Horsham () is a market town on the upper reaches of the River Arun on the fringe of the Weald in West Sussex, England. The town is south south-west of London, north-west of Brighton and north-east of the county town of Chichester. Nearby towns include Crawley to the north-east and Haywards Heath and Burgess Hill to the south-east. It is the administrative centre of the Horsham district.
History
Governance
Horsham is the largest town in the Horsham District Council area. The second, higher, tier of local government is West Sussex County Council, based in Chichester. It lies within the ancient Norman administrative division of the Rape of Bramber and the Hundred of Singlecross in Sussex.
The town is the centre of the parliamentary constituency of Horsham, recreated in 1983. Jeremy Quin has served as Conservative Member of Parliament for Horsham since 2015, succeeding Francis Maude, who held the seat from 1997 but retired at the 2015 general election.
Geography
Weather
Horsham holds the UK record for the heaviest hailstone ever to fall. On 5 September 1958, a hailstone weighing 140g (4.9 oz) landed in the town. It was similar in size to a tennis ball and impact speeds have been calculated to be 100 m/s (224 mph).
Topography
Horsham is above sea level. It is in the centre of the Weald in the Low Weald, at the western edge of the High Weald, with the Surrey Hills of the North Downs to the north and the Sussex Downs of the South Downs National Park to the south. The River Arun rising from ghylls in the St Leonard's Forest area, to the east of Horsham, cuts through the south of the town then makes its way through Broadbridge Heath. The Arun is joined by a number of streams flowing down from the north, which rises around Rusper.
Town centre
Horsham has grown up around the Carfax (an open pedestrianised square). To the south of the Carfax is the Causeway. This street consists of houses erected in the 17th, 18th, and early 19th century and is lined with ancient London Plane trees. The Horsham Museum is at the north end opposite to the recently developed former headquarters of the R.S.P.C.A. At the south end of the Causeway is the Church of England parish church of St. Mary: Norman in origin, rebuilt in the 13th century and restored in 1864–65 by the Gothic revival architect S.S. Teulon. The area immediately to the south of the parish church is known as Normandy. It was formerly an area of artisans cottages and an ancient well. Fifty metres south is the River Arun. On the northern bank is Prewett's Mill, and on the south side is the town's cricket field. A short walk along the banks of the Arun in a south-easterly direction is Chesworth Farm, an area of open public access.
To the north of the Carfax is a park, Horsham Park, the remnant of what was formerly the Hurst Park Estate. The park has football pitches, a wildlife pond and tennis courts. Leisure facilities, including a swimming complex and a gymnastic centre, have been built on land around the park. To the east along Brighton Road is Iron Bridge named after the railway bridge that carries the railway from to . The area consists of mainly Victorian and Edwardian houses to the north of Brighton Road, whilst to the south, there are areas of inter- and post-war housing. This area is known as the East Side.
Suburbs
Horsham has developed beyond the original boundaries to incorporate some of the smaller hamlets which now form part of the outer districts.
Holbrook
An area of Horsham named after a feeder stream of the River Arun. It consists of residential housing, the majority of which is of late 20th-century origin. The suburb is substantial enough for two council wards. The hamlet around Old Holbrook House is immediately to the north of the A264, which abuts Holbrook. Holbrook House was previously the home of Sir William Vesey-Fitzgerald, Governor of Bombay and M.P. for Horsham (1852–1875). The Tithe Barn at Fivens Green is the most notable building in the district.
Littlehaven
This hamlet dates back to the late 18th century, when a small number of houses were in existence, with an inn opening in the early part of the 19th century. A station opened in the area in 1907, originally called Rusper Road Crossing halt, but later renamed .
Needles
South-west of the town, the Needles estate was laid out from c. 1955, with a mixture of privately owned and council-built houses and bungalows. The land around Hills Farm nearby was sold for development in 1972 and further development took place in the 1980s. The Needles are named after a local farmhouse, built using timbers from ships wrecked on the Needles rocks off the Isle of Wight.