OS grid reference TQ927455 Sovereign state United Kingdom Local time Wednesday 3:32 AM | Civil parish Pluckley Area 12.63 km² Dialling code 01233 | |
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Population 1,069 (Civil Parish 2011) Weather 6°C, Wind SE at 19 km/h, 77% Humidity | ||
Pluckley and Pluckley Thorne are very close clustered neighbourhoods in the Pluckley civil parish in the Ashford district of Kent, England.
Contents
- Map of Pluckley Ashford UK
- Geography
- History
- Surrenden Manor
- Elvey Farm
- Saint Peters Hall
- Transport
- Local folklore and legends
- Appearances in the media
- References
Map of Pluckley, Ashford, UK
Geography
The landscape of the area itself is one of the edge of a well-drained plain with the lowest slopes of the Kent Downs to the north-west. Pluckley is mostly agricultural in land use and centred 5 miles (8 km) west of Ashford.
History
References to Pluckley can be found in the Domesday Book, at which time it was a more significant settlement than the now considerably larger town of Ashford.
Surrenden Manor
Surrenden Manor was the former residence of Sir Edward Dering, 1st Baronet (1598–1644), who is buried locally, and it was here that the Dering Manuscript, the earliest extant manuscript text of any Shakespearean play, was discovered. 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.
Elvey Farm
Elvey Farm dates from 1496 and includes a collection of stables and outbuildings dating from the 16th to 18th centuries
Saint Peter's Hall
Saint Peter's Hall was the venue for a benefit concert by blues guitarist Eric Clapton to raise awareness and funds for the Crossroads Centre in the Caribbean island of Antigua (a member of the Commonwealth of Nations), on 20 October 1997.
Transport
The village, approximately 5 miles (8 km) from the nearest junction of the M20 motorway, is served by Pluckley railway station, about 1.25 miles (2 km) to the south. It lies on the Greensand Way long-distance walking route and is close to the Stour Valley Walk.
Local folklore and legends
Pluckley had an entry in the 1989 Guinness Book of Records for being "the most haunted village in Britain", with 12 different ghosts reported; the category is no longer in use by Guinness, and a visiting Daily Telegraph journalist in 2008 cast doubt on the veracity of the claims.
Appearances in the media
The ITV drama series, The Darling Buds of May, was filmed in the village (doubling for Sidcup) in the early 1990s.
The villages official status as the most haunted village in Britain has drawn many TV and radio series there.
Pluckley was also featured on an episode of BBC's Top Gear. Two of the presenters, James May and Richard Hammond, were filming a review of the Smart Forfour. The presenters spent 24 consecutive hours in the car, spending the night in the Screaming Woods.