Oxney Bottom - The scariest place in England?

The most recent feedback about this atmospheric Kent location is posted at the top of the page. If you have anything to add, or wish to draw our attention to something other Yourcounty users might find interesting email content@yourcounty.co.uk.

"I have been reading the comments on your site and with regards to the person who reported on hearing 'child like cries', without sounding like a spoilsport can I please point out that there is fact a very busy boarding kennels not quarter of a mile away! Having been working at these kennels for some time I can appreciate that some of the noises the dogs make could well be mis-interpreted as child like cries.  I go up in these woods regularly and have never felt like I'm being watched or felt scared.  Also if the wind is in the right direction you can actually hear the dogs up to a mile away. Just something the readers might like to bear in mind!

Thanks Laura"

"My brother and his girlfriend and I, all keen paranormal investigators (novices at this stage I must add!) recently investigated the chapel in Oxney Bottom wood, following a previously abortive attempt to locate it in the darkness of October. This new attempt was made this month (May 2005), and went a lot better than the last!

To locate the chapel quickly, we went almost all the way up the sloped driveway, nearly to the gates of Oxney Court, then turned to the left almost doubling back on ourselves. There is a feint pathway through the undergrowth, with the odd branch that has fallen across it. If you follow this path it is 3-5 minutes walk to the chapel.

Once there, we took photographs and filmed with our night vision cameras. We picked up some unusual readings on our EMF detector, which went off the scale as we moved it towards any object in the whole area (trees, plants, stones, the ground, and the chapel itself.) Once inside the chapel we examined the few gravestones of the Banks and LaCoste families. Most of the writing is still clear, although some of it was unreadable.

We set up the EMF sensor in between two of the gravestones, and then began our vigil with the night vision cameras. My brother, Wil, thought he heard a scream in the direction of the road, but he was the only one that heard it. We asked for communication with spirits, and after a bit of a wait we received an orb (a light anomaly) and activity on the EMF detector at the exact same moment!

Although it looked ominous at first, we did not feel uncomfortable or scared in the ruined chapel. We did however have the advantage of having read the messages from the readers of yourcounty.co.uk which prepared us somewhat!

We hope to do another investigation soon, which may involve one of us spending some time alone in the chapel!

P.S. in answer to a question raised in a previous post, I believe that the area of Oxney Bottom was historically known as 'Oxene'.
 
Laurence Newvell"

"I now live in Dover and my mother lives in Deal so I have made regular trips along the road between, which includes Oxney Bottom at all times and in all weathers. I have never seen anything untoward but my mother (who is the hardest headed no-nonsense type) has always referred to the area as "Grey Lady Corner" and has known a few of the many casualties in her 35 years living close.

I have noticed that mist lies here and that there can be some unusual effects with car lights and slipstreams etc. My neighbour, (75 years a local) and an ex-Navy man, says that he was travelling back to Dover some years ago when a coach burst through the hedge on the kennel side and disappeared into the hedge opposite. I should make it clear that by coach, he means horse drawn stage coach. He says he swerved, narrowly missing the trees that have claimed so many lives down there and after regaining his breath sped home. He states that he has never used that road again at night, preferring to go around by Sutton!

I hope this any be of interest to your other readers, could there have been a road bisecting the modern one at some time? or is my neighbour the only one to see the coach. I must admit when he first told me I thought he was pulling my leg but when I started to joke back I realised that the poor man had been genuinely frightened.

S.D"

"Twenty years ago whilst visiting the area I happened to walk to St Margaret's Bay late one night passing through the area that I now know to be called Oxney Bottom. It was a terrifying experience, there was definitely something in the copse beyond the road. I was scared stiff at the time but told myself it was just people messing around. Now I'm not so sure. Why hasn't their been more serious investigation into the area?

P Martin"

"Would like to add something further to a post on Oxney Bottom.

We our Ghostconnections UK, Paranormal Investigators and recently took a trip to Oxney Bottom.

Please read our account: -

We parked at the bottom of the lane that lead up to Oxney Court and cut through the trees into the woods. One of our team, Dean, had been to Oxney before and was sure of the location of the chapel. However we walked round for what seemed ages and could not find the place.

We were aware of noises all around us, several times we heard whispers, and what seemed like a child calling out, this was very distant.

Round and round we walked, falling into several pits that were dug by the army we believe when the court was used as a barracks.

Finally from nowhere we stood in front of the chapel.

We ventured in and took photographs, Matt was drawn to the outside of the chapel and felt uncomfortable. We all felt as if someone was watching us.

Our torches began to fail, so we decided to leave, as we took our final pictures of the outside of the chapel I began to feel breathless and my chest began to tighten and I started to cough. We left quickly and the tightness subsided. We began walking through the woods not sure which way we  had come, after some time the tightness returned to my chest and I began to cough again, it was then that realised that we had come full circle and were standing in front of the chapel again.

We became really worried that we would never leave the woods.

Strangely enough, after we left again, my chest eased and we were back on a dirt track that we had seen earlier. We left the woods at the top of the drive and walked down to our car.

We will be making a return trip to Oxney Botton in the near future. Future reports will be able to be viewed from our new website www.ghostconnections.com

Regards

K.Slater"

"I have followed your page about Oxney Bottom with great interest in the year or two since I contributed a few words. I just wanted to let you know that I have created a webpage that goes into great detail about the place, its history and also the residents of Oxney Court. I am sure that your readers would find it of great interest. The page can be accessed at: www.robertsplace.ca/oxney

Robert Banning

Ed shares his thoughts with us:

"Regarding Oxney Bottom - The scariest plave in England.  I moved into Walmer, near Deal in 1987.  I was a keen jogger at the time and spent many a time jogging through the area in and around Oxney Bottom.  It became one of my favourite off road routes, and many of the then Deal Striders would race around it on Sunday mornings.  It is damp and causes many a mist amonst its heavily wooded terrain.  Further inland is Martin Mill, which may lay along similar terrain.  When cycling through this stretch I get the same cold and damp feeling, but this is usual along the country roads between Dover and Deal.  I've often wondered if an aerial photo would link the areas in any way, perhaps showing an old river bed.  I jogged through Oxney Bottom at 3 am once returning from Dover.  Although it didn't give me any ill feeling, I did frighten a driver heading towards Dover, with my bright yellow jacket.  I hope his gears got over the shock!

Ed Taylor "

Oxney feedback from Nathan:

"I have an interested story to tell you, that happened recently, to my friend at Oxney Bottom.

On Sunday 30th November 2003, my friend, was walking his dog, and he walked up to the gates of Oxney bottom.  They had been locked, though he decided to look through.  Apparently, he saw a figure with a horrible face, looking at him, and then running away.  The story goes by that their was a boy who had fallen down a well in the 60s, and that his body remains in the well, and that it got cemented over'.  He had seen a young boy, that ran away

The story, is very spooky, I have always been interested in Oxney, and yes there are weird goings on, one to do with a bus and a lady disappearing, one fallen down a well etc."

Matt emailed with his thoughts:

"Found your site, been to oxney many times. Always found it strange (only during the day though) and have seen these dug holes that is mentioned on your page. Oxney court is now inhabited and has been done up.  We (me and my two mates) have now decided to go on a one day and one night trip out there. we have grown up with the stories and want to come face to face with fear. if all goes well we will report back with our finding!!!"

"when ever any of you visited oxney, if it was say from 1977 til 1981, did you ever come across a dobermann dog.....if so, that was ours.!! i lived there from that time , i was only 6 and was freaked out by the whole thing. Yes a child did fall down a well and there was, when we lived there remains of old tools where they had attempted to rescue the kid.  Apparently captain bligh also passed through there on his travels. The manor house has now been renovated to its full glory and is absolutly lovely"

Yourcounty user James has come up with some more feedback about Oxney Bottom

"my friends and i decided to head out to oxney bottom after reading about it on your website. We went on a late summer night, there was 8 of us.  when we got there we found the church and decided one of us would take the video camera and sit inside the church, whilst the rest of us left and said we would come back in half an hour. The person would film the interior, with a commentry on how they felt, etc.

The rest of us went back to the main road a waited, ten minutes later, crashing through the woods our friend came bursting out, cursing and sweating.

They said they saw nothing but felt like they were being intensley watched.. and felt a presence glaring at them.. they couldn't stay. I decided to go and check it out.. i got to the church and waited.. i then decided to go for a walk outside the church and it was there i encountered a similar sense of being scrutinized by something.. and whatever it was didn't like my being there.. i swear i felt something breathing on my neck.it was then that i fled
 
Oxney bottom is without a doubt a truely scary place!!

james"

Yourcounty user Robert now living in Canada shares his thoughts on this atmospheric place situated between Deal and Dover. 

"I lived in the nearby village of Kingsdown in the sixties and went to school in Dover so I was used to travelling through Oxney on the bus almost every day. I became fascinated with the local stories of the Grey Lady that was reputed to haunt Oxney Bottom. There were also stories of a child who had died falling down a well in the woods there. 

I did quite a bit of research at the local libraries in Deal and Dover at that time and uncovered the following facts.   

From a book that I believe was called “Ramblings through Kent with Pen and Paper” published in the 1920’s I found mention that Oxney was supposed to be haunted by the ghost of a young highwayman; the youngest son of a Dover Innkeeper who had finally been captured and hanged at the site of his crimes: Oxney Bottom. He was by all accounts a gallant lad and never robbed the ladies travelling on the stagecoaches. The author mentions that very few of the old locals in Ringwould recalled the tale, when he questioned them and I don’t think he mentions the Grey Lady, which could mean that she is a relatively modern ghost.

Oxney was actually once a village and the village church was destroyed during the Reformation and suffered the indignity of becoming a barn for many years. It was eventually used as a family graveyard by the residents of nearby Oxney Court – a fine house designed by Sir Richard Roffey. This was the Lacoste family, I believe.

I visited Oxney on several occasions. The church took quite a bit of finding in the woods, which were full of small shallow trench-like excavations that we assumed were from the war. To our disappointment, Oxney Court was in ruins, and even though it was a warm summer’s day we were amazed that our breath formed steam as we explored the remains of the house. We found the Well within the broken walls – it was cemented over with a large concrete block and bore a date from the early sixties. I would say that this was where the child died. It was a very dismal and depressing place and we felt that we were probably trespassing.

My sister and I, along with her boyfriend, returned to Oxney one autumn evening with the intent of writing down the dates and inscriptions on the gravestones to help further my research. This was a foolish thing to do. Evening closed in quite fast as we reached the bottom of Ringwould Hill and headed into the woods. After a while we were hopelessly lost in the woods, with only my prior recollection of the rough whereabouts of the church to go by. It was quite hazardous, blundering through the near darkness, finding ourselves back where we started from, at times. We had torches and used them sparingly for fear of being lost in the dark. 

Finally we found the church and I hurriedly wrote down the inscriptions – by this time the whole venture had lost its appeal. Fortunately we found our way back to the main road without too much difficulty by following the sound of the traffic and catching glimpses of the car headlights through the trees. A thin fog had started to drift in and we were happy to be walking alongside the road, despite the cars flashing past at very close proximity. 

One interesting thing that we observed was that as the cars swooped through the bends of Oxney Bottom, the air currents created by their passage caused the fog to swirl up into the path of the oncoming car. I could see how this could be seen as a ghostly apparition, especially in rain and fog. 

Oxney was not a pleasant place and still holds a fascination for me, thirty five years later. I suppose we were very lucky not to have witnessed something more macabre on that night as we wandered through the woods."

Neil Arnold has drawn our attention to some more reports about Oxney Bottom.  Go to www.roadghosts.com go to 'CASES' and then 'UK' to find some more details

Simon Sharples emailed Yourcounty with his thoughts about Oxney Bottom

"I grew up in Sandwich and we always were terrified of Oxney Bottom. My father grew up in Deal and he passed on many stories about Oxney Bottom.
 
* The grey lady story is true! In the 1950's an old woman got on a double decker bus at Oxney Bottom and went upstairs. When the conductor went upstairs to sell her a ticket she had vanished.
 
* During the 60's, 70's and even up until 1996 there were a whole series of crashes at the darkly wooded bend in Oxney Bottom. On several occasions the accident victims would speak of a 'grey lady' who had stepped out into the road. My father had newspaper cuttings
about this article.
 
*In 1968 my father went out camping with his friends in the woods at Oxney Bottom. As they explored they came back to their tent to find it all ablaze. One of his friends fell down a well and another friend said he saw something in the ruins of an old chapel in the woods. He would not speak about it and apparently to this day he speaks with a stammer supposedly caused by what he saw that day.
 
* I investigated the area with my cousin in 1991. We took a Camcorder but saw nothing. We did find the ruined chapel however, and discovered that there are local legends that the Grey Lady has some connection to this mysterious ruin in the woods.
 
* I personally have no belief in the Supernatural whatever and neither does my father. From an early age however, he would always ascertain that there was something strange about Oxney Bottom."

"Oxney Bottom near Deal is supposed to have a Grey Lady haunting the area but this (I think) is a piece of local mythology, it is however one of the most frightening places I've ever been to.  A number of supernatural events are linked with the area by local people but I've found little substantive evidence to support any of them. There is clearly an oral tradition that the place is one to steer clear of and having been there I can see why you wouldn't want to be there late at night alone.

Does anyone have any information about supernatural, strange or tragic events at Oxney Bottom? Does the area have another local name or historically was it called something else?"

www.yourcounty.co.uk