Hassocks railway station

Hassocks & Victoria was an electoral division of West Sussex in the United Kingdom, and returned one member to sit on West Sussex County Council from 1997 to 2017. In 2017 it was replaced by a new division, Hassocks & Burgess Hill South.

Hassocks & Burgess Hill South is an electoral division of West Sussex in the United Kingdom, and returns one member to sit on West Sussex County Council.

Hassocks is a large village and civil parish in the Mid Sussex District of West Sussex, England. Its name is believed to derive from the tufts of grass found in the surrounding fields.Located approximately 7 miles (11 km) north of Brighton, with a population of 8,319, the area now occupied by Hassocks was just a collection of small houses and a coaching house until the 19th century, when work started on the London to Brighton railway. Until 2000 the site fell in two parishes, Clayton and Keymer; Hassocks was only the name of the postal district. It is said that with the advent of the railway in 1841 the two parish councils were given the opportunity of naming the new station but could not agree, and eventually the London, Brighton & South Coast Railway chose the station name 'Hassocks Gate'.

Hassocks Football Club is a football club based in Hassocks, near Brighton, West Sussex, England. The club is affiliated to the Sussex County Football Association. The club joined the Sussex County League Division Two in 1981 and has reached the 2nd round of the FA Vase three times in its history, and the 3rd qualifying round of the FA Cup in 2001–02. They are currently members of the Southern Combination Premier Division and play at the Beacon. The three sections together are a FA Charter Standard Community Club.

Downlands Community School is a maintained comprehensive for pupils aged 11 to 16. It currently caters for around 1200 pupils. In November 2016, Ofsted inspected the school and reported that the school was 'Outstanding' in all areas.

Friars Oak Fields are now being built over, but they were a much loved local landmark on the north-western edge of the village of Hassocks, in the county of West Sussex, England. They were a group of three small wealden meadows in their natural state, divided by ancient hedgerows. The railway and the Herring Stream served to isolate the eastern and western boundaries of Friars Oak Fields, which created a largely undisturbed environment favourable for wildlife. The Friars Oak Inn, an old coaching stop where horses were changed, was immediately adjacent to the Fields, on the western side. The western boundary of the fields was demarcated by the "Herring Stream" and the fields served as a flood plain for the stream. The eastern boundary of the fields was demarcated by a high raised embankment carrying the Brighton Main Line railway. The northern boundary of Friars Oak Fields met agricultural countryside. Access points to Friars Oak Fields were all located at the southern boundary. in 2019, Developer Rydon Homes has since been granted planning permission for 130 plus residential homes for the land at north of Shepherds Walk, Hassocks with access from London Road and a pedestrian tunnel under the railway line. A previous application for the same site, with a footbridge instead of a tunnel, was rejected by Mid Sussex District Council in 2018 as it conflicted with a number of policies in the district plan. The developer had appealed against this decision and inquiry was due to be held in September 2018. However, the council’s development control committee decided to grant outline permission by seven votes to four on Thursday, July 25, 2019. The decision brought an end to a long-running campaign by local residents to save the much loved green space from development.

Keymer is a village in Hassocks civil parish, in the Mid Sussex District of West Sussex, England. It lies on the B2116 road 2.4 miles (3.9 km) south of Burgess Hill.Keymer was an ancient parish that like its near neighbour Clayton was merged into the modern day parish of Hassocks. Both Keymer and Clayton's records go back as far as the Domesday Book. Keymer is situated just to the east of Hassocks and is only a matter of a few hundred yards from the boundary with East Sussex. It has a fine parish church, St Cosmas and St Damian Church. The oldest part of Keymer can be found in the area of this church and the Greyhound public house. Several buildings in this area are listed as being of special architectural or historic interest and the oldest dates from the 15th century. To the north-east of Keymer can be found Oldland Mill dating from the 18th century. It is one of the few remaining post mills still standing in the South East. The new burial ground that is now run by Hassocks Parish Council can be found located to the east of the Greyhound pub.

Clayton Tunnel is a railway tunnel located near the village of Clayton, West Sussex between Hassocks and Preston Park railway stations on the Brighton Main Line. This tunnel is notable for its turreted and castellated north portal with a single-storey cottage on the top, as well as for being the site of a serious accident in 1861 which was influential in the adoption of a robust signalling system in the UK and elsewhere. At 1 mile 499 yards (2,066 m) the Sussex Clayton Tunnel is the longest tunnel on the route. Construction of the tunnel commenced during 1839, although aspects of its design weren't approved until 1 October 1840. The accomplished tunnel builder William Hoof was the prime contractor on its construction; Clayton Tunnel was completed in 1841 after three years of work.

The Clayton Tunnel rail crash occurred on Sunday 25 August 1861, five miles from Brighton on the south coast of England. At the time it was the worst accident on the British railway system. A train ran into the back of another inside the tunnel, killing 23 and injuring 176 passengers. Three north-bound trains left Brighton station within a few minutes of one another. At the southern entrance to Clayton Tunnel an automatic signal failed to return to danger after the first train passed, allowing the second train to follow it into the tunnel. The signaller at the south end of the tunnel belatedly waved a red flag in an attempt to stop the second train, but thought that it had not been seen. However the driver of the second train had briefly glimpsed the flag and stopped his train inside the tunnel. The signaller then misinterpreted a 'line clear' telegraph message from the signal box at the north end of the tunnel as referring to the second train instead of the first, and signalled the third train into the tunnel.

St Cosmas and St Damian Church is an Anglican church in the village of Keymer, in the Mid Sussex district of West Sussex, England. Rebuilt in 1866 in a style similar to the Saxon building it replaced, it is the parish church of Keymer and now lies within a combined parish serving three villages in Mid Sussex. The church bears a very rare dedication to the twin Saints Cosmas and Damian, Christian martyrs of the 4th century. It is a grade II listed building.

Clayton is a small village at the foot of the South Downs in the parish of Hassocks, West Sussex, England. It lies 41 miles (66 km) south of London, 6 miles (10 km) north of Brighton, and 28 miles (45 km) east northeast of the county town of Chichester. Other nearby towns include Burgess Hill to the north and Lewes, the county town of East Sussex east southeast. The Clayton Windmills, known as "Jack and Jill" sit on the hill above the village.

St John the Baptist's Church is the Church of England parish church of the village of Clayton in Mid Sussex District, one of seven local government districts in the English county of West Sussex. The small and simple Anglo-Saxon building is distinguished by its "remarkable" and extensive set of wall paintings, dating from the early 12th century and rediscovered more than 700 years later. Much of the structural work of the church is 11th-century and has had little alteration. The church, which stands in the middle of a large churchyard and serves the small village of Clayton at the foot of the South Downs, is part of a joint parish with the neighbouring village of Keymer—an arrangement which has existed informally for centuries and which was legally recognised in the 20th century. English Heritage has listed the church at Grade I for its architectural and historical importance.