Where to Stay in Horsham, England

What is Horsham known for?

Ideas about the origin of Horsham point to Horse Ham, a settlement where horses were kept, and the market town that grew from it serves as the administrative centre of the Horsham district in West Sussex. Cricket matters here too. Horsham Cricket Club plays at E Tredcroft's Ground, while Horsham Museum and Art Gallery and the Christs Hospital School Museum hold the collections that account for the rest of the town's past.

What are the main landmarks in Horsham?

Parish Church of St Mary heads the older group. Horsham Museum and Art Gallery and the Christs Hospital School Museum carry the collections, while Horsham Unitarian Church, Hope Chapel, Horsham and All Saints Church, Roffey stand for the several congregations of the town and its edges. Sedgwick Castle lies outside.

Chesworth House, Denne Park House, The Manor House and The Moated House survive from the country holdings around Horsham, with Mill House, Chantry House, Arun House and Holbrook Park House among the named houses on the same list.

What is the history of Horsham?

A charter names it first. Horsham appears in King Eadred's land charter of AD 947, which puts the settlement on record beside the upper reaches of the River Arun several centuries before the market gave the town the shape it holds. Horses came into it early.

The town had connections to the sale of horses, and one reading of the name derives it from Horse Ham, meaning a settlement where horses were kept. Sedgwick Castle belongs to the medieval countryside beyond the streets. Chesworth House and The Manor House stand from the same centuries of manorial holding, while the Parish Church of St Mary carried the parish work of the old town on the fringe of the Weald.

Trade filled the lanes. Mill House, Porch House, Chantry House, Blatchford House, Richmond House, Magpie House and the listed pair at 33 And 34, North Street survive from the centuries in which the market ran and Horsham spread along its central streets. Later congregations built for themselves, so Horsham Unitarian Church, Hope Chapel, Horsham and All Saints Church, Roffey all date from beyond the medieval core, as does The Parish Church of St Margaret, Warnham in the countryside nearby.

Schooling left a museum. The Christs Hospital School Museum records that part of the story, and Horsham Museum and Art Gallery holds the rest, down to the years in which the town became the administrative centre of its West Sussex district.

Where is Horsham?

The upper reaches of the River Arun run through Horsham, on the fringe of the Weald in West Sussex. Wooded country begins here. London lies 50 kilometres away, Brighton 30 kilometres and Chichester, the county town, 42 kilometres off, with Crawley to the north-east of the town and Haywards Heath and Burgess Hill to the south-east.

What is the climate of Horsham?

The Weald keeps Horsham inland, and the sea at Brighton lies 30 kilometres off, near enough to moderate the winters without giving the town any coastal edge of its own. Rain comes in every season. Temperate air crosses West Sussex through the year, so summers stay mild along the upper River Arun and hard frost is the exception rather than the rule.

How do you get to Horsham?

Crawley lies to the north-east of Horsham, and Haywards Heath and Burgess Hill to the south-east, which puts three neighbouring towns within a short road run of the market centre. London is 50 kilometres off. Brighton sits 30 kilometres away and Chichester, the county town, 42 kilometres, so both the Sussex coast and the county administration are a straightforward drive from the upper River Arun.