Great Britain is a country of fogs, ancient castles and ghosts. According to polls, 70% of the population do not even consider the existence of otherworldly inhabitants next to them strange, and 12% have seen them with their own eyes. But even with such statistics, the village of Pluckly, located southeast of London in Kent, has broken all records of anomaly.
WHAT IS HALLOWEEN THERE
A dozen ghosts of people and animals live in this small area at once. This is what they call it - the Village of Twelve Ghosts. According to local residents, phantoms can be found in those parts of the village where death once overtook people. Only it is not clear: why not all those who died by violent death wander around the district, but only these twelve?
The population has long come to terms with such a neighborhood, is not afraid of ghosts, since they are harmless and can only scare an unprepared person.
Why did the ghosts choose this particular village? After all, it is no different from hundreds of others - the same small houses, a church, a railway station, a clay pit and meadows with grazing herds. Some of the skeptics suggested that the villagers were trying to advertise and attract tourists by telling their scary stories.
One could agree if it was about the same ghost, but so many stories cannot be thought of. And random visiting people have seen ghosts more than once.
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Interestingly, experts studying the paranormal tried to record the appearance of ghosts in photos and videos, but digital equipment, unlike the human eye, could not do this. There is an opinion that there is some special air in these places: acting in a certain way on the vision, it creates the images of the heroes of horror stories.
Nevertheless, the inhabitants of Pluckley are perhaps the only ones in all of England who do not celebrate Halloween - apparently, even without this, there are enough evil spirits in their lives.
It is also surprising that Plakley is mentioned in the "Book of the Last Judgment" - a compilation of data from the general land census of England, created by order of King William I the Conqueror in 1086.
BEYOND RESIDENTS
Strange entities in the photo taken in Pluckly
There is a place in the village called Freight Corner, which translated from English means "a corner of fear." Once upon a time there was a huge, spreading hollow oak. Several centuries ago, a robber was killed near this oak tree. He died a terrible death: he was nailed to a tree with a spear by accomplices.
Every night, an oak tree, which has been gone for a long time, appears in a gray haze, and ghostly robbers again and again deal with those who wanted to appropriate the booty. As soon as dawn breaks, the oak tree, treasures and participants in the bloody drama dissolve into thin air. It's hard to believe? But there are quite a few who have seen it with their own eyes!
One of the rare places in Pluckley, where you can not fear meeting with ghosts, is Parkwood. There used to be a dense, impenetrable forest here. Then the forest was cut down, the site was cleared and turned into a pasture. They say that a colonel of one of the military units that was standing nearby once hanged himself in that forest. He was accused of either financial fraud, or a large embezzlement.
The colonel committed suicide to avoid disgrace. As long as the forest existed, the ghost of the forest colonel, as he is called here, wandered among the trees with a piece of rope around his neck. Now he can be seen in other parts of the village, but not here.
However, there are two hanged here. At the end of the First World War, a village schoolteacher hanged himself on a laurel tree that then grew by the road of Dickie Bassez Lane. It is said that the cause of the suicide was unrequited love. His ghost can be seen to this day dangling in a noose in the wind, on the same laurel tree. Especially often a phantom appears in front of passers-by in inclement weather.
The inhabitants of Plakly are so used to ghosts that they even joke about the appearance of some of them. For example, they say that the approach of a thunderstorm can be determined without special instruments and forecasts of weather forecasters. Supposedly they have their own "weather forecaster" - a ghost called the Black Miller. Shortly before the first thunderclouds appear, this ghost appears at the ruins of the old mill. A man in black clothes and a completely black face.
Its history is unknown to the locals. They can only assume that once during a thunderstorm, lightning destroyed the mill, and the miller who was there burned down. There is a version that he sinned so badly during his lifetime that he turned black under the weight of his sins and his soul finds no rest in eternal wandering on earth.
There is a small brick factory not far from the railway station. The ghost of a screaming man lives here. It is said that he died while working in a clay pit during a collapse of the ground. The poor fellow screamed strongly and called for help, but when he was pulled out from the collapse, he was already dead. Now, once a week, in the evening, his ghost appears there, which screams with fear and pain just as in its hour of death.
Another male ghost appears at Greystone Manor. This is a ghostly monk. He is usually seen arm in arm with a female ghost. True, no one knows how he died and what connected them during his lifetime.
AND EVERY EVENING AT AN HOUR APPOINTED
In the central square of Plakly, in the late evening, you can meet the ghost of the Woman in White. Most likely, this woman belonged to the Dering noble family. Interestingly, a ghost also lives here, which is called the Woman in Red, and this is supposedly the sister of the Woman in White. The Dering ancestors settled in this area several centuries ago.
Before they owned a huge estate, but in 1952 it burned down, and now their descendants live in a modest two-story house. The owners of the estate are sure that the Woman in White is the ghost of their great-great-grandmother, who used to wear white clothes. But the Woman in Red is most often seen in the village cemetery adjacent to the Church of Saint-Nicholas.
Her mortal remains rest in an underground church crypt. The relatives supposedly foresaw that after her death her soul would not find rest, so they buried the girl in seven lead coffins nested inside each other. Only, as time has shown, this did not prevent her ghost from getting out of the crypt and wandering around her native places.
Pluckley also has its own haunted house - Rosecourt Manor. Once its owner took her own life by preparing a potion from poisonous berries. It happened between 4 and 5 pm. No one knows what the reason for the suicide is, but since then at this very time, the ghost of the owner of the estate with a mournfully bowed head can be seen in one of the windows. It is with her that a ghostly monk walks through the village. Maybe because of him, the woman committed suicide?
Another ghostly woman with a pipe in her teeth scares the late passers-by, offering to read fortunes by their hand. This is the ghost of a gypsy who was once burned near the stream on charges of witchcraft.
REST
Meetings with ghosts also take place outside the village. On the road from Pluckley to Multman's Hill, a four-horse carriage is often seen. On a dark night, according to rumors, you can catch the clatter of horse hooves and the creak of the wheels of a carriage passing along a deserted road.
Interestingly, a carriage, unlike horses, is quite tangible. You can touch it and look inside. True, inside it is empty. They say that in 2007, one of the daredevils ventured into it. And the horses carried towards the pasture. Since then, no one has seen him.
And finally, the ghost of a mad dog shot by a police officer. Unlike other ghostly inhabitants of Plakly, she is rarely seen in public. But her ominous howl, heard from the forest, is heard throughout the entire district.
MOUSE ATTACK
In 2011, an amateur group of anomalous investigators arrived in Pluckley. The experts were skeptical. It happened just before winter, when the air temperature was slightly above zero. And suddenly, at that very moment, hordes of flies fell upon the village. Insects were everywhere, they filled houses, interfered with car traffic.
Residents bought all the means from annoying insects in local shops. But the preponderance of forces in the war with flies was on the side of the latter. With regard to the "fly attack" even had to convene an emergency meeting of the parish council. Surprisingly, after the investigators left the village of Plakli, unable to carry out their plans due to insects, all the flies disappeared. Even scientists could not explain this phenomenon.
Nevertheless, none of the residents wanted to leave Plakley. According to them, since they are used to ghosts, they may get used to flies.
Galina MINNIKOVA