HISTORY OF HAYWARDS HEATH
A 1911 guide to Haywards Heath likened the town to ‘A fair lady - happy in having no past.’
Before the railway, Haywards Heath was little more than wasteland belonging to the Manor of Hayworth. The tranquillity was shattered in 1837 when 5,000 labourers built the London to Brighton line.
Haywards Heath had a population of less than 200 in the early 1850s. But rapid expansion was heralded in 1859 with the newly opened Sussex County Lunatic Asylum (later St Francis Hospital).
Victorian labourer’s cottages sprang up along Asylum Road - now Colwell Road, Gower Road, and Sussex Road - the heart of Haywards Heath’s brick making industry.
London workers left the city for Haywards Heath - prompting writer Augustus Hare to describe the town as: ‘A colony of Cockney villas’ in 1894.
The Sergison family sold off land from their estate, and businessmen built Victorian and Edwardian villas along Muster Green, Oathall Road, Paddockhall Road and Lucastes Avenue.
In contrast to the fine Edwardian and Victorian villas, houses were built to help the poorest members of the community. Lindfield Quaker William Allen set up an experimental settlement near America Lane in the 1820s to help families on low incomes to become self-sufficient. A reminder are the street names - Allen Road, America Lane, Mayflower Road, Boston Road and The Golden Eagle pub.
Franklands Village, built in the 1930s, became a model community, offering affordable houses for rent.
Bannister’s cattle market opened in 1867 and by the 1930s had become the 12th largest in the country, closing in 1989 to make way for Sainsbury’s.
Today, business activity is dominated by large enterprises such as Europ Assistance Holdings and Lloyds. The town has a population of 23,000 and new signs proclaim it to be the Heart of Mid Sussex.
