Slaybrook Hall stands on Sandling Road in Saltwood, near Hythe. Rick Hale's piece on Spooky Isles says the present house was built sometime in the 1200s and was used as the setting for the film of Noel Coward's Blithe Spirit.
The name is explained by a legend. A British tribe living on the land supposedly raided Roman wagons on the road between Canterbury and Lympne, so two legions were sent to wipe them out and burn their homes. The brook is said to have run red with blood, giving Slaybrook. The dying chief is said to have cursed the land and all who lived on it. A further legend says the knights who killed Thomas Becket hid at Slaybrook afterwards.
Reported phenomena are strange lights in the grounds and trees, said to be best seen in December, a figure dark as night that steps from the shadows, vanishes and leaves a sense of dread, and marching Roman soldiers with drawn swords. The source says the dark figure is believed to be one of Becket's killers, and adds that the house has changed hands often, without evidence that this is related.
There is no archaeological or documentary support in the source for a Roman massacre, and the account names no witnesses or dates. It is kept as folklore with a thin ghost layer.
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