Place:Horsham, Sussex, England

source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names

source: Family History Library Catalog

source: Family History Library Catalog

the text in this section is based on an article in Wikipedia

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 31 miles (50 km) south southwest of London, 18.5 miles (30 km) northwest of Brighton and 26 miles (42 km) northeast of the county town of Chichester. Nearby towns include Crawley to the northeast and Haywards Heath and Burgess Hill to the southeast. It is the administrative centre of and the largest town in the Horsham District of West Sussex, established in 1974.

The next higher tier of local government is West Sussex County Council, based in Chichester. Horsham was part of the county of Surrey between 1758 and a change in boundaries incorporated in the Parliament Act in 1867. Horsham town covers an area of 4.55 sq mi (11.8 km2) and in the UK census of 2011 had a population of 35,823. The entire Horsham District had a population of 105,070 at the same census. It was estimated to be 142,217 by 2018.

The town has historically been known for horse trading in early medieval times, for iron and brick making up until the 20th century, and brewing more recently. In 2014 the important industries are financial services, pharmaceuticals and technology. Horsham is now a commuter town serving London, Gatwick Airport and the South East Coast.

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 rise around Rusper.

Horsham has grown up around the Carfax. 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. 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 southeasterly 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.

Wikipedia includes a separate article entitled History of Horsham.

Suburbs

Horsham has developed beyond the original boundaries to incorporate some of the smaller hamlets which now form part of the outer districts. Wikipedia lists these as Holbrook, Littlehaven, Needles, New Town, North Heath, Oakhill, Roffey, Tower Hill and Trafalgar. It includes a short description of each. They have all been redirected here.

Research Tips

• The West Sussex Record Office is located in Chichester. Because it holds the records of the Church of England Diocese of Chichester, which covers the whole of Sussex, it has church records relating to both parts of Sussex.
• An on-line catalogue for some of the collections held by the West Sussex Record Office is available under the Access to Archives (A2A) project (a nationwide facility housed at The National Archives, Kew).
• West Sussex Past - database of 2 million records from West Sussex heritage organizations.
• The Institute of Heraldic and Genealogical Studies' Sussex Collection (PDF). This is a 9-page PDF naming the files relating to Sussex in their collection-a possible first step in a course of research.
• The National Library of Scotland has a website which provides maps taken from the Ordnance Survey England & Wales One-Inch to the Mile series of 1892-1908 as well as equivalent maps for Scotland itself. The immediate presentation is a "help" screen and a place selection screen prompting the entry of a location down to town, village or parish level. These screens can be removed by a click of the "X". The map is very clear and shows parish and county boundaries and many large buildings and estates that existed at the turn of the 20th century. Magnification can be adjusted and an "overlay feature" allows inspection of the area today along with that of 1900. The specific map from the series can be viewed as a whole ("View this map") and this allows the inspection of the map legend (found in the left hand bottom corner. Becoming familiar with the various facilities of these maps is well worth the trouble.

• GENUKI on Horsham
• British History Online. A History of the County of Sussex: Volume 6, Part 2, Bramber Rape: North-western Part, the first of a number of chapters on Horsham