Billingshurst
Encyclopedia
Billingshurst is a village
Village
A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet with the population ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand , Though often located in rural areas, the term urban village is also applied to certain urban neighbourhoods, such as the West Village in Manhattan, New...

 and civil parish
Civil parish
In England, a civil parish is a territorial designation and, where they are found, the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties...

 in the Horsham
Horsham (district)
Horsham is a local government district in West Sussex, England. Its council is based in Horsham. The district borders those of Crawley, Mid Sussex, Mole Valley, Chichester, Arun and Adur....

 District of West Sussex
West Sussex
West Sussex is a county in the south of England, bordering onto East Sussex , Hampshire and Surrey. The county of Sussex has been divided into East and West since the 12th century, and obtained separate county councils in 1888, but it remained a single ceremonial county until 1974 and the coming...

, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. It lies thirteen kilometres (8 miles) south-west of Horsham
Horsham
Horsham is a market town with a population of 55,657 on the upper reaches of the River Arun in the centre of the Weald, West Sussex, in the historic County of Sussex, England. The town is south south-west of London, north-west of Brighton and north-east of the county town of Chichester...

, and nine kilometres (5.6 miles) north-east of Pulborough
Pulborough
Pulborough is a large village and civil parish in the Horsham district of West Sussex, England, with some 5,000 inhabitants. It is located almost centrally within West Sussex and is south west of London. It is at the junction of the north-south A29 and the east-west roads.The village is near the...

.

Billingshurst is located on the A29 road
A29 road
The A29 is a major road in England. It runs for approximately 34 miles from Capel, south of Dorking, leaving the A24, running through Billingshurst and Pulborough, crossing the South Downs at Bury Hill and passing Fontwell Park Racecourse before terminating on the B2166 on Bognor Regis sea...

 (the Roman
Roman Britain
Roman Britain was the part of the island of Great Britain controlled by the Roman Empire from AD 43 until ca. AD 410.The Romans referred to the imperial province as Britannia, which eventually comprised all of the island of Great Britain south of the fluid frontier with Caledonia...

 Stane Street), at a point where the A272 road
A272 road
The A272 is a road in South-East England. It follows an approximate East-West route from near Heathfield, East Sussex to the city of Winchester, Hampshire. It has achieved somewhat unlikely fame in recent years by being the subject of a book by the Dutch author, Pieter Boogaart...

 forms a crossroads with the main road. The civil parish has a land area of 3,219 hectares (7,952 acres). In the 2001 census 6,531 people lived in 2,677 households, of whom 3,451 were economically active.

The village's name probably came from Anglo-Saxon
Old English language
Old English or Anglo-Saxon is an early form of the English language that was spoken and written by the Anglo-Saxons and their descendants in parts of what are now England and southeastern Scotland between at least the mid-5th century and the mid-12th century...

 Billinges hyrst = "Billa's son's wooded hill".

Community facilities

The village has a secondary school and a sixth form college, known together as The Weald School
The Weald School, Billingshurst
The Weald School is a maintained comprehensive secondary school for pupils aged 11 to 18. It caters for around 1500 pupils in years 7 to 13, including over 200 in its sixth form. It is now a specialist Technology school and a sports college. The school opened in 1956, and celebrated its 50th...

. Billingshurst Infant and Junior Schools are situated near to The Weald. A decision was taken in 2009 to combine these two schools into the new Billingshurst Primary School.

The Weald School site contains a leisure centre with swimming pool and gym which is open to the public. A new sports area, Jubilee Fields, contains football pitches, two cricket pitches and pavilion, a fishing lake, and an exercise (trim trail) path. Other facilities in the village include a tennis club and a lawn bowling club.

Transport

Billingshurst railway station
Billingshurst railway station
Billingshurst railway station serves the market town of Billingshurst, in West Sussex, England. It is on the Arun Valley Line. The station is operated by Southern. The signalbox is believed to be the oldest operational box in the country....

 is on the main line from London Victoria to Bognor Regis
Bognor Regis
Bognor Regis is a seaside resort town and civil parish in the Arun district of West Sussex, on the south coast of England. It is south-south-west of London, west of Brighton, and south-east of the city of Chichester. Other nearby towns include Littlehampton east-north-east and Selsey to the...

 and Chichester
Chichester
Chichester is a cathedral city in West Sussex, within the historic County of Sussex, South-East England. It has a long history as a settlement; its Roman past and its subsequent importance in Anglo-Saxon times are only its beginnings...

 (some services continue to Portsmouth Harbour
Portsmouth Harbour
Portsmouth Harbour is a large natural harbour in Hampshire, England. Geographically it is a ria: formerly it was the valley of a stream flowing from Portsdown into the Solent River. The city of Portsmouth lies to the east on Portsea Island, and Gosport to the west on the mainland...

 or Southampton
Southampton
Southampton is the largest city in the county of Hampshire on the south coast of England, and is situated south-west of London and north-west of Portsmouth. Southampton is a major port and the closest city to the New Forest...

). The village lies near the Wey and Arun Canal
Wey and Arun Canal
The Wey and Arun Canal is a 23-mile-long canal in the south of England, between the River Wey at Shalford, Surrey and the River Arun at Pallingham, in West Sussex...

.

Approximate travelling times from the larger towns and cities near Billingshurst are 35 minutes to Guildford, 30 minutes to Crawley and Chichester, 25 minutes to Haslemere and 35 minutes to Haywards Heath.

Religious sites

Billingshurst has five churches. St Mary's Church (Church of England
Church of England
The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...

) is the largest, with a mix of service styles, ranging from Book of Common Prayer
Book of Common Prayer
The Book of Common Prayer is the short title of a number of related prayer books used in the Anglican Communion, as well as by the Continuing Anglican, "Anglican realignment" and other Anglican churches. The original book, published in 1549 , in the reign of Edward VI, was a product of the English...

 communion services to informal family worship. Other churches are St Gabriel's Church (Catholic
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...

), Billingshurst Family Church (Evangelical
Evangelicalism
Evangelicalism is a Protestant Christian movement which began in Great Britain in the 1730s and gained popularity in the United States during the series of Great Awakenings of the 18th and 19th century.Its key commitments are:...

; part of the Newfrontiers
Newfrontiers
Newfrontiers is a neocharismatic apostolic ministry network of evangelical, charismatic churches founded by Terry Virgo. It forms part of the British New Church Movement, which began in the late 50s and 60s combining features of Pentecostalism with British evangelicalism...

 family of churches) and Trinity Church (United Reformed). Billingshurst Unitarian Chapel
Billingshurst Unitarian Chapel
Billingshurst Unitarian Chapel is a place of worship in Billingshurst in the English county of West Sussex. The cottage-like building was erected in 1754 for General Baptists, hence its original name of the Billingshurst General Baptist Chapel, but the congregation moved towards Unitarian beliefs...

, set back behind the High Street, was founded in 1754 and is one of southeast England's oldest Nonconformist
Nonconformism
Nonconformity is the refusal to "conform" to, or follow, the governance and usages of the Church of England by the Protestant Christians of England and Wales.- Origins and use:...

places of worship.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK