Plucks Gutter is a small hamlet in Kent

Kent

Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 where the Little Stour

Little Stour

The Little Stour is one of the tributaries of the River Stour in the English county of Kent. The upper reaches of the river are better known as the Nailbourne, whilst the lower reaches were once known as the Seaton Navigation....

 and Great Stour

River Stour, Kent

The River Stour is the river in Kent, England that flows into the English Channel at Pegwell Bay. Above Plucks Gutter, where the Little Stour joins it, the river is normally known as the Great Stour. The upper section of the river, above its confluence with the East Stour at Ashford is sometimes...

 rivers meet. During the Middle Ages, the two rivers met the Wantsum Channel

Wantsum Channel

The Wantsum Channel is the name given to a now silted-up watercourse separating the Isle of Thanet and what was the mainland of the English county of Kent...

 at Stourmouth

Stourmouth

Stourmouth is a civil parish in the Dover local government district of Kent, England.Its name comes from the fact that, before the Wantsum Channel was cut off from the sea, the village was at the mouth of the River Stour.-Geography:...

, but the combined rivers now (called the River Stour

River Stour, Kent

The River Stour is the river in Kent, England that flows into the English Channel at Pegwell Bay. Above Plucks Gutter, where the Little Stour joins it, the river is normally known as the Great Stour. The upper section of the river, above its confluence with the East Stour at Ashford is sometimes...

 downstream from Plucks Gutter) flow onward to the sea via Sandwich

Sandwich, Kent

Sandwich is a historic town and civil parish on the River Stour in the Non-metropolitan district of Dover, within the ceremonial county of Kent, south-east England. It has a population of 6,800....

 to Pegwell Bay

Pegwell Bay

Pegwell Bay is a shallow inlet in the English Channel coast at the estuary of the River Stour between Ramsgate and Sandwich in Kent. Situated in the bay is a large nature reserve, known for its migrating waders and wildfowl, with a complete series of seashore habitats including extensive mudflats...

 near Ramsgate

Ramsgate

Ramsgate is a seaside town in the district of Thanet in east Kent, England. It was one of the great English seaside towns of the 19th century and is a member of the ancient confederation of Cinque Ports. It has a population of around 40,000. Ramsgate's main attraction is its coastline and its main...

, leaving Plucks Gutter some six miles in a straight line and ten by river from the English Channel

English Channel

The English Channel , often referred to simply as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates southern England from northern France, and joins the North Sea to the Atlantic. It is about long and varies in width from at its widest to in the Strait of Dover...

.

Etymology

The hamlet is named after a Dutch Drainage Engineer called Ploeg, whose grave can be seen in All Saints Church, West Stourmouth. Ploeg being the Dutch for a plough, the hamlet almost certainly takes its origins from the Dutch Protestant tradition of draining marshland by creating a ploughed ditch. No doubt, the Dutchman was named after his craft.

History

Just a mile upstream from the Dog and Duck Innhttp://www.thedogandduckinn.co.uk Plucks Gutter is 'Blood Point', the scene of King Alfred

Alfred the Great

Alfred the Great was King of Wessex from 871 to 899.Alfred is noted for his defence of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of southern England against the Vikings, becoming the only English monarch still to be accorded the epithet "the Great". Alfred was the first King of the West Saxons to style himself...

's famous defeat of a Viking

Viking

The term Viking is customarily used to refer to the Norse explorers, warriors, merchants, and pirates who raided, traded, explored and settled in wide areas of Europe, Asia and the North Atlantic islands from the late 8th to the mid-11th century.These Norsemen used their famed longships to...

 invasion force and often taken to be the Royal Navy

Royal Navy

The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...

's first successful engagement of an enemy.
In 1821-23, a notorious North Kent Gang of smugglers made use of Pluck's Gutter. One account from a Revenue Customs

Customs

Customs is an authority or agency in a country responsible for collecting and safeguarding customs duties and for controlling the flow of goods including animals, transports, personal effects and hazardous items in and out of a country...

 Officer recalls how they travelled some fourteen miles, on foot, through Trenleypark Wood to Stodmarsh

Stodmarsh

Stodmarsh is a small village 5 miles to the east of Canterbury in east Kent, England, overlooking the valley of the River Stour.Stodmarsh is now part of the parish of Wickhambreaux...

, Then via Grove Corner to Pluck's Gutter where they crossed the river by the ferry and onward northeast to Mount Pleasant near Acol then up to Marsh Bay – the former name for what is modern-day Westgate-on-Sea

Westgate-on-Sea

Westgate-on-Sea is a seaside town in northeast Kent, England, with a population of 6,600. It is within the Thanet local government district and borders the larger seaside resort of Margate...

Local facilities

There is a pretty riverside inn here http://www.thedogandduckinn.co.uk with a residential caravan and lodge park. The old ferry cottage (the earlier pub) is the eponymous 'House at Plucks Gutter

House at Plucks Gutter

The House at Pluck's Gutter is a novel by Manning Coles, published in 1963, featuring the protagonist Thomas Elphinstone Hambledon.The book was named after the old Ferry Cottage at Plucks Gutter....

' and was the inspiration for the book of the same name by Manning Coles

Manning Coles

Manning Coles is the pseudonym of two British writers, Adelaide Frances Oke Manning and Cyril Henry Coles , who wrote many spy thrillers from the early 40s through the early 60s. The fictional protagonist in 26 of their books was Thomas Elphinstone Hambledon, who works for the Foreign...

. The freeholder of the cottage has an obligation to provide services to any officer of one of 'His Majesty's Ships of War' lying in the Wantsum Channel as payment to the Crown for the rights to operate the ferry.

Fishing on the River is controlled by the Wantsum Angling Association and Plucks Gutter is a location for many fishing competitions. Pike, bream and roach are most commonly caught here. ducks, swans and kingfishers are commonly seen, as are representatives from a couple of local rowing

Watercraft rowing

Watercraft rowing is the act of propelling a boat using the motion of oars in the water. The difference between paddling and rowing is that with rowing the oars have a mechanical connection with the boat whereas with paddling the paddles are hand-held with no mechanical connection.This article...

 clubs (including the University of Kent

University of Kent Rowing Club

The University of Kent Rowing Club is the rowing club of the University of Kent based in the UK on the River Stour. Founded in 1966, the club has regularly competed in competition and have been moderately successful. -Somerset Maugham Boathouse:...

); most often undergoing medium- to long- distance inland water "steady state" training.

River trips from Sandwich run on request and the hamlet is served by local buses each day from Canterbury

Canterbury

Canterbury is a historic English cathedral city, which lies at the heart of the City of Canterbury, a district of Kent in South East England. It lies on the River Stour....

. The nearest railway station is at Birchington (4 miles walk) from where a taxi can be obtained.

Non-residential riverside moorings can be obtained from the Dog and Duck Inn or from the ferry cottage.