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Very close to Pluckley station, Pluckley was the home of Sir Edward Dering, 1st Baronet, MP for Hythe and the Member for Kent in The Long Parliament. The Dering Arms was originally built as a hunting lodge for the family's weekend guests and owned by the estate, built around the time of the coming of the railway line from London to the Kent coast in the 1840s.
The inn has a lot of Dutch gables and mullioned, arched and leaded windows, some etched with the Dering family's coat of arms. It has thick stone walls, studded oak doors, stone floors and a blazing log fire in winter. In the 17th century the Cavalier Dering escaped the Roundheads through one of the windows.
The Dering estate was sold in 1928 and the guesthouse/hunting lodge became a pub.
If you pull back the right-hand hand pump in the left bar, you will see, very faintly, the date of 1931 stamped on the quadrant part of the mechanism. A nice little bit of tying history together.
The chef utilises fresh local ingredients and specialises in award-winning seafood but there’s plenty of choice for non-seafood lovers and with enough warning is prepared to shop for the ingredients to create your special meal.
During the autumn and winter months there are black-tie gourmet evenings which include a 7-course gourmet meal and a chance to dress up in your best for a delightful and memorable meal.
One star - A pub interior of special national historic interest
Listed status: II
The coming of the railway in 1844 led Sir Edward Cholmeley Dering to provide this flamboyant building for his guests and its architecture echoes his main house and other buildings on the estate. After this was sold in 1928, it was turned into a pub, neatly confirmed by the date of 1931 on one of the quadrant arms of the hand pumps in the left-hand bar. There are two bars at the front, much as they were about 1930, with their original counters and a back fitting which houses a couple of drawers for cash or other items. The door between the two rooms has colourful glass as does the small divider sitting on the counter. The large rear room, although apparently dating from about 1845, now has no features of historic interest.
Built of stone in c.1840 originally as a hunting lodge for the Dering Estate, it is a smaller replica of the main Surrenden Dering mansion with impressive Dutch gables and has a red creeper. It has distinctive Dering stone mullioned round-headed windows and has been an inn for a hundred years. Through the left hand stud door is a public bar which has a bar counter including decorative brackets. The counter is probably the one installed when it first became a pub and on the staff side it has two large drawers. The room has a flagstone floor and a brick fireplace that is not that old.
To the right a door with a colourful leaded panel in the top leads to a smaller second bar with another original panelled bar counter and, like the other bar, it is inlaid with leather which has started to deteriorate. The room also has an old bar back fitting of shelves held up with slender columns and two drawers in lower half, a brick fireplace that is not that old. To the right is a lobby and on the far right a door leads into a restaurant in a modern extension consisting of two small rooms joined and both with a dado of old panelling. On rear left is a large room with a modern bar counter.
Dering Arms, Pluckley
Lunchtime Meals
Evening Meals
Garden
Family Friendly
Parking
Dog Friendly
Accommodation
Function Room
Real Fire
Restaurant
Separate Bar
Smoking
Real Ale
Real Cider
Real Heritage Pub
LocAle
Quiet
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