Previous Meetings

Chris Bull gave us an insight into the Folklore of Chalk Parish; odd stories, not necessarily recorded but collected from interviews over time and above all not necessarily true. There are four houses in Chalk all purporting to be the authentic one where Charles Dickens spent his honeymoon! The Maltings are supposed to be haunted by a woman worker, and the smuggling tunnels in every parish are indeed folklore, they just don’t exist.

However, Chalk Forge was the one mentioned in Great Expectations. Human remains were said to have been found under the kitchen floor. Witches, suicides and non-Christians used to be buried at a crossroads. Most blacksmiths also doubled as undertakers and their premises had a mortuary at the back so this might be accurate... no-one knows!

Report written by Polly Chandler.