Ore, East Sussex

Ore is known to all locally as Ore Village despite not looking like one!

At first it appears to the visitor as a high-altitude district of Hastings (and has been officially part of the town since 1897), but Ore has always had a personality very much of its own.

The fact that it is proudly still a village is testament to its character. Ore has often been looked over as not only as the poor relation to the main town, but according to locals is seen as “out of sight, out of mind” by those down on the seafront.

Naturally this would give anywhere an independent spirit, and Ore has plenty of independence. Located loftily over Hastings its streets are steep, set up and down the Ore Valley, and decorated with workers cottages and townhouses.

There is very much a village centre, with a supermarket, fish and chips, and a collection of flower shops, cafes and bakeries.

When the tramway opened in 1905, twenty miles of track connected this village to Bexhill. This long gone, Ore is something of a hilltop island and seems proud of the fact.

The disappearance of the trams has left a busy main street where most of the amenities are to be found, but venturing off of this you’ll find characteristic streets with houses occupied by life long residents and savvy newcomers betting on Ore fulfilling its huge potential.

Village credentials are proven with the well-kept Christ Church on the High Street (although this is not always open) but most importantly by Speckled Wood.

To have woodland, as opposed to a park, in such a densely populated area is rare and is a credit to the village. Set on the steep hills that distinguish Ore it is the only deep sided wet wood to survive in East Sussex.

This sanctuary is a historic place mercifully saved from development and home to a community of rare insects, birds and woodland mammals.

An active community centre and library add to the identity of this self-contained neighbourhood of fresh air.

Ore might still be Hasting’s forgotten relative, but that is all the more reason to visit. There is nothing fancy about it, yet here is a community on the hill that has all the advantages of Hastings but determinedly marches to its own beat.