The railway transformed a wasteland

The modern Burgess Hill can be traced back to the enclosure of the Keymer and Clayton portions of the commons in 1828 and 1857 respectively and the coming of the railway in 1841.

Before then much of what is now the heart of the town was a wild barren wasteland known as St John’s Common. It was not entirely unpopulated – numerous farms, small holdings and cottages existed, the annual summer fair attracted visitors from across Mid Sussex and a limited amount of trading took place on the common during these months. 

But the enclosures allow development to take place, while the completion of the London to Brighton line (with a branch lying towards Lewes in 1847) gave a temporary boost to the population (rising from 900 to 1,350).

The railway also gave fresh impetus to the local brick, tile and pottery works, whose finished products could now be dispatched quickly and cheaply to new destinations, creating business opportunities.

With the incentive for the railways, and Burgess Hill’s convenient and pleasant rural situation near the main London to Brighton Road, the preparations were laid for its rapid development between 1850 to 1880. It grew from this scatter of farms around a common to a village and in the latter 19 century, to a small thriving town serving an area around it – as Brian Short writes, “a fully fledged urban community”.

A guide to population illustrates the town’s growth. In 1843 it stood at 1,187 (inflated by the railway workers at the time); receding to 908 in 1851 and rising to 1,632, 2,461 and 3,140 in 1861, 1871 and 1881 respectively. This rose to about 4,410 in 1891 reaching 4,800 in 1901 and 5,124 by 1911.

The 1880s, in particular, saw unprecedented building development. Hugh Matthews, in his study of Burgess Hill, writes “Early planning arrangements left much to be desired. Rows of humble terraced cottages lay cheek by jowl with handsome detached villas standing in large, well-kept gardens, and sandwiched among them were light industrial premises.”

Many of the villas and cottages were catering for a more urban, middle class population, in 1883 it was possible to rent a semi detached villa in town, with two acres of land behind it for £35, which was well beyond the average agricultural labourer.

The rise to the middle classes can also be seen in the formation of a ratepayers association (1883), a debating society and the growth of private schools. 

The middle classes provide only part of the picture, however. In the Story of Burgess Hill, by former Middy editor Albert Gregory, we catch a different glimpse of the town in these times.

Well-known roads such as Park and Church Road are muddy, ill-lit lanes; the mention of soup kitchens provokes thoughts of a poor, working-class people enduring bitter winters at a time when wages were low and fuel was costly.

At about the turn of the century, there were three main employers in the town. One was the clay based industries (brick, tile and pottery), a growing trade which, by 1897, provided work for around 340 men (employed few, if any, women at this time). There was also, as we have noted, a boom in the building industry, which employed 227 people in 1897, against 154 in 1881.

Almost a quarter of the working population in 1881 – around 286 people – re-engaged in domestic service of one kind or another, ranging from indoor servants, maids and cooks to outdoor staff, gardeners, coachmen and so on.

It was often gruelling work – staff would be on the call, if not actually at work, for up to 16 hours a day, with just one half day free each week. Yet some of these men and women were compensated by having (for perhaps, the first time in their lives) three meals a day, a bed (even a room) of their own and a few shillings a week, to spend or to send to their families.

Going ‘into service’ was regular, clean employment and often the choice of young people for whom there was no paid employment in the family home or business.

These are also days of the early entrepreneurs. Both locally and in Britain as a whole, there was a change from a rural to an industrial and commercial economy, and the population was on the increase. Many small businesses, often with an initial capital of just a few pounds, and with only a few tools or bits of equipment, set up on their own; many local businesses today, including the Mid Sussex Times, can trace their origins to these enterprising forefathers in the mid to late Victorian period.

The residential nature of the town meant that by the early 20th century, Burgess Hill was home to such diverse professions as a piano tuner, a picture frame maker, solicitors, physicians and 17 laundry businesses – another major employer.

Agriculture was, of course, still important at the time, despite the difficulties in cultivating the heavy Wealden clay. As the towns grew, many farmers turned to dairying; it was often more profitable to produce milk, butter and cheese than to struggle on with mixed farming, especially after cheap foreign grain flowed in to the country in the 1870s.

The town’s development brought with it problems, exposing the lack of public utilities; there was no drainage, nor piped water, nor gas. 

Until the 1870s, the new houses depended on wells, and rainwater caught in tanks or butts, for their water supply. The alternative was to carry water back from the nearby streams; an exhausting task, which also led to many illnesses through drinking polluted water. Until the 1870s, no provisions were made for proper drainage, with the result that peoples drains and soil tanks flowed into open ditches, streams and rivers.

Local opinion seems to have been that more potential house buyers and businesses might be attracted to the area if it had a recent decent piped water system, and in July 1870, after meeting in the Railway Hotel, the Burgess Hill and St John's Wood Company Limited was formed as a truly local enterprise (becoming the Burgess Hill water company in 1886).

Similarly the gas company was formed following a public meeting in 1866. The first electricity supply arrived in 1906, courtesy of a small power station in Cypress Road.

With acknowledgements:

Burgess Hill – Hugh Matthews: a very improving neighbourhood – editor Brian Short: the story of Burgess Hill – Albert Gregory