As the nights draw in, the mist creeps over the fields and the scariest night of the year approaches, there’s no better time to explore Kent’s dark underworld.

From Dickens’ ghostly marshes to the legends of haunted villages, the county provides the perfect setting for spine-chilling stories.

Whether it’s on the page or the screen, Kent has a surprisingly gothic background and there is no better time of year to explore the places, writers and filmmakers that keep our horror legacy alive.

One of Medway’s most famous novelists, Charles Dickens, was not necessarily known as a horror writer, but his work contains plenty of eerie imagery.

The creepy Kent marshes featured heavily in Great Expectations, with haunted Victorian graveyards and fog-covered landscapes giving readers an early vision of rural terror.

Author M.R. James, who was born in Goodnestone, near Dover, became famous for his early 20th-century ghost stories, earning him the nickname The Father of Folk Horror.

His supernatural tales include Oh Whistle and I’ll Come to You My Lad and Canon Alberic's Scrap-Book, many of which have inspired modern paranormal narratives.

In more recent years, Kent’s diverse landscapes and historic architecture have been featured on screen in hit TV shows and films.

Many parts of the county have been chosen as filming locations, including the Historic Dockyard Chatham, where 1999’s The Mummy and Victor Frankenstein, starring Daniel Radcliffe, were both shot.

Indie horror films The Last Rite and The Rizen were both produced in the county, while Channel 4 thriller Southcliffe was filmed in Faversham and murder mystery Whitstable Pearl, starring Kerry Godliman, takes place in the seaside town.

Beyond the page and the screen, Kent’s folklore provides plenty of material to inspire future spooky stories.

The village of Pluckley, near Ashford, is known by many as Britain’s most haunted village, with stories of phantom monks and horsemen haunting its lanes and hiding in its pubs.

Blue Bell Hill, the main road that links Medway and Maidstone, has been the site of many unearthly sightings over the years, with motorists claiming to have seen vanishing hitchhikers on the side of the road.

The Dering Woods, near Smarden, have been affectionately named the Screaming Woods thanks to the many shrieks, footsteps and whispers heard coming from within the woodland by passersby.

The Halloween spirit still sweeps through Kent each October, with current events, including the terrifying mazes at Chatham’s Fort Amherst and nighttime ghost tours of Hever Castle in Edenbridge, giving visitors a chance to soak up the chilling, thrilling atmosphere.