Christ Church, Ore

Christ Church stands in Ore, a former village now part of Hastings in East Sussex. Built in 1858, it is an Anglican church in Decorated Gothic style, designed to serve a growing working-class population. The church’s most striking feature is a slender octagonal corner turret topped with a spire and weathervane. English Heritage has listed it at Grade II for its architectural and historical importance. Architect Alexander Dick Gough, known for his unusual Gothic designs, created the church as his only Sussex commission. The foundation stone was laid by Countess Waldegrave, a local benefactor, in November 1858. The church was built to supplement the small and deteriorating St Helen’s Church, which lay distant from the expanding village. Ore’s population had doubled in the 19th century as Hastings grew inland from a seaside resort. The rector, Rev. W.T. Turner, sought to provide spiritual support in a poor area with high unemployment. The church cost £4,268 to construct, a substantial sum at the time. Its interior includes intricate foliage carvings, stained glass by Heaton, Butler and Bayne, and memorials to both world wars. Inside, the church has a nave of five bays with an aisle on the north side, a chancel, organ chamber and two vestries. The windows are lancets with elaborate tracery, and the west and east windows each have seven lights. Above the chancel arch and east window are painted decorative friezes, renewed in the 1990s. The turret’s clock, bell and spire were restored in 2003 after wartime bomb damage in 1943. The church remains an active place of worship, holding Sunday services and weekday prayers.