Burgess Hill Town Council Calendar 2021

Click or tap any of the images to start a slideshow, descriptions of the images are below.

View across the lake,  with the switch-back railway ride on the left and swingboats and roundabouts behind the trees.  The Victoria Pleasure Gardens (VPG), were opened in 1898 by Edwin Street, to celebrate Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee of 1897.  The entrance to the gardens was in London Road opposite Station Road.  It was a place to spend a happy day for all ages, and thousands of children would march down from the railway station to enjoy their day on Chapel, Church and School outings.  The magnificent lake was a great feature of the grounds with boating and aquatic trips on a steamer and the switch-back railway ride catered for exciting journeys across it.  In the large hall, dinners, teas and other refreshments were served, it was run on the temperance basis, so no alcoholic drinks.  The VPG was a premier Pleasure Resort in Sussex and spread the name of Burgess Hill far and wide, a forerunner of todays Chessington and Thorpe amusement parks.
Postcard published by A. H. Homewood, Burgess Hill.

View eastwards towards the top of the town. The building on the left was built by William Oram, of Burgess Hill and was opened in 1892, as a Constitutional Club.   The Burgess Hill School for Girls (P.N.E.U.), started on the first-floor in 1906 before moving to Keymer Road.  In 1915, the Capital & Counties Bank moved here from Junction Road and in 1918 merged and became Lloyds Bank.  The building later became the second location for the Burgess Hill Urban District Council.  In November 1996, the Town Council (formerly the Urban District Council) moved into to their current premises in Church Road.  Lloyds Bank still occupies the main building frontage and several organizations use the rear extension, it was modernized extensively in 1983

Postcard published by A. H. Homewood, Burgess Hill.

View westwards towards London Road.  On the left are ‘Church Road Villas’ these five semi-detached villas were part of a late 1860s building project for Emily Temple.   Also, part of that project were five large, detached villas in Upper St. John’s Road.  Emily Temple lived in ‘St. John’s House’, on the southern corner of Leylands/London Roads.  Her last building project in 1872 was the ‘St. Johns Institute’, built as a working man’s institute for the benefit and use of the people of St. Johns Common in memory of General John Hall.  This building still stands in Park Road today but is now known as ‘Park Centre’.  Emily Temple died in 1874 age 64 and is buried in the churchyard of St. John the Evangelist.  In her will, Emily bequeathed six and a half acres of land for a public park and recreation ground which later became ‘St. Johns Park’.

Postcard published by A. H. Homewood, Burgess Hill

Situated on the southern boundary of the town it began life c.17th century as a farmhouse.  For more than two hundred years the farm was owned by the Marten family.  The farmland extended from Keymer Road on the east to London Road on the west.  In 1839, when the London & Brighton railway was built, the railway line split the farm into two and the railway contractors built an occupation bridge across the line to allow access to both parts, the bridge remains today.   1864 saw the conversion from a two storey 40ft x 20ft farmhouse to a mansion, when two wings were added to the house.  Described here in 1910 as ‘The Hydro’ this was the ‘Weidhaus Hydropathic Institute’ who had purchased the property 1909.  In 1911, it was sold to ‘Southdowns’ Hydro Limited’ and the property became known as the ‘Franklands Park Hotel’.  The Company carried on a successful hotel busines until 1956, when the mansion was converted into flats.  Today the property survives and is known as ‘Franklands Court’ and comprises flats and is privately owned.

Postcard published by Burnett & Miles, Burgess Hill

View northwards, Junction Road was originally known as Cants Lane. Probably renamed sometime after the construction in 1847 of the ‘Keymer line’ that ran eastwards to serve Lewes and Newhaven, Eastbourne, and Hastings. And where that line joins and leaves the main line is called ‘Keymer Junction’ and in 1854 just east of that junction and before the line crosses Junction Road a small station was provided and named ‘Keymer Junction’. The name of Keymer is taken from the parish this area was in, not the village itself three miles to the south. In 1883, the station closed due to a planned realignment of the junction that was later abandoned. Authority to abandon the realignment was given subject to a proviso that ‘a new station was to be provided and be for ever after worked and maintained as a passenger station on the main line, north of Keymer junction and on the southside of Leylands Road (formerly Lye Lane) in the parish of Keymer’. The station was opened in 1886 and given the revived name Keymer Junction. The station was renamed Wivelsfield in 1896, and it still retains that name today.

Postcard published by A. H. Homewood, Burgess Hill

View looking northwards.  The school was built in 1850, and replaced an earlier school located just further north opposite the shops on the brow of the hill.  When built it continued to serve a dual-purpose.  During weekdays it was a school for children and until the building of St. John’s Church in 1863, used on Sundays as a place of worship.  In 1858, is was enlarged and in 1874 a new infant’s school was added.  Over the years numerous changes took place to the building including having the outside walls rebuilt in red brick.  This school was closed in 1986 and was demolished in 1989.  It was replaced with ‘London Meeds School’ built on the grounds of the ‘Oakmeeds Community College’ now the ‘Burgess Hill Academy’.

Postcard published by A. H. Homewood, Burgess Hill.

This area was more widely known as “Hoadley’s Corner”, named after the shop, out of picture on the left.  In 1872, a drinking fountain “for the benefit of poor wayfarers” was erected here for Mrs. Georgina Frances Pigott of Lea Copse, Birchwood Grove Road.  She had purchased this small piece of waste ground to erect this fountain in memory or her late husband Captain William Pigott, formerly Deputy Master, Trinity House Lighthouse Service, who had died in 1870.  In later years, the fountain became a traffic hazard, so in the early 1970’s, the Burgess Hill Urban Council removed the fountain and horse-trough from this site.  To commemorate Queen Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee of 1977, the Council decided to re-erect them both along with a paved seating area in front of the parish church of St. John the Evangelist.

Postcard published by A. H. Homewood, Burgess Hill

View northwards from the corner of Silverdale Road but only showing the southern end of Junction Road.  This area was commonly known at ‘Hoadley’s Corner’ and the shop in the picture is Hoadley’s.  It was  established in 1857 by Frederick Hoadley, who originally opened one shop but later extended his business and by the late Victorian era it had become a department store, selling almost every useful commodity.  There was another smaller branch in town overlooking St. John’s Park in Lower Church Road and branches in other Sussex towns and villages.  Hoadley’s closed in 1983 after 126 years in business.

Postcard published by Burnett & Co., Burgess Hill.

View northwards in the days of the London. Brighton & Southcoast Railway.  On the left is the stationmaster’s house built in 1856 and extended in 1877 when the goods shed was added and platforms reconstructed.  At the northern end of each platform is a staircase that leads up to a covered footbridge across the railway line and to the booking office at road level.  The stationmaster’s house was demolished in 1986 to make way for possible developments.

Postcard published by A. H. Homewood, Burgess Hill.

View northwards, on the left is Victoria Road (now Victoria Close).  On the corner is the Victoria Restaurant and further down the road the building with castle walls was Diamond House, home then of Robins E & Sons Ltd, brewers, wines & spirit merchants.  Next to Diamond House, with its two acres of premises was Dene Hollow.  This was purchased in 1916 by Mary Hare and became the home of the ‘Oral School for the Deaf’.  Mary Hare was quite active in local circles and by 1919 became the first lady member of the Burgess Hill Urban District Council and was active for the next twenty years.  The house next to Dene Hollow, Diamond or The Red House was also later purchased, and the ground floor became the school hall and the first floor the boys sleeping quarters.  Mary Hare died in 1945 and her ashes were scattered around a magnificent cedar tree that was located behind ‘Dene Hollow’.  In 1949, the school moved to Arlington Manor, Newbury, Berks where it remains today.  The large building in the picture in the distance is ‘The Royal George Inn’ now demolished and replaced by flats.

Postcard published by A. H. Homewood, Burgess Hill

The church was built on land given by Mr. John Archer. The architect was Mr. Talbot Bury of London and the builder Mr. Ellis of Chichester.  Built of fine red bricks and tiles it originally consisted of a Chancel, North and South Transepts, South aisle, and Nave with a Western Gallery.  The foundation stone was laid on 4^th November 1861, and the Church was consecrated on 12^th June 1863.  In I887 to commemorate the Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria, the ‘Town Clock’ was installed in the spire, paid for by public subscription.  The clock was designed to chime the ‘Westminster Chimes’ but due to there being only one 7 cwt. bell in the tower it could only chime the hours.  In 1889, the north aisle was added at a cost of £700, £500 of this was given by Colonel C. W. Elwood, J.P. of Clayton Priory.  Then in 1897 to commemorate Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee, money was raised by public subscription and the old bell was removed and three new bells installed, this included a tenor bell of 14 ¾ cwt.  So, after 10 years, the clock could now chime the hours and quarters on musical bells.  In 1901, two more bells were added and finally in 1904 three more, making a peal of eight bells.

Postcard published by A. H. Homewood, Burgess Hill.

View looking westward over Junction Road towards Leylands Road and the Wivelsfield Station railway bridge.  This area is widely known as World’s End. On the right is Beaconsfield Terrace built c.1881 and on the corner of Junction/Leylands Roads is ‘E. Ireland, Acme Stores, and Post Office’.   It was the General Post Office who named the actual post office, not the area, ‘North End’ when it opened here in 1884.  When the Post Office moved across the road to Beaconsfield Terrace it retained its ‘North End’ name until 2005, after which it was renamed ‘World’s End.’  Next to Ireland’s store is the ‘Watermill Inn’, this took its name from the watermill situated on Valebridge Common, a mile northward.

Postcard published by Burnett & Co., Burgess Hill.

View westwards towards the town.  Directly on the left was the entrance to ‘Tudor House’ and just above where the horse cabs are waiting is the entrance to the Burgess Hill Railway Station and past the station by the large oak tree was the entrance to ‘Burgess Hill Farm’.  Opposite that entrance, a glimpse of ‘The Railway Hotel & Inn’, followed on the same side by Bank Buildings.  Apart from the loss of trees and addition of some shops this view can still be easily be identified today.

Postcard published by A. H. Homewood, Burgess Hill.