True Ghost Tales
Bluebell Hill
For the past fewmonths I have been sending out a ghost story a week to a smallgroup, and a member suggested that you might be interested inusing them.
Below is the first of about a dozen so far sent out and sets thescene in south-eastern England. Feel free to use it - to cut outall the unnecessary bits.
England is renowned for having more ghosts per square mile thanany other country; and Kent, county in the south-easternmostpart, has more than its fair share.
The village where I live is called PLuckley. It is a village ofabout 800 people, almost half way between Maidstone (the countytown of Kent) and Ashford (now with its International Railstation for the channel tunnel and Europe) and is situated on theedge of the North Downs and the 'Andredsweald' - the ancientSaxon forest which spread along the whole of the South coast ofEngland as far as the Isle of Wight and north to the Down, a highridge of chalk hills spreading from Surrey towards Dover. Theforest remaining is probably some of the oldest woodland inEngland. Certainly older than the Saxons, who merely named it.
Pluckley has 12 'official' ghosts - but these are just the onesmentioned in books. Speak to local residents, and stories abound.I am researching in depth, ready for the *Definitive Guide toPluckley's Ghosts* and so far I have stories amounting to over 40.
In the past PLuckley has been mentioned in the 'Guiness Book ofRecords' for the most haunted village, and several studies on theparanormal.
But, Pluckley is not alone in having strange sightings . . .Kent, especially in the autumn, "the season of mists andmellow fruitfulness" when suddenly drivers run into almostdense walls of fog lurking along narrow country lanes, or catchthe swirling fingers of a disappearing grey cloud. It is notsurprising that somethings are 'best seen - soonest forgotten'
Our story takes place on the Bluebell Hill.
Running from Maidstone towards Rochester and the Medway towns isthe A229, a road better known as Bluebell Hill. It passes veryclose to Kit's Coty, a prehistoric burial site, and is noted forits fogs and mists. On winter's, or late autumn evenings, carstravelling northwards along the road often stop to give a youngwoman, waiting at the side of the road, a lift.
Stories from here on vary. Sometimes the driver takes hispassenger to her home, only to find she has disappeared, othertimes the driver turns to speak to his passenger - who hassuddenly vanished.
More recent sightings are different still. Last autumn a driverwas discovered suffering from shock. He had inadvertantly rundown a girl standing in the road, but when got out of the car;there was no-one there! A week later a white-faced lorry drivercalled in at the poice station to report a similar occurance.
While local police are used to these stories, drivers invariablyall come from other parts of the country, or abroad, and are justpassing through!
The truth?
There once was a party of young women who had been at a pre-weddingcelebration in Maidstone and were travelling home to Rochesterwhen their car broke down. Hoping to thumb a lift they got out.As the mist swirled about them they heard a car approaching. Thedriver swerved at the last moment missing all but one of thegirls. The one who died was to have been married the followingweek. . .