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. During the medieval period, the village was a coaching stop on the main road from Bognor to Horsham. 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. 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".

Today

Billingshurst has four 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).

The village has a secondary school and a sixth form college, known together as The Weald School. Billingshurst Infant and Junior Schools are situated near to The Weald. A decision was taken in 2009 to combine these two schools into the new Billingshurst Primary School.

Local pubs include: The Kings Arms, The Kings Head, The Six Bells, The Lime Burners, The Railway Inn, The Blacksmiths Arms. The village also has two Indian restaurants, two Indian take-aways, a number of Chinese take-aways (including a mobile unit on Thursdays and Fridays) and an upmarket Chinese restaurant as well as Fish and Chips.

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. Other facilities in the village include a tennis club and a lawn bowling club.

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.

References

External links

• Billingshurst Community website
• Billingshurst in 1870