Хассокс: Тарихы мен географиясы

Large village in Sussex, England

Located approximately 7 mile (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'.

The South Downs, among which the village lies, were settled during the Stone Age, c.20,000BC with an incursion of people and livestock from Europe (to which what is now Great Britain was still connected by land). A good example of an Iron Age fort is to be found on the top of the nearby Wolstonbury Hill on the South Downs. A Roman cemetery was found by Stonepound Crossroads. Modern Hassocks is thought to have stood at a Roman crossroads on the London to Brighton Way between Londinium Augusta (modern London) to Novus Portus (possibly modern Portslade) (running north–south) and the Greensand Way Roman road from modern Hardham to a north–south road at Barford Mills north of Lewes and possibly further to Pevensey. Both roads had the dual purposes of servicing the iron industry in the Weald and connecting the prosperous farmlands of the coastal plain and lower Downs with London. After the Norman conquest much of the area was owned by the manor of Hurstpierpoint and was part of St John's Common. The Keymer part of the Common was enclosed in 1828 and the Clayton portion shortly after in 1855. In this period there was a great expansion of brick fields and potteries making use of the greensand of the area.

The opening on 21 September 1841 of Hassocks Gate station, named after the nearby toll gate on the turnpike road to Brighton but now known simply as Hassocks, on the London and Brighton Railway was the spur to building the modern village. South of the village the railway passes beneath the chalk escarpment of the South Downs through Clayton Tunnel, which at 6777 feet (2066 m) is the longest of the five tunnels on the railway. The north entrance of the tunnel is distinguished by a castellated portal with a dwelling house between the two towers. The latter might have been built for the use of the man who had to look after the gas lighting in the tunnel (for several years after opening the interior of the tunnel was whitewashed and lit by gas lamps, presumably to allay the fears of early railway travellers). In 1861 a collision between two trains within the tunnel killed 23 people and injured 176 others. In the 1930s the Grand Avenue residential area, along with several other roads, was developed by George Ferguson on the site of former orchards and the Orchard Pleasure Gardens. A special feature of the Hassocks Homes development ordered by Mr Ferguson was the planting of flowering cherry trees along the main roads. 1939 saw the beginning of World War II, and the closure of the cinema in September of that year for the duration (it was still going in the 1950s). Evacuations then began from London bringing an additional 1,250 to the population.

The Parish Council Neighbourhood Planning Regulations stipulate that once a Draft Plan has been submitted to, and accepted by, the Local Planning Authority, control of the Plan must pass to them. MSDC have now stopped work on the Hassocks Neighbourhood Plan whilst it waits for a decision on the number of homes required for the whole of Mid Sussex District. In 2019 a Revised Neighbourhood Plan was submitted to Mid Sussex District Council, this was subsequently accepted by Mid Sussex District Council and they carried out a public consultation on the Plan in summer 2019. In March 2020 there was a referendum held on the new plan and this was supported by 94% of those that voted.

Hassocks itself has a town centre and a well used community centre called Adastra Hall which is used for a wide range of community and private events. The former council buildings, which housed the road maintenance department on London Road, have been demolished and have become a number of homes, whilst the land given to the people of Hassocks (via East Sussex County Council) by a benefactor, previously used by a children's charity, was built upon in 2014/15, the charity having claimed ownership. Two miles west of Hassocks in the adjoining village of Hurstpierpoint lies Danny House, an Elizabethan manor where David Lloyd George came to draw up terms for the armistice at the end of World War I. On the downs above Hassocks there are two windmills, named Clayton Windmills but known locally as "Jack and Jill". Jack is a tower mill and was built in 1866. Jill, a post mill, was built in Dyke Road in Brighton in 1821 and was later moved to Clayton in 1852 by a team of oxen. The working life of the mills ended in about 1906, and Jack is now in private ownership; Jill was restored in 1986 and is open to the public. To the North East of the village can be found Oldland Mill.

There is a Site of Special Scientific Interest within the parish. Clayton to Offham Escarpment, which stretches from Hassocks in the west, passing through many parishes including Ditchling, to Lewes in the East. This site is of biological importance due to its rare chalk grassland habitat along with its woodland and scrub.

There are a number of ancient woods to the north of the Clayton Tunnel and south of Hassocks village. They sit on Gault Clay beds and are divided by the Brighton Railway Line and the A273 Burgess Hill Road.

To the south of Hassocks stations is a small ancient woodland known as Butcher's Wood The wood is mainly oak and hazel, but there is a small hornbeam grove at the south end. The ground flora is in part wood anemome and in part bluebell. It was acquired by the Woodland Trust in 1988 and is the only one of the Gault woods in quasi public ownership. There is a northern section that was shaved off for house building and its western side separated by the railway line. There is re coppicing work, which help the many song birds that thrive here. Treecreepers and nuthatches benefit too from the added structural complexity.

Lag Wood is a wet wood. The Saxon word 'lag' implies brook meadow. Eventually the trees will create a woodland which will fall within the boundaries of the new South Downs National Park. It already supports a number of rare species including soprano pipistrelle bats and great crested newts. Few sites on the South Downs can match its botanical richness. There are blackberries, crab apple, sloe berries, and pink and orange spindle berries. There may be as many at least twenty five scrub species, eighteen of which have fleshy and colourful fruits and eleven of which of are members of the rose family. On the roses and dogwood Robin's pincushion has been created by the Diplolepis rosae gall wasp.

Clayton Holt is a downland wood that is thought to have stood for ten thousand years or more with at least thirteen ancient woodland indicator species, including two big hybrid large leaved/small leaved limes growing at the base of slope. Up until 1838 there was a large leaved lime, a signal that the woodland on this site has been here for millennia. It is also one of the best places on the Downs to see veteran beeches. The lesser butterfly orchid, which is much rarer than its ‘greater’ cousin, has also been found here.

Hassocks Infant School is a maintained infant school for pupils aged 4 to 7 and built in 1877 as a Victorian Board School. It currently caters for around 270 pupils, with three classes in each year group. The school is centrally located in the village. It has been considerably enlarged with a number of additions to the original Victorian building including a large hall and six new classrooms. The previous Headteacher, Jeannie Hughes retired after 13 years and the current Headteacher is Adrian Bates Holland. The Chair of Governors is Becki Jupp. Junior education in the village is provided by Windmills Junior School. Secondary education for the village and surrounding areas is provided by Downlands Community School. Downlands does not have a sixth form and children wishing to do 'A' levels have to travel to a variety of sixth form colleges, including Varndean College, St Paul's Catholic College (Burgess Hill), Brighton Hove & Sussex Sixth Form College and Hurstpierpoint College. Downlands Community School has a sports hall and AstroTurf football pitch funded by the late Chelsea F. C. vice chairman Matthew Harding's wife.

In late 2010 the 30 year old sports pavilion was demolished to make way for a new 'green' building designed by Ecotecture and completed in April 2011. The new building is state of the art and built to very stringent airtight tolerances utilising the latest air source heat pump technologies. There are several specific football pitches in Adastra Park where both junior and senior games are played and the park is also the home to Keymer & Hassocks Cricket Club the primary users of the sports pavilion. Adastra Park also has a skate park and two playgrounds suitable for children of all ages. A 5 a side football competition often takes place in August in the park, in which teams from the whole of the south east compete in a day long tournament. Hassocks F. C. play at the nearby Beacon Ground with the first team playing in SCFL Div One. In addition there are three municipal tennis courts in Adastra Park and the 'Weald Tennis and Squash Club' on South Bank is a significant club in the village. Hassocks Sports Centre is situated within the grounds of Downlands Community School and is operated by Freedom Leisure. Facilities include an indoor sports hall, a multi purpose dance studio, a full sized 4g astro turf football pitch and a gym.