View source for Plucks Gutter

{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2019}}
{{Use British English|date=May 2025}}
{{multiple issues|
{{More citations needed|date=May 2017}}
{{Original research|date=February 2008}}
}}
{{Infobox UK place

|country = England
|official_name= Plucks Gutter
|coordinates = {{coord|51.3248|1.2559|display=inline,title}}
|static_image             = The Dog and Duck pub, Plucks Gutter.jpg
|static_image_width       = 220px
|static_image_caption= The Dog and Duck pub, Plucks Gutter
|population =
|civil_parish= 
|shire_district= [[Dover (district)|Dover]]
|shire_county= [[Kent]]
|region= South East England

|constituency_westminster= 
|post_town=            [[Canterbury]]
|postcode_district =    CT3
|postcode_area=         CT
|dial_code= 
|os_grid_reference= TR2663
}}
'''Plucks Gutter''' is a hamlet in  the [[civil parish]] of [[Stourmouth]], [[Kent]], England. The hamlet is situated where the [[Little Stour]] and [[River Stour, Kent|Great Stour]] rivers meet.

==Etymology==
The hamlet is named after a Dutch Drainage Engineer called Ploeg, whose grave is in All Saints Church, [[West Stourmouth]]. Ploeg, being the Dutch for a plough, the hamlet takes its origins from the Dutch Protestant tradition of draining marshland by creating a ploughed ditch.{{citation needed|date=September 2016}}

==History==
A mile upstream from the Dog and Duck Inn public house is 'Blood Point', where [[Alfred the Great|King Alfred]] defeated a [[Viking]] invasion force, which is often taken{{by whom|date=September 2016}} to be the [[Royal Navy]]'s first successful engagement of a foe.{{citation needed|date=September 2016}}

During the Middle Ages, the two rivers met the [[Wantsum Channel]] at Stourmouth, but the combined rivers now (called the [[River Stour, Kent|River Stour]] downstream from Plucks Gutter) flow onward to the sea via [[Sandwich, Kent|Sandwich]] to [[Pegwell Bay]] near [[Ramsgate]], leaving Plucks Gutter six miles in a straight line and ten by river from the [[English Channel]].{{citation needed|date=September 2016}}

In 1821–23, a North Kent Gang of smugglers used Pluck's Gutter. One account{{where|date=September 2016}} from a [[Customs|Revenue]] Officer stated they travelled 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 north-east to Mount Pleasant near Acol, then to Marsh Bay – the former name for what is modern-day [[Westgate-on-Sea]].{{citation needed|date=September 2016}}

==Amenities==
In the hamlet is a riverside inn with a holiday caravan and lodge park, and facilities for non-residential riverside moorings.<ref>[http://www.dogandduck.co.uk/ The Dog and Duck caravan park] Retrieved 2017-05-07</ref>

The old ferry cottage (an earlier public house), 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' lying in the Wantsum Channel as payment to the Crown for the rights to operate the ferry.{{citation needed|date=September 2016}}
 
Fishing on the river is controlled by the Wantsum Angling Association and Plucks Gutter is a location for fishing competitions;{{citation needed|date=September 2016}} Pike, bream and roach are most commonly caught, with ducks, swans and kingfishers seen.{{citation needed|date=September 2016}} Representatives from two of local [[Watercraft rowing|rowing]] clubs (Kent College Canterbury Rowing Club and Spitfire Boat Club), undergoing medium- to long- distance inland water "steady state" training.{{citation needed|date=September 2016}}

River trips run from Sandwich to Plucks Gutter.{{citation needed|date=September 2016}}

==Transport==
The hamlet is served by local buses each weekday (other than Bank Holidays), from [[Canterbury]] to [[Westwood Cross]] Shopping Centre via Wingham and Minster railway station. The nearest railway stations are at [[Minster railway station|Minster]] (with services to Ramsgate, Ashford, London Charing Cross and London St Pancras),<ref>[http://ojp.nationalrail.co.uk/service/ldbboard/dep/MSR Live departure boards for Minster] National Rail Enquiries</ref> and [[Birchington railway station|Birchington]] (with services to Ramsgate, Faversham, Medway, Victoria & St Pancras).<ref>[http://ojp.nationalrail.co.uk/service/ldbboard/dep/BCH Live departure boards for Birchington-on-Sea] National Rail Enquiries</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*{{commons category-inline|Plucks Gutter}}

{{Dover}}

[[Category:Hamlets in Kent]]