Haunted Dering Woods

© 2024 BY BOBETTE BRYAN

Something inexplicable is going on in the Dering woods in Kent England. For centuries, there have been ghost sightings, murders, and many have gone missing in the eerie, dark woods. Phantom screams, blood-chilling moans, and mysterious whispers are heard emanating from the dense forest at night, earning it the nickname, “The Screaming Woods.”

Some say that the many anguished souls lost in the woods are crying out for help.

The woods, between Smarden and Pluckley, allegedly the most haunted village in England, is said to be enticing, a place of serenity and beauty that draws one in.

An adventurous young man strolled through the woods just before dusk when he saw something that stopped him in his tracks. His eyes narrowed as he tried to make sense of what he was seeing. Just ahead something was moving. A chill filled him when he realized that he was gazing at the body of a man hanging in a tree. He rushed to give aid, but the man disappeared before his eyes. Later he learned that the ghost was the notorious suicidal “Colonel,” whom many had seen walking or hanging by a rope in the woods.

In the 18th Century, a highway robber and murderer, Robert Du Bois, operated in the Stuart area just outside of Pluckley. He’s said to wander the woods as well. His ghost is usually seen near an oak tree in Frith Corner–nicknamed, “Fright Corner.” Witnesses describe a large spectral tree with the highwayman pinned to it by several swords. The account of his death varies, but the usual story is that angry villagers had caught up with him and delivered some overdue justice. Spotting him hiding in the hollow of a tree, they impaled him with a sword or two and decapitated him.

Ghost sightings in the area includes the misty spirit of Lady Dering whose family owned much of the surrounding land. Each night around midnight, her restless ghost pounded on the church doors. As a result, she was reburied in nesting coffins, which nixed the activity. Another spirit one might chance upon in the woods is a gypsy woman who sold watercress. No one knows her story, but she was most likely murdered. Some have even encountered the ghost of a brick factory worker who drowned in clay or was crushed to death.

Not all supernatural encounters involved fully materialized ghosts: Many claim that that during a stroll through the woods spooky, dark shadows or a mist followed them.

The most terrifying stories about the woods, however, are the many unexplained deaths, murders, and disappearances that occurred during the latter half of the 20th century.

On Halloween night in 1948, locals reported strange lights and sounds emanating from the woodlands. The following morning, a dog walker discovered the bodies of over 20 people, including 11 children, stacked up in a pile among clusters of leaves. The deceased, found a few hours after passing away, were identified as belonging to five families from the nearby Maltman’s Hill area. Their bodies revealed no visible wounds or signs of a struggle, and autopsies failed to determine a clear cause of death. The police attributed the deaths to carbon monoxide poisoning, which doesn’t quite make sense, and they closed the investigation, an act which many found suspicious.

In 1964, private investigator, Robert Collins, was determined to solve the mystery of the woods. Allegedly a religious cult in Smarden could have been responsible for the Halloween massacre. He conducted extensive witness interviews and might have been on to something, but unfortunately, he died in a tragic car accident in 1965.

Was his death coincidence or another murder?

In 1998, fifty years later on the anniversary of the mass deaths, villagers saw an odd, spider-shaped light hovering over the woods and feared the worst. That night, four college students who’d camped in the woods disappeared and were never seen again. Oddly, the police investigation was abandoned three weeks later.

The many mysteries of the Dering Woods will likely never be solved, and more tragedy may add to its chilling history and sinister reputation. Our suggestion–don’t go in the woods alone. Better yet, just stay home.

–The End–

© Bobette Bryan, 2024