Hooe, Sussex

Hooe
Sussex
The Oast House, Kiln Lane, Hooe
Location
Grid reference:	TQ692106
Location:	50°52’12"N, -0°24’0"E
Data
Population:	445  (2011, parish)
Post town:	Battle
Postcode:	TN33
Dialling code:	01424
Local Government
Council:	Wealden
Parliamentary constituency:	Bexhill and Battle

Hooe is a small village in Sussex, two miles north-west of Bexhill-on-Sea, and north of the A259 coast road, on the B2095 road from Ninfield.

The wider parish includes Hooe Common to the north, which has since become the larger settlement.

History

The name Hooe comes from the Old English word hoh meaning a heel or ridge, since the village stood on a ridge of land between two arms of the sea. Those areas are now low-lying land, one being the Hooe Levels, across which flows the stream known as Waller's Haven. The River Ashbourne flows into the Haven, down which iron products, particularly cannon, used to be shipped from the Wealden iron works at Ashburnham.

During the 18th century Hooe was used by local gangs for the smuggling trade. There was a high demand in France for English wool and the local Romney sheep produced fine wool and high-quality meat which was traded or smuggled via small boats off Normans Bay for brandy, wines, tobacco and other luxury goods.

The church, dedicated to St Oswald, is part of a combined ecclesiastical parish with that at Ninfield. Hooe church, both Saxon and Norman, was built in its location as meeting point of several of the surrounding hamlets, including Hooe Common. There were suggestions by a local historian that there was a village surrounding the church but that it was burnt down during the plague and the village moved to Hooe Common although there is no archaeological evidence for this. There is an abandoned mediæval village, Northeye, which is located on Hooe Levels. This may have been abandoned during the plague.

About the village

Hooe windmill was situated where the house "The Retreat" is now, next to the recreation ground. Nearby is Court Lodge, a hunting lodge used by King Henry VIII, and where he stayed with Katherine Howard before they were married.

Pevensey Levels, a Site of Special Scientific Interest, lies partially in the parish. The site is of biological interest consisting of low-lying grazing meadows, hosting a wide variety of wetland flora and fauna.

Outside links

("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Hooe, Sussex)