Hassocks
Encyclopedia
Hassocks is a large village
and civil parish
in the Mid Sussex
district of West Sussex
, England
. Its name is believed to derive from the tufts of grass found in the surrounding fields.
Located approximately 7 miles (11.3 km) north of Brighton
, with a population of 6,821, 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
. Hassocks until 2000 was just a postal district and prior to that the name of the railway station. The Parishes were Clayton
and Keymer
, it is believed that when the railway came in 1841 the Parish Councils were given the opportunity of naming the station. But they could not agree and eventually the directors of the London, Brighton & South Coast Railway gave up waiting and named the station Hassocks Gate themselves.
The area first became a centre of population around 20,000 years ago during the Stone Age
]. These people were mostly nomadic until approximately 5,000 years ago. Around this time, the first farmers settled on and around the South Downs
, a mile to the south of the village. They travelled from the continent, bringing with them various types of farming livestock. Evidence of their existence has been found in the form of tools and dwellings around Stonepound Crossroads and in the Parklands area.
Around 600 B.C. the first metal workers came to the area with the beginning of the Bronze Age
, and a good example of an Iron Age
fort is to be found on the top of the nearby Wolstonbury Hill
on the South Downs.
The area was colonised by the Romans and a Roman cemetery was found by Stonepound Crossroads. Modern Hassocks seems 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
. With the demise of the Roman Empire came an influx of Anglo-Saxons
and the eventual reintroduction of stone buildings, such as the parish church of St. John the Baptist (in the nearby village of Clayton) which is believed to have been built around the 11th Century.
The village became better known after 2 April 1839 when the first railway line was laid between London and Brighton. Over 6,000
navvies
were hired for up to two years building, blasting and clearing rubble beneath the South Downs to create Clayton Tunnel
. The tunnel was built at a cost of £90,000 and is a good example of Victorian engineering. It is the second longest tunnel on the London to Brighton Line, some 1¼ miles long and 270 feet (82.3 m) below ground. The opening of Hassocks Gate as the railway station in 1841 saw the beginning of the village that is known today. In 1861 there was a collision between two trains
, which 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 (it was still going in the 1950s). Evacuations then began from London bringing an additional 1,250 to the population.
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Today Hassocks has a wide variety of shops including two cafes, specialist shops like the long established delicatessen, an optician, a couple of restaurants, (Indian and Chinese) and a well-used community centre called Adastra Hall. This is an expensive commuter area and Hassocks is near the top end for property prices in the region, though it is not quite as expensive as neighbouring Ditchling
and Hurstpierpoint
. These villages have many picturesque older buildings whereas Hassocks village centre is primarily post WW2.
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 skyline 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.
To the south of Hassocks is a small 7.12 hectares (17.6 acre) ancient woodland known as Butchers Wood. The wood is mainly oak
and hazel
with a large bluebell
ground flora. It was acquired by the Woodland Trust
in 1988.
Hassocks railway station
serves the village. First Capital Connect
and Southern
provide regular train services to London
and Brighton
.
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 210 pupils. The school is centrally located in the village. It has been considerably enlarged in the recent past with three new classrooms, a large hall and a library area being added to the original Victorian building. The Headteacher is Jeannie Hughes who has a teaching staff of 9 and the Chair of Governors is David Withycombe.
After leaving the Infant School children in the main go onto Windmills School in Dale Avenue which caters for years 3–6. The headteacher at the school is Mrs E Sharpe.
Secondary education for the village and surrounding areas is looked after 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
.
football pitch have recently been constructed at Downlands Community School
. Part of the money was donated by the late Chelsea F.C.
vice-chairman Matthew Harding
's, wife who lives nearby and whose three sons attended the school.
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 Golf Club is an 18 hole, par
70 golf course
(5754 yards, 5260 metres) on the western edge of the village that was opened in 1995 and is the only golf course in the area that is a 'pay and play' club.
. Wald-Michelbach
- Germany
.
Village
A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet with the population ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand , Though often located in rural areas, the term urban village is also applied to certain urban neighbourhoods, such as the West Village in Manhattan, New...
and civil parish
Civil parish
In England, a civil parish is a territorial designation and, where they are found, the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties...
in the Mid Sussex
Mid Sussex
Mid Sussex is a local government district in the English county of West Sussex. It contains the towns of East Grinstead, Haywards Heath and Burgess Hill....
district of West Sussex
West Sussex
West Sussex is a county in the south of England, bordering onto East Sussex , Hampshire and Surrey. The county of Sussex has been divided into East and West since the 12th century, and obtained separate county councils in 1888, but it remained a single ceremonial county until 1974 and the coming...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. Its name is believed to derive from the tufts of grass found in the surrounding fields.
Located approximately 7 miles (11.3 km) north of Brighton
Brighton
Brighton is the major part of the city of Brighton and Hove in East Sussex, England on the south coast of Great Britain...
, with a population of 6,821, 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
Brighton Main Line
The Brighton Main Line is a British railway line from London Victoria and London Bridge to Brighton. It is about 50 miles long, and is electrified throughout. Trains are operated by Southern, First Capital Connect, and Gatwick Express, now part of Southern.-Original proposals:There were no fewer...
. Hassocks until 2000 was just a postal district and prior to that the name of the railway station. The Parishes were Clayton
Clayton, West Sussex
Clayton is a small village at the foot of the South Downs in the Mid Sussex district of West Sussex, England. It lies south of London, north of Brighton, and east northeast of the county town of Chichester. Other nearby towns include Burgess Hill to the north and Lewes, the county town of East...
and Keymer
Keymer
Keymer is a village in the Mid Sussex District of West Sussex, England. It lies on the B2116 road south of Burgess Hill.Keymer was an ancient parish that like its near neighbour Clayton was merged into the modern day parish of Hassocks. Both Keymer and Clayton's records go back as far as the...
, it is believed that when the railway came in 1841 the Parish Councils were given the opportunity of naming the station. But they could not agree and eventually the directors of the London, Brighton & South Coast Railway gave up waiting and named the station Hassocks Gate themselves.
History
Stone Age
The Stone Age is a broad prehistoric period, lasting about 2.5 million years , during which humans and their predecessor species in the genus Homo, as well as the earlier partly contemporary genera Australopithecus and Paranthropus, widely used exclusively stone as their hard material in the...
]. These people were mostly nomadic until approximately 5,000 years ago. Around this time, the first farmers settled on and around the South Downs
South Downs
The South Downs is a range of chalk hills that extends for about across the south-eastern coastal counties of England from the Itchen Valley of Hampshire in the west to Beachy Head, near Eastbourne, East Sussex, in the east. It is bounded on its northern side by a steep escarpment, from whose...
, a mile to the south of the village. They travelled from the continent, bringing with them various types of farming livestock. Evidence of their existence has been found in the form of tools and dwellings around Stonepound Crossroads and in the Parklands area.
Around 600 B.C. the first metal workers came to the area with the beginning of the Bronze Age
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a period characterized by the use of copper and its alloy bronze as the chief hard materials in the manufacture of some implements and weapons. Chronologically, it stands between the Stone Age and Iron Age...
, and a good example of an Iron Age
Iron Age
The Iron Age is the archaeological period generally occurring after the Bronze Age, marked by the prevalent use of iron. The early period of the age is characterized by the widespread use of iron or steel. The adoption of such material coincided with other changes in society, including differing...
fort is to be found on the top of the nearby Wolstonbury Hill
Wolstonbury Hill
Wolstonbury Hill is a chalk prominence in the South Downs National Park, approximately north of Brighton and west of Clayton, in the parish of Pyecombe, West Sussex, England...
on the South Downs.
The area was colonised by the Romans and a Roman cemetery was found by Stonepound Crossroads. Modern Hassocks seems to have stood at a Roman crossroads on the London to Brighton Way
London to Brighton Way (Roman road)
The London to Brighton Way, sometimes called the London to Portslade Way is a Roman road between Stane Street at Kennington Park and Brighton in Sussex. The road passes through Streatham and Croydon, then through the Caterham Valley gap in the North Downs...
between Londinium Augusta
Londinium
The city of London was established by the Romans around AD 43. It served as a major imperial commercial centre until its abandonment during the 5th century.-Origins and language:...
(modern London) to Novus Portus (possibly modern Portslade
Portslade
Portslade is the name of an area of the city of Brighton and Hove, England. Portslade Village, the original settlement a mile inland to the north, was built up in the 16th century...
) (running north-south) and the Greensand Way Roman road from modern Hardham
Hardham
Hardham is a small village in the Horsham District of West Sussex, England. It lies on the A29 road 1.2 miles southwest of Pulborough....
to a north-south road at Barford Mills north of Lewes
Lewes
Lewes is the county town of East Sussex, England and historically of all of Sussex. It is a civil parish and is the centre of the Lewes local government district. The settlement has a history as a bridging point and as a market town, and today as a communications hub and tourist-oriented town...
and possibly further to Pevensey
Pevensey
Pevensey is a village and civil parish in the Wealden district of East Sussex, England. The main village is located 5 miles north-east of Eastbourne, one mile inland from Pevensey Bay. The settlement of Pevensey Bay forms part of the parish.-Geography:The village of Pevensey is located on...
. With the demise of the Roman Empire came an influx of Anglo-Saxons
Anglo-Saxons
Anglo-Saxon is a term used by historians to designate the Germanic tribes who invaded and settled the south and east of Great Britain beginning in the early 5th century AD, and the period from their creation of the English nation to the Norman conquest. The Anglo-Saxon Era denotes the period of...
and the eventual reintroduction of stone buildings, such as the parish church of St. John the Baptist (in the nearby village of Clayton) which is believed to have been built around the 11th Century.
The village became better known after 2 April 1839 when the first railway line was laid between London and Brighton. Over 6,000
Navvy
Navvy is a shorter form of navigator or navigational engineer and is particularly applied to describe the manual labourers working on major civil engineering projects...
were hired for up to two years building, blasting and clearing rubble beneath the South Downs to create Clayton Tunnel
Clayton Tunnel
Clayton Tunnel is a railway tunnel located near the village of Clayton, West Sussex between Hassocks and Preston Park railway stations on the Brighton Main Line...
. The tunnel was built at a cost of £90,000 and is a good example of Victorian engineering. It is the second longest tunnel on the London to Brighton Line, some 1¼ miles long and 270 feet (82.3 m) below ground. The opening of Hassocks Gate as the railway station in 1841 saw the beginning of the village that is known today. In 1861 there was a collision between two trains
Clayton Tunnel rail crash
The Clayton Tunnel rail crash, which took place on Sunday 25 August 1861, five miles from Brighton on the south coast of England, was the worst accident of the British railway system to that time...
, which 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 (it was still going in the 1950s). Evacuations then began from London bringing an additional 1,250 to the population.
Recent history
Ditchling
Ditchling is a village and civil parish in the Lewes District of East Sussex, England. The village is contained within the boundaries of the South Downs National Park; the order confirming the establishment of the park was signed in Ditchling....
and Hurstpierpoint
Hurstpierpoint
Hurstpierpoint is a village in the Mid Sussex district of West Sussex, England. Together with Sayers Common it forms one of the Mid Sussex civil parishes, with an area of 2029.88 ha and a population of 6,264 persons....
. These villages have many picturesque older buildings whereas Hassocks village centre is primarily post WW2.
Two miles west of Hassocks in the adjoining village of Hurstpierpoint
Hurstpierpoint
Hurstpierpoint is a village in the Mid Sussex district of West Sussex, England. Together with Sayers Common it forms one of the Mid Sussex civil parishes, with an area of 2029.88 ha and a population of 6,264 persons....
lies Danny House
Danny House
Danny is an impressive Grade I listed Elizabethan red brick Mansion near Hurstpierpoint in West Sussex, England. It lies at the northern foot of Wolstonbury Hill and one of the finest stately houses in Sussex, with 56 bedrooms and 28 apartments. The present house was built 1593-95 by George...
, an Elizabethan manor where David Lloyd George
David Lloyd George
David Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor OM, PC was a British Liberal politician and statesman...
came to draw up terms for the armistice at the end of World War I.
On the skyline above Hassocks there are two windmills, named Clayton Windmills
Clayton Windmills
The Clayton Windmills, known locally as Jack and Jill, stand on the South Downs above the village of Clayton, West Sussex, England. They comprise a post mill and a tower mill, and the roundhouse of a former post mill. All three are Grade II* listed buildings....
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.
Landmarks
Site of Special Scientific Interest
A Site of Special Scientific Interest is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom. SSSIs are the basic building block of site-based nature conservation legislation and most other legal nature/geological conservation designations in Great Britain are based upon...
within the parish. Clayton to Offham Escarpment
Clayton To Offham Escarpment
The Clayton to Offham Escarpment is a biological Site of Special Scientific Interest in East Sussex, but extends in to West Sussex and thus can be found on the List of Sites of Special Scientific Interest in West Sussex as well as the List of Sites of Special Scientific Interest in East Sussex...
, 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.
To the south of Hassocks is a small 7.12 hectares (17.6 acre) ancient woodland known as Butchers Wood. The wood is mainly oak
Oak
An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus Quercus , of which about 600 species exist. "Oak" may also appear in the names of species in related genera, notably Lithocarpus...
and hazel
Hazel
The hazels are a genus of deciduous trees and large shrubs native to the temperate northern hemisphere. The genus is usually placed in the birch family Betulaceae, though some botanists split the hazels into a separate family Corylaceae.They have simple, rounded leaves with double-serrate margins...
with a large bluebell
Common Bluebell
Hyacinthoides non-scripta, commonly known as the common bluebell, is a spring-flowering bulbous perennial plant. -Taxonomy:...
ground flora. It was acquired by the Woodland Trust
Woodland Trust
The Woodland Trust is a conservation charity in the United Kingdom concerned with the protection and sympathetic management of native woodland heritage.-History:...
in 1988.
Railway station
Hassocks railway station
Hassocks railway station serves Hassocks in West Sussex. It is on the Brighton Main Line and Thameslink 12 km north of Brighton railway station, and train services are provided by Southern and First Capital Connect.-History:...
serves the village. First Capital Connect
First Capital Connect
First Capital Connect is a passenger train operating company in England that began operations on the National Rail network on 1 April 2006...
and Southern
Southern (train operating company)
Southern is a train operating company in the United Kingdom. Officially named Southern Railway Ltd., it is a subsidiary of Govia, a joint venture between transport groups Go-Ahead Group and Keolis, and has operated the South Central rail franchise since October 2000 and the Gatwick Express service...
provide regular train services to London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
and Brighton
Brighton
Brighton is the major part of the city of Brighton and Hove in East Sussex, England on the south coast of Great Britain...
.
Education
Infant school
An Infant school is a term used primarily in the United Kingdom for school for children between the ages of four and seven years. It is usually a small school serving a particular locality....
for pupils aged 4 to 7 and built in 1877 as a Victorian Board School
School board (England & Wales)
School boards were public bodies in England and Wales between 1870 and 1902, which established and administered elementary schools.School boards were created in boroughs and parishes under the Elementary Education Act 1870 following campaigning by George Dixon, Joseph Chamberlain and the National...
. It currently caters for around 210 pupils. The school is centrally located in the village. It has been considerably enlarged in the recent past with three new classrooms, a large hall and a library area being added to the original Victorian building. The Headteacher is Jeannie Hughes who has a teaching staff of 9 and the Chair of Governors is David Withycombe.
After leaving the Infant School children in the main go onto Windmills School in Dale Avenue which caters for years 3–6. The headteacher at the school is Mrs E Sharpe.
Secondary education for the village and surrounding areas is looked after by Downlands Community School
Downlands Community School
Downlands Community School is a maintained comprehensive for pupils aged 11 to 16. It currently caters for around 960 pupils. It is recognised as a specialist Science and Mathematics school and also has the Sportsmark.-Location:...
. 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
Varndean College
Varndean College is a sixth form college located in Brighton & Hove that serves the needs of sixth form students and adults.-History:The college was founded in 1884 in York Place, Brighton as a boys' Secondary School and moved to its current site overlooking the city and the sea in 1932, later...
, St Paul's Catholic College (Burgess Hill)
St Paul's Catholic College (Burgess Hill)
St Paul's Catholic College is a secondary school in the town of Burgess Hill in West Sussex, England. Mr Rob Carter is the College's headteacher. He succeeded John Flower, after the latter retired in late 2009. The school has Specialist status: Sports .The college accepts children from the age of...
, Brighton Hove & Sussex Sixth Form College
Brighton Hove & Sussex Sixth Form College
Brighton Hove & Sussex Sixth Form College, usually abbreviated to BHASVIC , is a college in Brighton & Hove, England for 16- to 18-year-old students.-Location:...
and Hurstpierpoint College
Hurstpierpoint College
Hurstpierpoint College is an independent, co-educational, day and boarding school for pupils aged 4–18, located just to the north of the village of Hurstpierpoint, West Sussex in the lee of the South Downs...
.
Downlands Community School Sports Hall
A new sports hall and AstroTurfAstroTurf
AstroTurf is a brand of artificial turf. Although the term is a registered trademark, it is sometimes used as a generic description of any kind of artificial turf. The original AstroTurf product was a short pile synthetic turf while the current products incorporate modern features such as...
football pitch have recently been constructed at Downlands Community School
Downlands Community School
Downlands Community School is a maintained comprehensive for pupils aged 11 to 16. It currently caters for around 960 pupils. It is recognised as a specialist Science and Mathematics school and also has the Sportsmark.-Location:...
. Part of the money was donated by the late Chelsea F.C.
Chelsea F.C.
Chelsea Football Club are an English football club based in West London. Founded in 1905, they play in the Premier League and have spent most of their history in the top tier of English football. Chelsea have been English champions four times, FA Cup winners six times and League Cup winners four...
vice-chairman Matthew Harding
Matthew Harding
Matthew Harding was a British businessman, vice-chairman of Chelsea football club and a major financial supporter of New Labour .-Early years:...
's, wife who lives nearby and whose three sons attended the school.
Sport
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.
Hassocks F.C.
Hassocks F.C. is a football club based in Hassocks, near Brighton, West Sussex, England. The club joined the Sussex County League Division Two in 1981 and has reached the 2nd round of the FA Vase twice in its history...
play at the nearby Beacon Ground with the first team playing in SCFL Div One
Sussex County Football League
The Sussex County Football League is a football league broadly covering the counties of East Sussex, West Sussex and southeastern Surrey, England.Formed in 1920, the league now has six divisions - three for first teams and three for reserve sides...
.
In addition there are three municipal tennis courts in Adastra Park and the 'Weald Tennis
Tennis
Tennis is a sport usually played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a racket that is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all...
and Squash
Squash (sport)
Squash is a high-speed racquet sport played by two players in a four-walled court with a small, hollow rubber ball...
Club' on South Bank is a significant club in the village.
Hassocks Golf Club is an 18 hole, par
Par (score)
The word "par" is a term in the game of golf used to denote the pre-determined number of strokes that a scratch golfer should require to complete a hole, a round , or a tournament...
70 golf course
Golf course
A golf course comprises a series of holes, each consisting of a teeing ground, fairway, rough and other hazards, and a green with a flagstick and cup, all designed for the game of golf. A standard round of golf consists of playing 18 holes, thus most golf courses have this number of holes...
(5754 yards, 5260 metres) on the western edge of the village that was opened in 1995 and is the only golf course in the area that is a 'pay and play' club.
Twin towns
Hassocks's twin towns are: Montmirail - FranceFrance
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
. Wald-Michelbach
Wald-Michelbach
Wald-Michelbach is a community in the Bergstraße district in Hesse, Germany.Through Wald-Michelbach runs the now disused Überwaldbahn .-Hardberg:...
- Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
.
Notable people
- Patrick HamiltonPatrick Hamilton (dramatist)Patrick Hamilton was an English playwright and novelist.He was well regarded by Graham Greene and J. B. Priestley and study of his novels has been revived recently because of their distinctive style, deploying a Dickensian narrative voice to convey aspects of inter-war London street culture...
, the dramatist and poet was born here. - Jonathan PearceJonathan PearceJonathan Pearce , is a British football commentator for the BBC.Known for his loud, exuberant commentaries, he has worked for both Radio Five Live and Match of the Day, as well as participating in other lower key sports programmes.- Early life and career :Pearce wanted to become a footballer, but...
the football commentator lives in Hassocks.