Broadbridge Heath
| Broadbridge Heath | |
|---|---|
 St John's Church |
|
 Broadbridge Heath
|
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| Broadbridge Heath shown within West Sussex | |
| Area | 2.16 km2 (0.83 sq mi) |
| Population | 3,021 2001 Census 3,112 (2011 Census) |
| • Density | 1,401/km2 (3,630/sq mi) |
| OS grid reference | TQ150315 |
| • London | 31 miles (50 km) NNE |
| Civil parish |
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| District | |
| Shire county | |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | HORSHAM |
| Postcode district | RH12 |
| Dialling code | 01403 |
| Police | Sussex |
| Fire | West Sussex |
| Ambulance | South East Coast |
| EU Parliament | South East England |
| UK Parliament | |
| Website | Parish Council |
Broadbridge Heath is a village and civil parish in the Horsham district of West Sussex, England. It is about two miles (3 km) west from the historic centre of Horsham. The population of Broadbridge Heath has increased considerably in the first two decades of the twenty-first century because of large scale housing development.
The earliest evidence of human activity in what is now Broadbridge Heath dates to the Mesolithic period, in the form of flint implements found in the Wickhurst Green area. Later evidence of settlement in the parish includes several Iron Age roundhouses.
The land now occupied by Broadbridge Heath was originally a detached portion of the parish of Sullington, part of a mediaeval system of transhumance whereby villagers from downland villages would drive their livestock into the Low Weald to graze on acorns, grass and beech mast. A manor at Broadbridge was occupied by Roger Covert in the 1290s.
The village began as a scattered group of houses around an unenclosed common before the 19th century, and by 1844 there were about twelve houses and an inn. Deposits of Horsham Stone have long been quarried in the area and in 2016 one working quarry existed to west of the village. In spite of the enclosure of the heath in the 1850s, there was little further development until the late 1880s when land along the main Horsham to Five Oaks Road was offered for sale and a number of semi-detached houses were built there over the next 13 years.
After the Second World War, the pace of development increased and large new housing estates were built to the south of the village. In August 1950 the Headquarters for Bomb Disposal Units (UK), Royal Engineers moved to a site on Wickhurst Lane; in 1951 the School of Bomb Disposal, which had been based in Chatham since 1949, arrived on site so that it was co-located with the Headquarters. In 1959 it was renamed the Joint Service Bomb Disposal School. The Bomb Disposal School moved out to Lodge Hill in 1966 and a supermarket and leisure centre were built on the vacant land in the 1980s.
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Wikipedia