3 Men on a walk 2017: Hooe and the long lost Harbour

Boreham Street - Hooe - Wartling loop

A long time ago Ivan found a walk that aimed to find the long lost harbours of the Hooe Levels. We kept putting off this walk in the winter because its an old marshland and would be very wet under foot. But in the early middle ages this area was under about 4 to 5 ft of water and it was navigable by coastal barges. The map below shows where the coastline is today compared to where it was in the 12th - 14th century.

So with a beautiful summer day ahead of us we drove to Boreham Street, Parked up at the local pub (that was we were sure to arrive back!) and set out to see if we could find anything that would indicate the maritime nature of this then flooded countryside.

The main river that flows through that area and which had originally created the low-lying area that was flooded by the sea now around Pevensey is the "River Waller". We quickly dropped down from Boreham Street into the river valley which was full up with reed beds and drainage dykes. We crossed the valley and started the climb up the other side to reach the village of Hooe. Ivan had found out that the word "Hooe" was the pre-cursor of the word "Ho" which is given to a piece of land overlooking the sea. Certainly Hooe was situated on a piece of headland that would have overlooked the original flooded valleys below and also the tributary flowing between Hooe and Barnhorn which is where we believe the main harbour was situated.

However, whilst its easy to see on a map when you are out in the field its almost impossible to get an overall picture of how things might have been 800 years ago.

Having reached the lower end of the Hooe Levels we turned back north into the Waller Valley again, passing the village of Wartling and back for lunch at the Bull in Boreham Street.