The Paranormal Database

Owl

Location: Pluckley - Pinnock Farm
Type: Other
Date / Time: Pre 1948
Further Comments: A letter in the Kentish Express reported a ghost thought to be at the farm turned out to be a screech owl.

Alarm

Location: Pluckley - Private residence
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1989
Further Comments: Two employees would be woken at 02:15h by their alarms over a two week period, although neither had set their devices. The figure of a young woman quickly vanished after being spotted by one employee, and a cat would appear in the building before disappearing in areas with no possible exist. Finally, men (but never women) would find one room particularly disturbing, with builders refusing to work within and guests leaving during the night.

Caviller

Location: Pluckley - Private residence, Forge Hill
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Autumn 1962
Further Comments: Two women in this property spotted a Caviller looking in through a front window. The witnesses rushed to the door expecting to find someone in fancy dress, but no one could be seen. One woman described the head as not solid, although it was not transparent either. Another occupant in the same house heard a thundering sound on the road outside and was convinced he had witnessed a phantom coach.

Coach

Location: Pluckley - Road between village and Maltman's Hill
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A phantom coach pulled by four horses can be heard thundering along the road after dark.

Tutor Lady

Location: Pluckley - Rose Court
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This reputed female phantom could be heard calling out for her hounds, although it is said that she has not been heard for many years. The woman is said to have committed suicide by eating poisonous berries.

Dog Walkers

Location: Pluckley - Station Road, area around Greystones House
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Couple unknown, monk reported seen in 1971
Further Comments: Victims of the all-too-common love triangle that ends in suicide, this couple and their little dog can be heard walking and chatting down this area of the road. The road is also the haunt to a ghostly Cavalier, while Greystones itself is reputedly home to a phantom monk.

Flaming Woman

Location: Pluckley - Surrenden House (original house burnt down 1952)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 24 December (reoccurring) (Dering), circa 1904 (fiery figure)
Further Comments: Tradition has it that a former Lady Dering would manifest as a white lady on Christmas Eve. In 1904, newspapers reported that a visitor to the house spotted a burning woman holding a baby running along the driveway. The witness fainted, and by the time she had recovered, the figure had vanished. Another entity, later the same day, was said to have tried to strangle another woman in her bed (although the newspaper speculated this event occurred because of the day's excitement).

Horses & Carriage

Location: Pluckley - The main village street
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Seen trotting down the main street, the history of the carriage pulled by two horses (or four, depending on the source) is unknown.

Cold Spot

Location: Pluckley - The Old Bakery
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The former bakery is said to have a 'presence', disembodied footsteps, and a permanent cold spot; the events started after renovations were carried out.

Taxi Fare

Location: Pluckley - Unnamed road in village
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: Late twentieth century / circa April 1976
Further Comments: A taxi driver reported seeing a man on the roadside who flagged the taxi down. The fare climbed into the back of the cab, but when the driver turned around to ask his passenger where he was heading, he found the car empty. While the motif of this story is a common urban legend, it may be a corruption of a newspaper story from April 1976, where taxi driver Michael Spalding claimed he hit a 'tramp' who walked in the middle of the road. Spalding felt a bump, stopped the car, but was unable to find the figure he had hit. After thirty minutes of searching the area, he reported the incident to the police.

Spitfire

Location: Postling - Postling Wood
Type: Other
Date / Time: 21 June 2012
Further Comments: The story of a ghostly spitfire appearing here was carried in the local press; it was actually Spitfire BM597, owned by the Historic Aircraft Collection, and was operating from Pent Farm Aerodrome on the day in question.

Lord Rokeby

Location: Postling - Stone Street
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Lord Rokeby races around the area, minus his head, being drawn by a team of four horses.

Drowned

Location: Queenborough - Mouth of the Themes
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: An evil captain, discovered his passengers were carrying treasure, forced them off his ship on to the sandbanks here and left them to drown. The water on the spot was said to be more disturbed than normal, with moaning heard from beneath the sea, and the occasional blue/green light glowing.

Prisoners

Location: Queensborough - Deadman's Island (SSSI)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Used as a burial site for prisoners who died on floating prisons moored nearby, local folklore says the men's ghosts haunt the area. Other stories claim a large black dog with red eyes has made its home there, while another story says other monsters with a taste for brains lurk on the island.

Christopher Bloor

Location: Rainham - Lane leading to Bloor Place (no longer standing) and near church
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Christopher Bloor had a reputation for being a seducer of women. This proved to be Christopher's undoing - he was decapitated by a posse of local men with wives with whom he had slept. The lane was haunted by the headless Bloor, who reputedly drove his coach pulled by headless horses, and ghostly hoofbeats heard around the church.

Space Man

Location: Rainham - Sky above Medway
Type: UFO
Date / Time: May 2017
Further Comments: Mark Taylor photographed a strange man floating high in the sky. After local press picked up the story it was revealed the sighting occurred on the same day a child had their life-sized stormtrooper balloon swept away by the wind.

Katherine Sprackling

Location: Ramsgate - Ellington Park (site of Sprackling family manor)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: In 1653, gambler and murderer Adam Sprackling was hanged for the murder of his wife Katherine at their home the previous year. Adam also killed his six dogs, and these creatures and his wife were reputed to haunt the manor until its demolition in the late nineteenth century. The Vicar of St Laurence performed an exorcism during the 1730s in an attempt to banish the terrible sounds which had been heard in the area, although one story claimed the ghostly sounds had actually come from a nearby stables. Regardless, local stories say that Katherine can still be heard crying for help.

Cross Entity

Location: Ramsgate - Private residence, South Eastern Road
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: March 1974 - January 1975
Further Comments: After Florence lost her late son's crucifix in the garden, poltergeist activity broke out around her home and was blamed for the collapse of a staircase. Florence's story reached an army mine detection team, who discovered the missing crucifix in mud close to the house.

Sarah?

Location: Ramsgate - Private residence, Vale Road
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: 2000s
Further Comments: It was reported that violent poltergeist activity occurred here, perhaps relating to the death of a woman named Sarah that occurred a few decades previous.

Not Rats

Location: Ramsgate - Unnamed semi-detached house on Ramsgate / Broadstairs border
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: February 1947
Further Comments: Scraping, rapping, and gnawing sounds could be heard in this house, turning into loud bangs and crashes while the occupants were away (neighbours believed someone had entered the house, but they searched and found no one). Initially thought to be evidence of rats, it soon transpired that the rapping followed the family's daughter after they moved.; floorboards were torn up, but no evidence of rodents could be found.

The Reculver Towers, Kent.

Crying

Location: Reculver - The Reculver Towers
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Folklore says that the haunting cries of a baby have been heard many times in this area. During the 1960s, the skeletal remains of young children were recovered close to the site. Nearby Roman ruins and coins dated the human remains to around 270 - 300 AD, and it is thought the infants were sacrificed to appease an unknown deity. Other stories say a phantom cowled figure drifts through the ruins, and a duel takes place on the cliff edge.

Roman Soldiers

Location: Richborough - Richborough Castle
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The fort overlooks the landing site of many a legion, and some of the soldiers have found it hard to leave their duties. Some stories consist of several hundred ghostly soldiers matching into the sea, where they vanish under the waves.

Smiling Old Man

Location: Rochester - George public house, High Street
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The cellar was once a church crypt and within a small man (sometimes identified as a monk) has been observed.

Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell

Location: Rochester - Guildhall
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Sir Cloudesley bought the decorated plaster ceilings at the guildhall with his own money - perhaps that is why this phantom wearing uniform has been seen walking the corridors.

Pale Woman in Blouse

Location: Rochester - Hotel (exact one unknown, but next to former airstrip / current airport)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Late twentieth century
Further Comments: This young female form, sometimes accompanied by a clicking sound, appears on the second floor of a modern extension of the hotel. Some staff members believe her to be connected to a murder that once took place on the piece of wasteland just outside the original building.