Plucks Gutter

Hamlet in Kent, England Human settlement in England Plucks Gutter is a hamlet in the civil parish of Stourmouth, Kent, England. The hamlet is situated where the Little Stour and 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] History A mile upstream from the Dog and Duck Inn public house is 'Blood Point', where King Alfred defeated a Viking invasion force, which is often taken[by whom?] to be the Royal Navy's first successful engagement of a foe.[citation needed] 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 Ramsgate, leaving Plucks Gutter six miles in a straight line and ten by river from the English Channel.[citation needed] In 1821–23, a North Kent Gang of smugglers used Pluck's Gutter. One account[where?] from a Revenue Officer stated