History

Old St Helen's Church spans a thousand years of history, from the Norman Conquest up to the Victorian era. It is situated just off the Ridge, an ancient trackway that was certainly in use during the Iron Age and is likely to be much earlier.

The church is known as St Helen's Church, Ore. The first mention of Ore is to be found in 1107. A Robert de Ore is also mentioned in the reign of Richard 1. The name itself may come from the Old English word ora - meaning a flat-topped ridge.

Although we know that the original church was built in the late 11th/12th century the first written evidence for the church does not appear until 1291 in the Ecclesiastical Valuation of England and Wales.

Until the coming of the railway in the 19th century the parish of Ore was mainly agricultural and the parish sparsely populated.