Oreston

Recorded as Worston Passage in 1466 this rules out the colourful local suggestion that more than 175 years later, after fighting a battle nearby, Cromwell brought his troops to this quiet place near the water and said “O rest on men”.

Clearly the name is of greater antiquity than that. A later spelling gives us “Horstone” and this has prompted some scholars to suggest that the first element may be “har”, and, rather like Orestone Cross near Kingskerswell, this could be a boundary stone of some description.

Certainly there was a well-used passage here across the Plym and there may well have been a prominent stone here to mark the crossing point. But there is also a suggestion that it refers to the age-old quarries here, hence Ore stone.

In Sussex however, where there is a place simply called Ore - the derivation is Old English “ora” meaning slope or ridge, and there can be little doubt that, before all the quarrying, this place, later known to locals as Osun, would have appeared as a distinctive ridge or slope (cf. Hooe and Hoe) on the waterside.