we could sense any otherworldly presence.

After a few moments of waiting, we agreed there was nothing there, but no sooner had we spoken than the barking of two dogs sent us both jumping.

In the darkness, there was no way of telling if these were the howls of incorporeal devil hounds or the landlord’s pets, but we agreed it was best we move along quickly.

We moved onwards through the cold, black night to the church of St Nicholas.

Members of the Dering family had been buried here and the sound of knocking from the family vault is said to have been heard by numerous visitors.

A group of psychic researchers in the 1970s tried to find evidence of spirits in the church when they stayed there overnight.

With nothing unusual found on their cameras or recorders, they expressed their disappointment to the vicar and said the only entertainment they managed they had during the night was from the vicar’s dog, who had repeatedly joined them.

He replied: “I don’t have a dog”.

I thought the story was a little ridiculous, but as I read it aloud, I again heard the sounds of dogs barking.

We were too far from the pub for it to have been the same animals and we could neither hear or see anyone nearby.

The cynic in me was beginning to feel a little less confident, and though I shrugged it off by sarcastically saying “spooky”, I was somewhat shook.

Uneasy loitering

A night in Pluckley might change your views on the paranormal

On to the old house Greystones, a spot rumoured to be haunted by the ghost of a lovelorn Tudor monk.

The man, said to have been in love a young lady, the mistress of another man, who lived close by.

The woman, unable to handle the love triangle she was involved in, took her own life.

A brown-robed figure has apparently been seen by some in the area, though in the pitch black we saw little.

It's safe to say that neither of us had no desire to stray from the beaten path and were feeling a little uneasy loitering around in the very residential area in the early hours.

Passing through the “Screaming Wood”, with our phone batteries rapidly dying and no other source of light, we were regretting the decision to go exploring during the witching hour - which is between midnight and 1am, by the way.

Ramblers have been said to have heard terrible screams in these woods and though we listened intently, we heard little but the wind.

Feeling relieved to be going to our last stop, we arrived at a crossroads called Fright Corner.

It was here that an outlaw was said to have been killed by officers of the law.

During evenings, such as ours, some have reported seeing a corpse, impaled with a sword, lying in front of a tree.

Instead it was the shadow of a phone in the distance and transit truck hurtling around the corner in the middle of the road that really gave us a fright.

The KentLive app has Kent covered

KentLive is the best place to stay up to date with everything that's happening across the county.

Read the latest news and features via the KentLive app, which is completely free.

You can download it on any iOS device from the App Store here or get the Android version from Google Play here.

WhatsApp news alerts

To receive KentLive breaking news and top stories alerts via WhatsApp, text NEWS to 07880 442229.

Please then add 07880 442229 to your phone contacts as 'KentLive' in order to receive the alerts.

You cannot receive the alerts if you do not add the number to your contacts.

Your phone number will not be shared with other members of the group.

I can very happily report neither of us saw any bodies, living or dead, and had no more phantom dogs hounding us as we made our way back to the hotel.

Shining our phone torches in front of us, we saw two silver spots flashing in the distance just as we crossed the boundary of the hotel’s grounds.

As we got closer, we realised it was our cat again, this time accompanied by another feline friend.

It was clear they were here to welcome us back to safety, but gave us a chastising stare as if to warn: “This time you got lucky. But don’t go testing your luck again.”