The Lost Village of Dode

A tiny medieval settlement in North Kent dates back to the Roman Empire. In 1349, the village of Dode was one of many communities across England that was decimated by the Black Death. Across the country, the plague killed up to 60 percent of England's population. Entire communities like Dode simply vanished.

All that was left of the village was the Church at Dode, built between 1087 and 1100. Today, the lone stone church still stands as a silent witness to a community lost to history. Restored in the 1990s, it's a chilling snapshot of how quickly an entire way of life can disappear.

Today, the church is used for weddings and other celebrations. The nearby Holly Barrow serves as a resting place for the ashes of loved ones, and a ceremonial stone circle called the Holly Henge is used for worship and rites of passage.

According to local legend, there was a single, final survivor of the Black Death in Dode. Allegedly, she was a seven-year-old girl known as the Dodechild, who was said to have taken refuge in the church after the other villagers died. According to the tale, the Dodechild has haunted the churchyard ever since. At first, she appeared on a Sunday morning each month. After awhile, she began to appear only once every seven years.

Beyond the ghost of the Dodechild, the grounds are watched over by the living "guardians of Dode."