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'Plucks Gutter' is a small hamlet in Kent, England where the River Little Stour and River Great Stour meet. During the Middle Ages, the two rivers met the Wantsum Channel at Stourmouth, but the combined rivers now (called the River Stour downstream from Plucks Gutter) flow onward to the sea via Sandwich to Pegwell Bay near to Ramsgate, leaving Plucks Gutter some six miles in a straight line and ten by river from the English Channel.

Contents

Etymology

History

Local facilities

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 Plucks Gutter is 'Blood Point', the scene of King Alfred's (See also: Alfred the Great) famous defeat of a Viking invasion force and often taken to be the English Navy'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] Officer recalls how they travelled some fourteen miles, on foot, through Trenleypark Wood to Stodmarsh, 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.

Local facilities

There is a pretty riverside inn here [1] with a residential caravan and lodge park. The old ferry cottage (the earlier pub) is the eponymous 'House at Plucks Gutter' and was the inspiration for the book of the same name by Manning Coles. The freeholder of the cottage has an obligation to provide services to any officer of one of 'His Majesty's Ships of War' laying 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 clubs; most often undergoing medium- to long- distance inland water "steady state" training.
River boat trips from Sandwich run on request and the hamlet is served by a few buses each day from Canterbury and Aylesham. Taxis can be obtained from Ramsgate or Birchington stations.
Non-residential riverside moorings can be obtained from the Dog and Duck Inn or from the ferry cottage.