Burgess Hill

A town and civil parish in the Mid Sussex district of West Sussex and close to the border with East Sussex. It is located 38 miles south of London, 10 miles north of Brighton and Hove, and 29 miles north-east of Chichester. At the time of the 2001 census the population was considered to be almost 29,000. Burgess Hill is twinned with Schmallenberg in Germany and Abbeville in France and has recently achieved the status of being a Fairtrade Town.

Burgess Hill has, for most of its early existence, been a small and decidedly rural area. By the early 1600s, a small-scale brick and tile industry was flourishing, an increase of which during the following decades led to a scattering of shops and alehouses on the common. The town also gained from Brighton’s rise to royal fame by way of acknowledgement and attention. The improvement of the Cuckfield to Brighton road in 1770 led to increased accessibility and thus development. Up until the 19th century much of the present town centre was open common land used for grazing animals as well as a source of fuel, animal fodder and bedding. The common was also the location for the annual Midsummer Fair from as far back as the 14th century, taking place annually on the 24th June, the feast of the nativity of Saint John the Baptist.

With the arrival of the London to Brighton railway line opened in 1841, Burgess Hill soon grew from an insignificant rural settlement to a country town of 4,500 inhabitants. Many of the Victorian detached houses and workmen’s terraced cottages of that era are still in existence today. Steady growth continued from the turn of the twentieth century to the outbreak of World War II, but it was in the post-war years that the town saw its greatest expansion with the population almost doubling to 14,000 between 1951 and 1961. Much of Burgess Hill’s residential housing dates from this time, with the Martlets Shopping Centre added in 1972. More major redevelopments followed in the 1990s with the creation of the indoor Market Place Shopping Centre, the Triangle Leisure centre, the construction of Jane Murray Way and the A2300 Link Road to the A23/M23 to the west of the town, as well as several thousand new homes being built too.

Burgess Hill has a strong and diverse economy that benefits from the town's excellent location near the south coast and direct road and rail links to Gatwick airport, the M25 and London. It is strategically situated within the Gatwick Diamond business area. The town has significant servicing and banking/finance sectors and a well established manufacturing sector. It has become an important centre for high technology industry and commerce, deriving benefit from the proximity of the academic corridor formed by Brighton University, Sussex University and Sussex Innovation Centre. Porsche, Roche Diagnostics and HPC Engineering are just a few of the major international companies that have chosen Burgess Hill as a base for their operations.