Billingshurst

Billingshurst is a village and civil parish in the Horsham District of West Sussex, England. It lies thirteen kilometres (8 miles) south-west of Horsham, and nine kilometres (5.6 miles) north-east of Pulborough.

Billingshurst is located on the A29 road (the Roman Stane Street), at a point where the A272 road 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 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. Billingshurst Primary School (formerly two separate infant and junior schools, until a decision was taken in 2009 and implemented in 2010 to combine them into one) is situated near to The Weald.

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. In the last year a new skatepark has also been added. Other facilities in the village include a tennis club and a lawn bowling club.

Transport
Billingshurst railway station is on the main line from London Victoria to Bognor Regis and Chichester (some services continue to Portsmouth Harbour or Southampton). The village lies near the Wey and Arun Canal.

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) is the largest, with a mix of service styles, ranging from Book of Common Prayer communion services to informal family worship. Other churches are St Gabriel's Church (Catholic), Billingshurst Family Church (Evangelical; part of the Newfrontiers family of churches) and Trinity Church (United Reformed). Billingshurst Unitarian Chapel, set back behind the High Street, was founded in 1754 and is one of southeast England's oldest Nonconformist places of worship.