Billingshurst
| Billingshurst | |
| Sussex | |
|---|---|
 St Mary's Church | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | TQ087259 |
| Location: | 51°1’21"N, 0°27’3"W |
| Data | |
| Population: | 8,232 (2011) |
| Post town: | Billingshurst |
| Postcode: | RH14 |
| Dialling code: | 01403 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | Horsham |
| Parliamentary constituency: |
Horsham |
| Website: | Billingshurst Parish Council |
Billingshurst is a village in Sussex, in the north of the county, on the A29 road (the Roman Stane Street) at its crossroads with the A272, six miles south-west of Horsham and five and a half miles north-east of Pulborough.
The 2011 census recorded a population of 8,232.
The village's name derives from Old English ‘’Billinga hyrst’’, meaning ‘Billa’s people’s woodland’, most likely referring to the sandstone hillock that St Mary's Church is sited on in the historical centre of the village.
Community facilities
The village has a secondary school and a sixth form college, known together as The Weald School. Billingshurst Primary School stands near The Weald.
New housing development on the eastern side of the village will include a spine road linking the A29 road north of the village with the A272 road to the east.[1] 550 new homes will be built along with a school, dentists' surgery, play areas and improvements to the railway station.
Billingshurst railway station on Station Road is on the mainline from London Victoria to Bognor Regis and Chichester.
The village is to the east of a remaining section of the Wey and Arun Canal; the canal has not been fully navigable since the 1890s.
Religious sites
Billingshurst has four churches:
- Church of England: St Mary's Church; the oldest church in the village
- Roman Catholic: St Gabriel's
- Independent / evangelical: Billingshurst Family Church, part of the Newfrontiers ‘Commission’ family of churches;
- United Reformed Church: Trinity Church
Billingshurst Unitarian Chapel, set back behind the High Street, was founded in 1754 and is one of the south-eastern counties’ oldest Nonconformist places of worship.[2]
Sport
- Football: Billingshurst F.C., based at Jubilee Fields on the western junction of the A29 and A272. The club was established in 1891.
Second World War
Kingsfold Camp, a prisoner-of-war camp, was set up in Billingshurst during the Second World War.
On film and television
- Billingshurst's Dell Lane was the location for the BBC sitcom Ever Decreasing Circles starring Richard Briers.[3]
- Michael Lugg (1956) in British Pathé "Boy's Traction Engine"[4]
- Paul Adorian (1965) in British Pathé "Vintage Fire Brigade"[5]
Outside links
 |
("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Billingshurst) |
References
- ↑ [https://horsham.moderngov.co.uk/mgAi.aspx?ID=861 Horsham District Council, 19 April 2016
- ↑ Lines, Wendy (1995). Billingshurst. The Archive Photographs Series. Chalford: Chalford Publishing Company. p. 87. ISBN 0-7524-0301-X.
- ↑ "Ever Decreasing Circles - Billingshurst, Sussex". http://www.tvlocations.net/billingshurstloc.htm.
- ↑ Lines, Wendy (1995). Billingshurst. The Archive Photographs Series. Chalford: Chalford Publishing Company. p. 87. ISBN 0-7524-0301-X.
- ↑ "Vintage Fire Brigade 1965". https://www.britishpathe.com/video/vintage-fire-brigade.
- Lawes, Geoffrey (2017). Billingshurst's Heritage: An Historical Miscellany of a Sussex Village. United States: Peacock Press. ISBN 9781912271023.