Facts about Burgess Hill
General Info
Burgess Hill is a town and civil parish located in the Mid Sussex District of West Sussex, England, close to the border with East Sussex, on the edge of the South Downs National Park. Located 39 mi (63 km) south of London, 10 mi (16 km) north of Brighton and Hove, and 29 mi (47 km) east-northeast of the county town of Chichester, it occupies an area of 3.7 sq mi (9.6 km2) and had a population of 30,635 at the time of the 2011 Census, making it the fourth most populous parish in the county (behind Crawley, Worthing and Horsham) and the most populous in the district.[3] Other nearby towns include Haywards Heath to the North East and Lewes, the County town of East Sussex, to the South East.
History
The London to Brighton Way was built connecting London to the South coast and passing through what is now Burgess Hill, and although a Roman road, there is no evidence that the Romans settled there.
Burgess Hill originated in the parishes of Clayton, Keymer, and Ditchling——all of them mentioned in the Domesday Book. The town’s name comes from the Burgeys family when the name John Burgeys appeared in the tax rolls. The name of Burgeys stood for ‘bourgeois’, the inhabitant of a borough. By the Elizabethan period, a community had established itself there, and many buildings dating from this era still stand.
