The Abingers

This parish is home to several small villages and hamlets: Abinger Hammer, Abinger Common, Sutton Abinger, Abinger Bottom, Broadmoor, Colsharbour and Friday Street.

All the settlements are either on or around the slopes of Leith Hill, the highest point in Southern England. Abinger, a tiny village on Abinger Common, was inhabited in the stone-age, and is said to be the oldest village in England. St James's Church, a Norman building with a 13th century chancel, was damaged by a flying bomb during the Second World War, and then again by fire in 1964.

The best known of the villages is Abinger Hammer which was an important medieval centre of the iron industry. In the centre of the village is the wooden clock, which hangs out over the road and has a figure of Jack-the-Blacksmith who strikes the hour on his bell with a hammer. The forge still exists, there is still a working smithy, and the hammer ponds are used for growing watercress.