Section 5 - Pages 22-27 (inclusive)

The Church Registers
The Church Registers date from 1609. They record principally baptisms, marriages, deaths, and charitable collections. These last are rather striking as many were made in the 17th century on behalf of needy persons in distant parts of the country. Between November 26th 1680 and February 15th 1681, there are distinctly stated to have been seven burials in wool. The phrase afterwards used is 'according to the Act'. On April 6th 1681, a burial in linen took place, which was 'allowed' by authority. The entries are generally neat and well written and give a number of surnames still found in the village. Two Prayer Books date from 1839 and 1848 respectively, and a Bible from 1807.

A Sun-dial
On the south-east buttress of the tower is a stone sun-dial.

Derivation of Sundry Terms

1. The Earl of Eu possessed a mill in the parish, the rent of which as 7s. in the money of the period.
2. There was another Ralph, Bishop of Chichester, who died in 1124. He was so zealous in his labours he made a tour of his diocese three times a year to preach the Gospel, demanding neither help nor hospitality from clergy or laity. However, he welcomed and appreciated voluntary assistance.

3. Burials in churches took place at a very early date. At first they were confined to porches. Then persons eminent in rank or sanctity received the honour of sepulture within the nave. King Edgar in his Canons (950-975) attempted to check the practice.

4. Church bells came into use in Europe at the beginning of the seventh century. They were then neither dated or inscribed. By the time of the Norman Conquest great progress in their manufacture had been made. Norman church towers were large and massive because of the great weight of their bells. The custom of dating bells arose about the year 1570.

5. A Manor before the Conquest was an estate having a Court of Justice. Churches were built on these; and the patronage passed with them from one owner to another.

6. The Leuga of Battle Abbey was the land considered to be within a radius of a mile-and-a-half from it. Obviously it included all the property claimed by the Abbot.

7. St. Martin, celebrated for his religious zeal, was a Bishop of Tours in France. He died in 397 and his remains are interred in a magnificent tomb at Tours.

8. A Prebend is a private source of maintenance of a dignitary of a collegiate or cathedral church. The prior or vicar of Hooe assisted in Divine Service at a former collegiate church of St. Mary-in-the-Castle, Hastings.

9. A piscina was a shallow basin or sink in which the priest washed his hands and rinsed the vessels.

10. A Rood-loft was a gallery reached by a staircase in the wall. Attached to this was a rood-screen, on which was a rood (or cross) with statues of the Virgin Mary, S.S. Peter and John or other saints (NQ), also candlesticks and other decorations. (EB II 472).

11. A sedilium was a seat in the sanctuary for the priests.

12. A Stoup was a basin for holy water (blessed by a priest) and was placed at the entrance to a church.

13. Secular canons were a body nearly approaching our parochial clergy. Our clergy may be said to have sprung from them. They lived a kind of monastic life wherever the Christian faith was introduced into a new part of England. They issued forth constantly from their seclusion, either to instruct novices, perform the great offices of the Church for members wherever two or three were gathered together, or to penetrate still further into the spiritual darkness by which they were surrounded. As these little oases in the desert were generally formed into bishoprics, and became the seats of the diocesans, such early labourers in the cause of Christ became connected with the churches or cathedrals. (Life of Chaucer, by John Sanders, 1845).

14. Between the years 1739 and 1748 the sea so choked up Hooe Haven with beach that the water could not escape. An outlet was made at a cost of £1,000.

15. The great Andred Forest formerly stretched away through the Weald from the north of Hooe; Hooe possessed a haven, and is on the road from Pevensey to London, which appears to have existed in the time of the Britons. It was the opinion that Julius Caesar landed at Pevensey (54 BC) marched across the Level to the place now called Hooe, there encamped his soldiers and made his headquarters (or at Hurstmonceux).

The Saxon leaders Aella and Cissa made Pevensey their point of attack and from that town subdued the natives and founded the county in 491; in 670 AD, Wilfrid of York was shipwrecked on the coast near Selsea, and at once began to preach to the heathen Saxons; his efforts were so successful he was consecrated the first Bishop of Selsea. Sigga, Bishop of Chichester, was present at the Synod held by Cuthbert, Archbishop of Canterbury in 746 (MB V 540). The plan of Hooe Church is mainly Saxon, like Greenstead Church, built in 1013, and like Poynings Church.

A LIST OF THE VICARS OF HOOE

All the Incumbents in the fourteenth century were presented to the living by the Crown

Thomas R. Jones signed vestry records only in 1855. No Vicar signed for 1855-1859

The New Song of Hooe Church Bells

(The Old Song was written on July 26th 1898 and published in the "Sussex Express").

From the old tower grey of St. Oswald's at Hooe,
The zephyrs are wafting the music of bells;
Renewed and restored to their fond peaceful home,
In gratitude merry their melody swells.

No longer unpleasing their lays issue now,
For cordage and iron no freedom withhold;
And folk sympathetic the sweetness recall,
That hallowed their ringing on sabbaths of old.

How gladsome the time, long desired, now enjoyed!
Their festal rejoicing unsullied shall be
As over the hills and the levels around
Their peals shall be speeding as heralds in glee.

From Pevensey east to Bexhill and the Sluice,
Through Wartling and Boreham Ninfield and Whydown
Again do they merrily call pious souls
To quicken their race for the heavenly crown.

Compassion aroused did not heedless depart,
The cry of complaining was not made in vain,
And oft as to praises their chiming shall call
Their thanks from the belfry shall echo again.

J.J.N. - May 26th 1899

A Message of the Bells

Plan of St. Oswald's Church, Hooe (page 27 in the book - Click on picture for a MUCH larger image!)