Ghosts may be figments of the imagination, but they are undoubtedly a mainstay of fiction from Hamlet and Macbeth to Edgar Allen Poe and, closer to home, a recent Denman Cup short story competition.

Ghosts do no harm, but people can terrify themselves, or reputedly be driven to madness, by their own fantasies and conviction that an unearthly ‘presence’ has manifested itself.

Naturally sceptics have come up with theories to debunk ghostly experiences. The scientific one suggests some phenomena are due to very low sound vibrations, the opposite of a bat squeak, audible only to those with sensitive hearing.

Most ghosts are seen at night when eyesight is not at its sharpest, and/or people are not wearing their spectacles, some spoilsports point out. Not only that, but draughts can cause clothes and curtains to swirl around or displace small objects.

Harder to dismiss as fanciful are serious paranormal experiments showing unexplained drops in temperature and measurable alterations in magnetic fields at certain notoriously haunted ‘hot spots’. Long-time Kent resident Anna Milford discovers she shares her beautiful county with a phantom or two… In search of Kent’s ghosts Kent Ghosts

What is well proven, and inexplicable, is the unwillingness of certain animals, notably horses and dogs, to pass certain places without being dragged along shivering and wild-eyed with fear. There is an old wives’ tale that if your pet is transfixed by a ghost you too may see it by peering directly between the animal’s ears along its line of sight.

All this is an invitation to the brave to visit haunted Kent, one of the most phantom-ridden counties in England, apparently, where jilted lovers, randy monks and betrayed maidservants jostle for credibility with monstrous hounds, headless horsemen and dashing highwaymen, along with a colourful assortment of White Ladies, Black Knights and Brown Monks.

Crowded Pluckley

Pride of place goes to Pluckley, which is positively crowded with ghosts, said to number 14. They include the Red Lady, the White Lady, a monk and the object of his unrequited desires, a gypsy watercress seller, a highwayman, a cavalier and a Tudor maid.

Naturally, there is also that absolutely indispensable vehicle, a coach and horses, although it is disputed whether it is the coachman or the horses that are headless.

No castle or stately home worthy of the name is without its resident ghost, and a variety of phantoms from diff erent centuries wander Dover Castle from dungeons to the battlements. Leeds Castle, set within its romantic moat, hosts a sinister black dog that brings bad luck to any unfortunates who cross its path.

Ill-fated Queen Anne Boleyn, herself accused of being a witch, crosses the bridge over the moat of Hever Castle every Christmas Eve, and on other nights has been heard singing melancholy love songs in the gallery of her home where the ardent Henry VIII wooed and won her. 

The Castle is often crowded with tourists, but more than one of them has made the curious remark that “there are too many women sewing in this room”... In the King’s room children shrink from the grim fi gure of a man they claim is sitting by the fi replace, a fi gure unseen by adults. Others have sensed a sudden chill and frisson of fear on passing the Long Gallery, another place associated with Anne.

During renovation in 1872 at Ightham Mote, the skeleton of a woman was found behind panelling. At the time it was impossible to give a date for her entombment although this gruesome penalty was one meted out to nuns who broke their vows of chastity. Elsewhere in the house so many people reported feeling a sudden chill in the air that an exorcist was fi nally called in but failed to put a stop to it.

Now a school, Coombe Bank at Sundridge was the scene of a grisly 18th-century tale of divorce, murder, execution and revenge. Earl Ferrers was hanged at Tyburn for killing his steward, said to be a key witness for the divorce petition of his wife who later married Lord Frederick Campbell. Convinced she had betrayed him, Ferrers cursed her to a death more painful than his own. Years later she was burned to death in the house and only the bones of one thumb were recovered for burial.

Ghosts frequently emerge out of the fog of battle and the English Civil War was no exception – even Kent, which saw no major battles, claims its share. Rusthall and Southborough lie on opposite sides of Tunbridge Wells and at one time a small force of Roundheads occupied the former and Royalists the latter, and a certain amount of skirmishing went on between the two. Centuries later the thunder of hooves has been heard along the Broomhill Road and witnesses have jumped for their lives out of the way of a headless horseman bearing down on them. From glimpses of plate armour, he is thought to be a Roundhead cuirassier, one of those mocked by their opponents as ‘lobsters’.

A Royalist soldier haunts the Chequers at Kemsing where he was caught listening to a couple of Roundhead offi cers discussing battle plans and strung up from a beam in the adjacent barn.

Unrequited love

In Steeles Lane, Meopham it is the girl who came to grief in the post-Waterloo years and returns seeking her faithless lover. During the allied occupation of Paris, a dashing young soldier in the Buff s, Kent’s premier regiment, seduced the innocent Mlle Pinard with the promise of marriage, but as was the way of the licentious soldiery he sailed for home without her.

Still believing in him, she followed him with a wedding dress in her meagre luggage, but spurned and rejected on arrival, she donned the dress and hanged herself.  is tragic ghost was invoked by local mothers as a dreadful warning to their daughters about giving their all before a ring was on their finger.

Another betrayed girl, this one a servant at what is now the Larkfield Priory Hotel, bore a stillborn baby, was abandoned by her family and hanged herself. Her unquiet spirit caused so much disturbance in the house that a clairvoyant was summoned who detected a number of spirits vying for notoriety.

At Old Soar Manor, Plaxtol, the family chaplain seduced a dairymaid who was later found dead, or murdered. It was claimed she had fallen, hit her head and drowned in the font, and her death was hastily written down as suicide and the poor girl buried in unconsecrated ground. She is said to haunt the chapel seeking Christian burial and, on occasion, footsteps or the wraith of a priest are seen.

In a nearby church there is one coffi n that is shorter than the others for here lies Sir Henry Vane, when he is not patrolling the lanes of Shipbourne seeking justice. A supporter of Cromwell, he was executed for treason after the Restoration of Charles II and buried without his head.

Strangely, spirits never seem to return to where they have been happy, only to scenes of tragedy, betrayal and violent death. An exception could be the Lady Anne at Knole returning to keep a sharp eye on her real estate when she is seen wafting among the trees leading from the gatehouse on moonless nights. As the richest heiress in England, daughter of the Earl of Cumberland, married in succession to the Earl of Dorset and then the Earl of Pembroke and Montgomery, she was a match for anyone, human or supernatural.

Having snubbed Cromwell when he was Lord Protector, she had little time for the profl igate court of Charles II. And having been mistress of not only Knole but later Wilton, and owner of eight castles in the Lake District, ghost or not, she is no White Lady weeping and wringing her hands – and probably more than a match for the Black Knight who also roams Knole.

Not all ghosts are ye olde figments of historical romance. At Biggin Hill, one of the famous airfi elds of the Battle of Britain, a ghostly airman has been seen over the years near the Spinning Wheel on Westerham Hill thumbing a lift back to his squadron. Locals claimed he had crashed nearby and on clear mornings the roar of his plane’s Merlin engine is heard from the sky. A similar pilot revisits the old Second World War airfield at West Malling.

Even more modern and more dramatic is the ghost of Bluebell Hill on the way from the M20 to Chatham.  ere have been numerous reports of a young woman, some have said a child, walking straight out of the darkness and deliberately into the path of a car.  e shocked driver leaps out, fi nds the badly injured victim and drives off seeking help, and the police.

On their return there is no victim and no evidence of a crash. Over the years there have been extensive road works and realignments in the area, but the ghost still makes her suicidal walk, to the horror of sober motorists. Near Sevenoaks close to junction fi ve of the M25 it is an old lady who gets knocked down, and vanishes equally mysteriously.

Don’t take my word for all these tales, come to haunted Kent and see for yourself – if you dare.

Further information:

Visit www.visitheartofkent.com

to view all ghostly itineraries and events.