Hooe, East Sussex

The name Hooe comes from the Saxon word meaning a 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 connected with other local gangs in smuggling.There was a high demand in France for English wool with the local Romney(Kent)sheep producing fine wool and valuable meat which was traded or smuggled via small boats off Normans Bay -

for brandy, wines[used by the church] and tobacco etc.
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The church, dedicated to St Oswald, is part of a combined ecclesiastical parish with that at Ninfield.[4] 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 this was burnt down during the plague and the village moved to Hooe Common but there is no archaeological evidence for this. There is an abandoned medieval village, Northeye, which is located on Hooe Levels. This may have been abandoned during the plague.

Hooe windmill was situated where the house the Retreat is now, next to the recreation ground. Henry the 8ths hunting lodge is located at Court lodge 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 The hardy docile all red\ginger Sussex cattle which arrived in Viking days are very well suited to the Hooe Levels where they were once used as oxen to transport goods locally -they thrive on the mineral rich marshland where they are grass finished to produce some of the best beef in the world![5]

Renown Coaches operate two buses services Monday-Friday which consists of: Route 97: Currently Departs Hooe Lamb Inn at 09:03 and 12:03. There is a 15:03 on non school days which operates via Hooe Common 5 minutes later. (This is subject to change due to the national concessionary pass times changing.) These buses operate to Bexhill. There is also a School bus which departs Hooe Common at 08:08 to Claverham with a bus departing Claverham at 15:30. This is route 356.

Media related to Hooe at Wikimedia Commons