Without even the sun to at least present the illusion of the long summer days disappearing in the rearview, today’s overcast and blustery walk definitely presented a notable change in conditions – I even left the house wearing trousers for the first time since April. We headed out in the morning to undertake a new walk to us, based around the village of Pluckley, known for being the most haunted village in Britain – ooooooh.
In contrast to last week’s march over the North Downs, this walk was almost completely flat, so we set off at half-eleven, expecting easy and straightforward miles ahead. However, it was not long before this plan began to unravel. Unlike previous walks, this route came with written instructions, but no map to go by, and we had not even left the starting point of Pluckley Station before we managed to go wrong. Doubling back to find the unmarked footpath to the side of the station, we got ourselves on the route and set off. Things went a bit smoother from there, thanks to the highly detailed guide. We made our way across three wide, open fields, then popped out through a hedge onto a road. This marked the beginning of a long section of road walking, almost a kilometre long, but thankfully the lane was very quiet, and all was easy-going. Soon enough we turned right back onto footpaths, where the clear instructions kept us on track as we made our way through more farmland and past some solitary trees and patches of woodland. We then picked up a long driveway out the front of some old and pretty cottages, which took us to our next road crossing. Continuing through the open fields on the other side and past an oast house, we found ourselves walking past the former house of the Darling Buds of May author. Even more impressive, a hundred yards further on was a cool and very wonky old farmhouse, where we turned right, passed a lot of fallen conkers, and came out into a tall field of corn. We crossed over into a neighbouring field, where the footpath disappeared amongst the ploughed earth, and we aimed as best we could for the far corner.
Popping out onto the road again, this is where the lack of map began to rear its head once more. First, we missed our left turn and had to double back maybe 50 yards, which was no biggie. However, after crossing through the field past the church and arriving in an awaiting orchard, the real problems began. We began to walk up the right-hand edge, but Beth suddenly stopped when she noticed that we should have again taken a path which would have been on our left after ten meters. We doubled back for a second time to look for said path and concluded that it was the track leading up the back edge of the orchard. We carried on, confident that we were back on track. However, as we carried on, what we were seeing just didn’t add up to the instructions, and far too late we stopped to re-assess. The OS map showed us where we should have gone, and what we had actually done, the difference being quite vast. We took a handy footpath through the middle of the orchard, continuing roughly where we wanted to be. We did end up going slightly off the official track to ultimately get back to where we wanted to be – we actually jogged this bit, to fend off any angry farmers and Beth’s looming anxious wobble! Farmers and wobble avoided, we made it back to the correct path, which, now that I am looking at Google Maps, was shockingly close to where we had started – whoops. As the instructions began to match up with what was in front of us once more, we could again relax into the rhythm of the walk. This largely involved a series of orchards, where we were sure to pay close attention to the instructions.
We eventually arrived in Pluckley itself, where we ducked into the famous and autumnal churchyard to find a sheltered spot for lunch, out of the chilly wind. Lunch eaten, we popped into The Black Horse, where we stayed for a comfortable drink or two. Sadly, we saw no sign of any ghosts during our time in the village, and were soon setting off back into the countryside. We found the farmland to be a bit different than the previous miles, being a bit more open and far-stretching, even including some cows and sheep in a distant field. The sun also poked its head out at this point too, however the smooth running did not last long. We managed to miss our long path along the ploughed field, although, in fairness to us, the path was invisible and apparently notorious for not being well maintained. We traipsed across the rough earth, which was pretty hard going, and we were thankful when we reached the other side. This was then followed by a fairly short stretch of road, followed by a meadow of pure ragwort, and yet another field with an invisible footpath. After this, we got our first and only close sheep encounter of the day, but only after hopping over a live electric fence – not sure the farmers are too pro-footpath in these parts! It was then a quick march down the road, arriving back at the station around quarter past three, which given the pub stop and large detour, wasn’t a bad time.
It was nice to explore a new part of the county we hadn’t walked through before, and the pub in the middle was a welcome addition. There was also a good amount of history along the way within the instructions, which pleased Beth, however a few more beasties and an actual map would have been good! The march of autumn had also continued from the previous week, with a scattering of conkers, sprouts of mushrooms and a few more muddy patches to be found along the way.
On a side note, we had chosen a walk in this direction so that we could visit our friends on the way home, who have just had their first child (a legendary figure whose birth was foretold in The Bowl, the Orb and the Hermit). The little baby boy was tiny and super cute, even when he pooped on my lap. His mum and dad seemed to be doing a very good job too, and it was lovely to see their new family blossoming, including our regular guest, Pumpkin, who I am sure will be a good big sister (although she did try and kick the baby in the head whilst Beth was holding him!). Full instructions are available at https://www.walkingclub.org.uk/walk/pluckley-circular/TOCW2_Walk_21_Pluckley_Circular.pdf
Matthew G. Huggins 