HAUNTED: Pluckley Village

Nestled in the countryside of Kent, England, is a quaint little village known as Pluckley. Dating back centuries, the town is a place some never want to leave—earning it the reputation of “The Most Haunted Village in England.” At least 12 different ghosts have been spotted around town regularly—and in the 1950s one author began uncovering the ghosts’ true identities.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:02Rasha Pecoraro?

  When we see the words "ghost town," what comes to mind? Old saloon doors swinging in the wind, a tumbleweed blowing across a dirt road? A torn-up "Wanted" poster hanging from a lamppost? Yeah, same. But what if we told you that the term "ghost town" is taken a little more literally over in Kent, England? Because there, in a tiny village of about 1,000 people, 17 of them are said to be ghosts.

• 0:35Yvette Gentile?

  Since the 1950s, Pluckley Village has been considered the most haunted town in England, maybe even in the whole world. In 1989, it literally found its place in the Guinness Book of World Records for being so damn haunted. And what's interesting about Pluckley is a lot of its ghost stories are tied to real confirmed events, like a woman named Sarah Sharp, who died in 1911 and has since been named "The Watercress Woman." And a man named Richard Bridgeland, who died in 1899 in a terrible quarry accident, who's now called "The Screaming Man of the Clay Pit."

• 1:19Yvette Gentile?

  So basically, what we're trying to say is, there are a bunch of stories about deceased residents that seem to stick around Pluckley well into the afterlife.

• 1:33Rasha Pecoraro?

  Which of course got us thinking: what is it about Pluckley that's so darn special? Or dare we even say cursed? And could this little village hold the key to understanding the paranormal on a more accessible level? I'm Rasha Pequeviero.

• 1:54Yvette Gentile?

  And I'm Yvette Gentile, and this is So Supernatural.

• 2:31Yvette Gentile?

  Pluckley Village is fascinating to me for so many reasons. Because there are a lot of places like this all over the world. I mean, in homes, neighborhoods, and natural formations like rivers and caves that are said to attract ghosts. And nobody knows for sure what makes these locations so special. But of course, there are a lot of theories. Like, maybe there are portals to the underworld or to other dimensions there. Maybe spirits are just attracted to the energy. Another idea is that when horrible things happen to people, the trauma can actually trap their souls.

• 3:16Yvette Gentile?

  Which is one reason why so many mental hospitals and prisons seem to be hotbeds for supernatural activities.

• 3:25Rasha Pecoraro?

  That makes total sense. But on the other hand, some people believe ghosts make decisions the same way living people do. They stay very close to the people they loved. Or because they have fond memories of their experience where they once were.

• 3:43Yvette Gentile?

  But whatever their reasons, some places are hotbeds for hauntings. Take Pluckley Village. It just feels like something completely out of a ghost story.

• 3:56Rasha Pecoraro?

  It's a tiny town with a population of about 1,000 people today. You can find it in the County of Kent, which is about an hour and a half southeast of London. And it's fairly well-known for a few reasons. In 1958, a British author named H. E. Bates wrote a novella called "The Dardling Buds of May." It later got adapted into a TV show, which was filmed in Pluckley and hit the airwaves in 1991. And fans of the show flocked to the town for a few years afterward. Kind of like how Twilight fans still visit Forks, Washington today. So, Russia, I gotta ask you a question. Have you ever been to Forks, Washington?

• 4:40Rasha Pecoraro?

  Like, you're so close. I am very close, but no, I have not been to Forks, Washington. However, one of my best friends in the world, Lauren, has been there many, many times. So I've seen pictures. I know what it looks like. It does kind of remind me a little bit of Pluckley. We need to go. I'm just saying, we need to go next time. Absolutely. Team Jacob for life, but I digress.

• 5:07Rasha Pecoraro?

  Well, Pluckley is also known for having one of the oldest currently operating train stations in all of the UK. So if you can picture a quaint but well-known English village, full of historic buildings, surrounded by rolling fields, you get a sense of what Pluckley Village is like. But for me, if you look up Pluckley Village, or if you Google it, it totally reminds me of Harry Potter's hometown of Godric's Hollow. And that's where he was born and he visits the graveyard where his parents are buried. It's actually a little creepy, in my humble opinion.

• 5:49Yvette Gentile?

  Well, more importantly, this town is old. So old, nobody knows exactly when it was founded. The earliest written records of it are from 1086 CE. But archaeologists have found structures in the village dating all the way back to 270 CE. Meaning, Pluckley may have been around during the Roman Empire, or even before that. So just imagine living in a place that's been inhabited for at least 2,000 years, and possibly much longer than that. Of course, anywhere with that much history is going to feel otherworldly.

• 6:35Yvette Gentile?

  That's especially true when you check out the unforgettable architecture.

• 6:41Rasha Pecoraro?

  Many of the buildings around town have these really unique windows. Instead of being a traditional square shape, the top is a curved arch. That's because way back in 1598, Pluckley Village was run by the family of a young lord named Sir Edward Deering. After Edward had grown up, a bunch of other nobles joined in a rebellion against the King of England. But Edward chose to be loyal to the Crown. Eventually, the rebels captured Edward and held him prisoner. But he escaped captivity by jumping out of a window, specifically, one with a rounded circular top.

• 7:24Rasha Pecoraro?

  Years later, one of his descendants, another lord in the area, announced that every building on his property had to feature this style of window to honor his escape. This style came to be known as the Deering Window. Since Pluckley is in Deering territory, a ton of the buildings have Deering windows, which makes the whole town look like something out of a fairy tale. But to be clear, the Deering Window isn't the main thing the town is known for. Pluckley Village is mostly famous for its ghost stories. It feels like everywhere you go, you hear rumors and gossip about Pluckley's dark history

• 8:09Rasha Pecoraro?

  and the spirits who still roam the town's streets seeking peace or justice. Like the supposed Red Lady. Legend has it that she was a member of the Deering family who lived centuries ago. But nobody's entirely sure when or even what her first name was. But apparently, she was incredibly beautiful and had a husband who completely adored her. Sadly, Lady Deering died young.

• 8:40Yvette Gentile?

  Her husband was so incredibly grief-stricken that he ordered an elaborate lead coffin to be made for her. He placed a red rose on her body before he closed the casket. Then she was laid to rest in a church in Pluckley Village called Saint Nicholas. But then, right after the funeral, locals around town spotted a beautiful woman dressed all in red wandering through the graveyard outside the church, holding a single rose. And she bore an eerie resemblance to Lady Deering. Over the years, she appeared pretty frequently, and always at the stroke of midnight.

• 9:24Yvette Gentile?

  It's said that to this day, she still shows herself to some lucky visitors who come to the church at night.

• 9:32Rasha Pecoraro?

  The problem is, since no one knows who the Red Lady was or how she died, it's hard to tell if this story is true, or if it's just a local legend. Even the people of Pluckley aren't sure. For centuries, everyone in town just told one another the story of the Red Lady. It got repeated, but no one ever thought to double-check where it actually came from. And it's not the only story in town with uncertain origins. Apparently, there's a bush in Pluckley Village that has some kind of connection to hell and to the afterlife. So the stories are vague, and it's hard to say exactly how the bush is tied to the underworld,

• 10:15Rasha Pecoraro?

  but people claim you can literally summon the devil by performing a certain ritual at the bush. You have to wait for an evening with a full moon, then strip down completely naked. At the stroke of midnight, you're supposed to perform a set of dance moves backward, and you have to repeat them exactly 13 times. If you get the ritual just right, supposedly Satan will appear.

• 10:47Rasha Pecoraro?

  And again, the legend's pretty vague on what happens after that. Maybe he drags you off to hell, maybe he does your bidding, or maybe he has free rein to wreak havoc on Earth.

• 11:00Yvette Gentile?

  A lot of the local legends are like that, kind of vague and lacking detail. But they're fascinating nonetheless. For example, there's an old mansion that burned down in town. Pluckley locals say that before the fire, the spirit of a woman in white used to wander through it. But nobody knows who she was or how she died, or how she even was connected to the home. There are also accounts of a ghost that haunts a hollow tree just outside of town. Supposedly, the spirit used to be a thief who would hide in the tree, then jump out and rob people when they passed on a nearby road.

• 11:44Yvette Gentile?

  The story says that he died inside the tree, but it's unclear how, why, or when. And for most people in Pluckley, that's just how it goes. They accept the local ghost stories as vague, assume there's no way of ever finding out more, and just leave it at that. Here and there, people will claim that they saw a ghost or that they know someone who saw a ghost. But nobody's tracking how often that happens or how many spirits there are. But that all changes in 1939. That's when a Pluckley local named Frederick Sanders

• 12:26Yvette Gentile?

  decides to investigate these hauntings for himself.

• 12:31Rasha Pecoraro?

  Now Frederick was born in Pluckley Village. His family has already been here for at least two generations. And like all of the other locals, he started hearing stories about ghosts over the years, and of course, how haunted the town was. On top of that, Frederick was really fascinated by history. He didn't have much of a formal education because he dropped out of high school when he was just 15. But whenever Frederick got a chance, he loved to read about Pluckley's past, the people who used to live there, and the way the town had changed over the centuries. In 1935, Frederick actually wrote a book on the people of Pluckley Village.

• 13:15Rasha Pecoraro?

  He was 27 years old at the time, completely self-taught, and relying on information he was able to find through local records and graveyards. Though something interesting happened while Frederick was investigating.

• 13:30Yvette Gentile?

  That's right, as he was digging through old documents and paperwork, he noticed something interesting. A bunch of real documented stories of people's lives and deaths. And many of them lined up with the ghost stories he'd been hearing since his childhood. Suddenly, he realizes these stories might not just be stories. They could be authentic accounts of real people who used to live in Pluckley Village, then passed away only for their spirits to remain behind. This is a huge deal. Because like I said before, the local legends are pretty vague.

• 14:14Yvette Gentile?

  Until Frederick started doing this research, he never realized the ghost of Pluckley could actually be real people with documented deaths. Plus, Frederick is a big believer in spirits. He even thinks it's possible to study them and understand them using scientific measures. So once Frederick realizes that he might be able to learn these spirits' identities, he decides to look up every bit of information he can to find out about them.

• 14:48Rasha Pecoraro?

  At one point, Frederick actually contacts a newspaper and tells them that he plans to spend a night in the local St. Nicholas Church. His hope is that they'll be able to spot the Red Lady when she appears at midnight and document the sighting. A reporter takes him up on the offer, and they set a date for their study. It's in July of 1939.

• 15:12Yvette Gentile?

  And that month, Frederick experiences something that just can't be explained.

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• 15:54Speaker 05

  Hi, I'm Ashley Flowers.

• 15:55Speaker 06

  And I'm Britt. And if you're on the edge of your seat listening to this show, Crime Junkie needs to be your next listen.

• 16:01Speaker 05

  Every Monday, I dive into a new true crime case that our reporting team has been on the ground looking into. From lesser-known disappearances to the most chilling cases hitting the headlines. And I'm gonna walk you through it the way I tell my best friend, because, well, that's what I'm doing.

• 16:17Speaker 06

  Yeah, that's me. And I'm right there with you as we listen together, react to every wild detail, and of course, I ask all the questions.

• 16:25Speaker 05

  And I'm gonna have the answers, because we have case files, we're talking to detectives and family members, and we're gonna stay focused on the facts.

• 16:32Speaker 06

  So if you're not already listening to Crime Junkie, what are you waiting for? There are over 300 episodes available right now.

• 16:38Speaker 05

  And you can listen to new episodes of Crime Junkie every Monday, wherever you get your podcasts.

• 16:49Yvette Gentile?

  For decades, Frederick Sanders has heard that his hometown of Pluckley Village, England, is haunted. Frederick has never seen a ghost himself before, but he does have one spooky story from his childhood. I don't know exactly how old he was when this actually happened, but one day, he and a friend were exploring an old mill that was said to be haunted. It was dark and dirty, and at one point, his friend reached into a black void, just to feel a skeletal hand grab his palm. Of course, the friend freaking panicked. He and Frederick screamed and ran outside.

• 17:33Yvette Gentile?

  Afterwards, they realized it wasn't a ghost holding his friend's hand. Instead, he'd stuck it into a bird trap which had snapped shut. Once the friend got the trap off, his hand was fine, which is great. And I've got to imagine that after this incident, Frederick and his friend shared a good laugh about how they freaked out over nothing. Still, this doesn't cast any doubt in Frederick's mind that ghost or make-believe. Instead, it makes him want to encounter one even more.

• 18:09Rasha Pecoraro?

  And in July of 1939, he finally launches his own paranormal investigation. He invites a journalist from the Daily Herald along with him to document his work. Frederick and the reporter spend the entire night at the local Saint Nicholas's church. Their hope is to see the spirit of the Red Lady. And I'm not sure why they're focusing on her legend in particular, but maybe they think they have a better-than-average chance of spotting her because her ghost is seen so often roaming those grounds. Unfortunately, neither of them sees the Red Lady that night.

• 18:51Rasha Pecoraro?

  But a few days later, he goes back with his friend Douglas Bennett. And that's when Frederick encounters something equally estrange. First, he notices a glimmering light in the Belfry, which is the big, tall tower with bells in it. Frederick can't tell exactly what the light is. It doesn't look like a lit candle. In fact, it seems to be an electric light, but it flashes on and off really quickly, like someone's flicking a switch up and down. This is weird because as far as Frederick knows, he and Douglas are the only people in the church, and neither of them touch the light switch. Frederick doesn't know how to explain it, but he doesn't have long to investigate,

• 19:37Rasha Pecoraro?

  because legend says the Red Lady tends to appear outside, in the churchyard, at midnight. And it's getting close to that time. So he goes out the front door, and that's when Douglas hears a woman speaking. Unfortunately, I'm not sure what she's saying, and apparently Frederick doesn't hear it for himself. But when Douglas looks around, he doesn't see anybody. Still, in Frederick's mind, there's only one possible explanation. Douglas must be hearing the voice of the Red Lady. So he writes everything down and publishes an article about his experiences in the church.

• 20:19Yvette Gentile?

  Frederick can tell that he's on to something. So three months later, in October, he goes back once again. He spends the night in St. Nicholas, hoping for an encounter with the Red Lady. And this time around, Frederick still doesn't see her, but he does hear her voice. By this point, Frederick's all in on this paranormal quest for the truth. So he goes on to schedule one investigation after the next around town. He also researches an old local mill, the woods outside of the village, and lots of other supposedly haunted places in Pluckley.

• 21:02Yvette Gentile?

  This pretty much becomes his entire life. All throughout the 1950s and 60s, Frederick spends every free second he has searching for ghosts. He is obsessed. He also digs deep into the town's archives to try and figure out who these spirits used to be back when they were still alive.

• 21:27Rasha Pecoraro?

  For example, rumors say an old woman's spirit always appears on a particular road that leads out of town. The ghost is on fire, with flames flickering around her body, and she's always screaming. The locals call her "The Watercress Woman", because she supposedly sold the leafy green to the people in town. But while Frederick is researching, he finds reports about a woman who died on August 19, 1911. Her name was Sarah Sharp. She was poor and elderly. To make ends meet, she picked wild watercress and sold it at the side of the road.

• 22:09Rasha Pecoraro?

  But one day, her body was found at the edge of the street just outside of town. It was the same street that the Watercress Woman is said to appear on. And Sarah's remains were completely burned up. The police investigated and concluded that she had been smoking a pipe, and an ember must have fallen from the pipe onto her clothes, caught them on fire, and burned her to death. It's a horrific way to go. But that's not the only reason this story stands out to Frederick. Until he began his research, Frederick never knew the story of Sarah Sharp.

• 22:51Rasha Pecoraro?

  Apparently, all the people of Pluckley simply forgot about her in the decades after her death too. But here, the evidence is suggesting the so-called Watercress Woman is real. She has a name, and she died in a way that fits the ghost's appearance.

• 23:11Yvette Gentile?

  The same thing happens when he looks into another local legend, the story of the so-called Screaming Man of the Old Clay Pit. Everyone in Pluckley has heard of this phantom, and they know a bit more about his supposed backstory too. The legend says that there used to be a company in town called the Brick and Tile Works. The people who worked there would dig naturally occurring clay out of a pit, then other workers would make stuff out of the clay and sell it. But one day, a man is working deep in the pit when one of the walls collapses right on top of him. Nobody is close enough or quick enough to pull him out of the way or stop the sediment from falling.

• 23:56Yvette Gentile?

  So all of this loose dirt, clay, and mud comes crashing down on the man's head. It doesn't hit him hard enough to kill him right away, nor is it heavy enough to crush him to death. Instead, the man ends up trapped alive under all of the clay.

• 24:15Yvette Gentile?

  He screams and shouts as loudly as he can, hoping that the other workers will dig him out before he actually runs out of oxygen. And even though everyone's scrambling to save him, they can't move fast enough. By the time they pull him out of the clay, it's too late. He's suffocated to death. And supposedly, his screams can still be heard in the pit anytime visitors drop by, even today. Well, as Frederick is researching, he comes across newspaper clippings about a horrific accident that happened on New Year's Day in 1899.

• 24:56Yvette Gentile?

  A 35-year-old man named Richard Bridgeland was working in the clay pit, just like the legend says. He was happily married, a father of five, and Richard probably thought his job was safe, because there hadn't been any accidents in the pit for a full 23 years. Except while he was deep in it, a wall of clay came loose, collapsed on top of him, and buried him. Two coworkers saw this happen and ran to save him. But he was already dead by the time they pulled him from the clay. Now, according to the newspaper articles,

• 25:38Yvette Gentile?

  Richard died of a broken neck, not suffocation. But other than one detail, everything else is the same. Frederick realizes that Richard has to be the screaming man of the old clay pit. Once again, the evidence suggests that the ghost story is rooted in truth. The problem is that Frederick doesn't always get his facts right. For example, he also finds historical research that seems to verify a ghost story.

• 26:14Rasha Pecoraro?

  This particular account is about a forested area right outside of Pluckley Village, known as the Screaming Woods. And in their depths, a group of laurel trees are said to be super haunted. Apparently, one of the ghosts in the forest is called the Hanging Schoolmaster. According to the local lore, at some point in the past, a schoolmaster died by suicide amongst those trees. And if anyone walks through the laurels, there's a good chance they'll see his body still there, hanging from a noose. The ghostly version, that is.

• 26:56Rasha Pecoraro?

  Frederick does a lot of research to try and learn the schoolmaster's identity. And he finally discovers one alleged school employee who lived and worked in the next village over until 1919. Anytime this man needed to unwind after work, he'd walk three miles to Pluckley Village, because there was a pub there he liked called The Black Horse. And the road he took passed right by the haunted laurel trees in the Screaming Woods. Except one night, the schoolmaster didn't come home after his night of drinking. All of the locals went looking for him, people from Pluckley and his hometown alike.

• 27:39Rasha Pecoraro?

  But there's no sign of him anywhere. It's like he just disappeared. Three weeks went by until finally, another local happened to take the same road out of town for an unrelated errand. And that's when he found the schoolmaster's badly decomposed body, hanging from a tree. No one knows what drove him to take his own life. He didn't leave a note. But Frederick's research suggests that now that his story is known, his spirit may finally find peace and move on.

• 28:17Yvette Gentile?

  The problem is that this whole story just isn't true. As far as anyone can tell, Frederick either made the whole thing up or made a mistake in his research. There is a similar account from August of 1919, featuring a man named Henry Martin. The circumstances of his demise were the same as the legend, but he didn't work in a school. He was a papermaker. And interestingly enough, four years later, in 1923, the local schoolmaster did take his own life. And confusingly enough, he had a very similar name, Harry Martin.

• 29:03Yvette Gentile?

  But he didn't die by hanging, nor did he pass away near the haunted laurel trees. So maybe Frederick found the story out about Henry Martin, the papermaker, and Harry Martin, the schoolmaster, and combined them into one. Which, okay, could have been an honest mistake, but it does suggest that maybe we can't take all of his findings at face value.

• 29:30Rasha Pecoraro?

  It does seem like Frederick made some research errors. Or even worse, he may have purposely exaggerated or made things up to make his writing feel spookier. But I want to be clear. Some of his findings are indeed verified. Like the stories of Richard Bridgeland and Sarah Sharp. He didn't invent them. So it's still possible that the Watercrest Woman and the Screaming Man of the Old Clay Pit are actual restless spirits. I mean, who knows? Maybe the hanging schoolmaster is authentic too. It's just that no one has found the evidence to support this story just yet. The point is,

• 30:15Rasha Pecoraro?

  we don't know if Frederick's claims are right or wrong. But one fact is undeniable. His work has changed Pluckley Village forever.

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• 30:39Speaker 03

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• 30:42Speaker 02

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• 30:57Speaker 04

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• 31:04Speaker 05

  Hi, I'm Ashley Flowers.

• 31:05Speaker 06

  And I'm Britt. And if you're on the edge of your seat, listening to this show, Crime Junkie needs to be your next listen.

• 31:11Speaker 05

  Every Monday, I dive into a new true crime case that our reporting team has been on the ground looking into. From lesser-known disappearances to the most chilling cases hitting the headlines. And I'm gonna walk you through it the way I tell my best friend, because, well, that's what I'm doing.

• 31:27Speaker 06

  Yeah, that's me. And I'm right there with you as we listen together, react to every wild detail, and of course, I ask all the questions.

• 31:35Speaker 05

  And I'm gonna have the answers, because we have case files, we're talking to detectives and family members, and we're gonna stay focused on the facts.

• 31:42Speaker 06

  So if you're not already listening to Crime Junkie, what are you waiting for? There are over 300 episodes available right now.

• 31:48Speaker 05

  And you can listen to new episodes of Crime Junkie every Monday, wherever you get your podcasts.

• 31:59Yvette Gentile?

  In the mid-1900s, Frederick Sanders investigates his hometown's haunted history. He publishes articles that depict Pluckley Village as a cool, fun place to visit, assuming you like ghosts. And sure enough, in the mid-20th century, spooky stories about spirits are very mainstream. Frederick ends up writing and publishing a bunch of travel guides about the hauntings. And this sparks new interest in the Pluckley ghost, even bringing the BBC to town in 1961. But the whole time that Frederick's researching and writing, the ghosts are still active.

• 32:44Yvette Gentile?

  And they're not all friendly. So right as Pluckley is starting to become famous as a haunted location, disaster strikes. Or at least, reports suggest that it does. To be clear, the following story hasn't been verified, but it is a big part of the local lore. And I guess, yes, that makes it worth telling.

• 33:09Rasha Pecoraro?

  On Halloween night, 1948, a bunch of Pluckley locals reportedly noticed lights in the Screaming Woods. There are also strange sounds that no one can identify. No one goes to investigate for obvious reasons. I mean, if you live in a haunted town, you're probably savvy enough not to run toward creepy unexplained phenomenon. Unless, of course, you're Frederick. But by the next morning, reports say that the noises have stopped and the lights are no longer visible. The forest seems safe and back to normal. So one Pluckley villager takes their dog out for a walk.

• 33:53Rasha Pecoraro?

  And the moment they set foot in the forest, they find bodies. Twenty of them. All human. The deceased are all from the same small town that's not too far away from Pluckley. No one knows how they ended up in the Screaming Woods or how they died. There are no visible marks or injuries on their bodies, and the autopsy results are inconclusive. Supposedly, when the police investigate, they don't find any signs of foul play. So the authorities announce the 20 people died

• 34:34Rasha Pecoraro?

  of carbon monoxide poisoning and close the case.

• 34:39Yvette Gentile?

  Which makes no sense, because the victims died outside in the woods. It was well-ventilated. There was no heavy machinery nearby to emit any toxic fumes. This case does not fit the profile of a typical carbon monoxide poisoning, which, as we all might know, usually happens when you're trapped in a small space with a running car or a gas stove or something similar. A lot of people believe police gave this carbon monoxide explanation because they didn't want to admit the truth. That those people were killed by something supernatural.

• 35:21Yvette Gentile?

  And maybe the Screaming Woods are cursed. Now, it's not clear if the curse is real, or if this mass tragedy ever even happened. But apparently, there are no records of it from this time. The first mentions of this incident appeared online decades after the fact. But even if there's no curse in the Screaming Woods, Frederick's books and articles made Pluckley Village famous and super-popular.

• 35:58Rasha Pecoraro?

  Today, tourists come pouring into Pluckley. They all want to have a spooky experience of their own. Naturally, a whole bunch of ghost tour companies have opened to try and meet the demand. They feature guided walks through all of the community's most haunted locations: St. Nicholas Church, the Laurel Grove in the woods, and the clay pits. And the employees tell their customers stories, some of which are true and some of which are based on the stories that Frederick published. The point is that the people of Pluckley Village are really leaning into their haunted reputation. They even install street signs that read,

• 36:42Rasha Pecoraro?

  quote, "Slow down, or you will upset our ghosts. Neighborhood watch area staffed by the living and the dead," end quote. And other local historians and paranormal researchers build on Frederick's studies. Between the old legends and news sources, most people come to agree that there are at least seventeen different ghosts in Pluckley.

• 37:10Yvette Gentile?

  And some of those emerged in the 1970s when new reports came out. Things that were never part of Frederick's research or the local tradition. For example, there's a pub in Pluckley Village called The Black Horse. We actually mentioned it earlier. It's the pub that the local schoolmaster supposedly liked to visit. The Black Horse was built in the 1470s, so it's super old. But as far as I can tell, it wasn't really featured in Frederick's research beyond the hanged schoolmaster story. It wasn't famous for having ghosts and there were no records of tragic deaths happening there.

• 37:54Yvette Gentile?

  Basically, nobody ever believed this place was haunted, at least not at first. But in the early 70s, there were a couple of reports of ghostly activity there. And then, in the 1990s, a woman named Laura Gambling is running the pub. You know, she's doing all the normal stuff like handling, staffing, setting the menu, deciding what type of events to allow on the property, that sort of thing. And one day, she's working a mid-morning shift on a Sunday. It's kind of slow because the breakfast rush has already died down, and it's too early for anyone to be in for lunch. Laura's resting in a booth, sipping a cup of tea,

• 38:39Yvette Gentile?

  when she sees movement out of the corner of her eye. She looks toward it and sees the bar, which has a shelf full of empty glasses and bottles of booze. And while Laura watches, one of those empty glasses slides from one side of the shelf to the other.

• 39:01Yvette Gentile?

  There's no one around, and this glass appears to be moving on its own. It scoots over and comes to a stop right before it can topple over the edge. After that incident, Laura starts noticing other strange things. For example, she allows customers to bring their dogs inside. And sometimes, people like to wander around the pub's upstairs area. But there's one particular room on the second floor that the dogs consistently refuse to enter. It doesn't matter what their owner does or says, the pets will not cross the threshold.

• 39:43Yvette Gentile?

  Like, they just have a bad vibe from whatever's in there. The animals tend to act very nervous also around the kitchen. Anytime a dog gets near, it tenses up and then barks at something that only they can see. Though it sounds like sometimes, the spirit haunting this bar is also helpful. Because at one point, one of the employees is putting the silverware away on a dresser, which is apparently in the wrong place. And then while Laura's watching, the forks, spoons, and knives lift themselves off the dresser and then lie down in their proper location. Sort of like the ghost is watching her back,

• 40:27Yvette Gentile?

  making sure that everything's where it's supposed to be. But eventually, Laura decides, you know what, she's ready to move on from this job. So in 2023, a new manager takes over. Her name is Samantha Camberne. And she starts noticing some weird things too. One day Samantha and her niece are working in the pub early in the morning, before it's even open to the public. And they both see a chair sliding across the floor on its own.

• 41:01Yvette Gentile?

  Neither one of them touched it or bumped it. So they figure the ghosts must be doing some interior redecorating. And of course, they tell everybody about it afterward. Because hello, there is no good reason to keep a cool story like that to yourself. The problem is, these alleged incidents in the Black Horse Pub are a bit controversial. Because they're not tied to Frederick's research or local legend. And by that point, the ghost tourism business in Pluckley Village was already thriving.

• 41:40Yvette Gentile?

  So some believe that maybe Laura, Samantha, and other business owners were faking ghost encounters as a way to try and drum up interest from tourists who wanted to have a haunted experience.

• 41:54Rasha Pecoraro?

  I can see that, but I would never fake a ghost or spirit experience because then the real ones will come after you. I'm just saying.

• 42:03Yvette Gentile?

  True story.

• 42:04Rasha Pecoraro?

  But I do wonder if there's another explanation for all of this. Because in the paranormal research community, a lot of people believe in a concept called thought forms. The idea is that every human being has psychic abilities. And sometimes, people can reshape reality around them using just the power of their minds. Most of the time, we don't even realize we're doing this. It's a complicated idea. But the basic gist is that if you think about something and believe in it hard enough, you can manifest it.

• 42:45Rasha Pecoraro?

  Let's just say you're in a creepy old village that's been around for thousands of years. Someone tells you that the town is haunted. And now you're primed to expect to see or feel ghosts there. But more than that, it's possible that if you're scared enough, you might physically create a shadowy figure, or a ball of light, or even an apparition that looks like a person. Not on purpose, of course, but you're sending out this energy that eventually creates a specter. And to be clear, this isn't a hallucination or an illusion.

• 43:26Rasha Pecoraro?

  This is a very real visual experience, something everybody can see, not just you.

• 43:35Yvette Gentile?

  The idea gets wilder than that because some people believe that once you create a thought form, the entity becomes a real person with its own soul. So let's just talk about how that might apply to Pluckley Village. It is possible that at first, the local ghost stories were just stories. People knew about Sarah Sharp, Richard Bridgeland, and Harry and Henry Martin, and the way they died. And they speculated that some of them might have become spirits. Eventually, so many people knew the stories and believed in them that they created thought

• 44:19Yvette Gentile?

  forms of the Watercrest Woman, the Screaming Man of the Clay Pit, and the Hanged Schoolmaster. If this is true, then none of the specters are literal ghosts. None of them were ever alive, but they could still be completely real and authentic. And when you think about it, if you can create ghosts just by expecting them to show up, then of course, a town that's famous for being the most haunted in all of the UK will be full of thought forms.

• 44:57Rasha Pecoraro?

  And you may be thinking, okay, this idea is a little out there. But in 1972, a team of paranormal researchers designed an experiment.

• 45:10Rasha Pecoraro?

  The goal was to see if it was possible to actually create these thought forms. They arranged for a séance and invited eight test subjects to participate. None of these people believed they were psychics or mediums, or that they had any supernatural abilities. But the researchers told the eight people they were going to try to summon the spirit of a man named Philip. They said he was a lord who lived in the 1600s, and he cheated on his wife with a poor girl. When his wife discovered the affair, she had his mistress executed. And Philip was so heartbroken that he took his own life afterward.

• 45:55Rasha Pecoraro?

  The problem is, Philip never existed. The researchers just made him up, along with the details about his tragic love triangle and his death. However, when the eight participants held a séance, they apparently made contact with some kind of spirit. Something kept knocking on their table, and the researchers checked. None of the study subjects were making the noise themselves. The participants told the spirit to tap once for yes and twice for no. Then they would ask questions like, "Is your name Philip?" "Did you cheat on your wife?" And "Did she have your lover killed?"

• 46:38Rasha Pecoraro?

  And the spirit confirmed he was Philip from the story, a story that never happened.

• 46:47Yvette Gentile?

  So let's just talk about this. When you do séances and you start calling in spirits that you don't know, that is something that you do not want to play with. I'm just saying, right?

• 46:59Rasha Pecoraro?

  Agreed, agreed.

• 47:00Yvette Gentile?

  The so-called Philip experiment is considered some of the best evidence that thought forms are real phenomenon. And this could explain a lot of ghost accounts. I mean, maybe all of them. Anytime you step into a haunted house or a creepy old graveyard, you may end up seeing something inexplicable, solely because you expect to and you are physically manifesting it.

• 47:32Yvette Gentile?

  I've got to say, if it's possible for a group of researchers to create the ghost of Philip, it's probably also possible for Frederick Sanders or the people of Pluckley to generate a hanging schoolmaster, or even the Red Lady. Meaning, the ghost of Pluckley Village might be entirely real, but not quite what we expect them to be.

• 48:00Rasha Pecoraro?

  Wherever the truth lies, one thing is undeniable. Today, Pluckley Village is synonymous with ghosts. At this point, they're not only local lore, they are a cornerstone of the town's economy. Maybe it's a savvy marketing move, maybe it's all real. And maybe, the truth is literally in the eye of the beholder.

• 48:38Yvette Gentile?

  This is So Supernatural, an AudioChuck original, produced by Crime House. You can connect with us on Instagram at So Supernatural Pod, and visit our website at so supernaturalpodcast.com. Join Rasha and me next Friday for an all-new episode.

• 48:59Yvette Gentile?

  I think Chuck would approve.

• 49:04Speaker 07

  When the nights grow longer, the shadows start to stir, and that can only mean one thing: Full Body Chills is back. This season, step inside original tales where every doorway leads somewhere darker, every stranger carries a secret, and nothing is ever quite what it seems. Each story takes you somewhere new, but be careful, you never know what might follow you home. So gather round, listen close, and stream Full Body Chills wherever you get your podcasts.