Handcross

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Handcross
Handcross News - geograph.org.uk - 709840.jpg
West Sussex UK location map.svg
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Handcross
Location within West Sussex
OS grid reference TQ262297
Civil parish
District
Shire county
Region
Country England
Sovereign state United Kingdom
Post town HAYWARDS HEATH
Postcode district RH17
Dialling code 01444
Police Sussex
Fire West Sussex
Ambulance South East Coast
UK Parliament
List of places
UK
England
West Sussex
51°03′13″N0°12′02″W / 51.05356°N 0.20044°W / 51.05356; -0.20044

Handcross is a village in the Mid Sussex District of West Sussex, England. It lies on the A23 road 4.2 miles (6.8 kilometres) south of Crawley. At the 2011 Census the population fell within the civil parish of Slaugham.

Contents

Nymans Garden, 30 acres (12 hectares) of parklands run by the National Trust, is located adjacent to the High Street, as are 20 acres (8 ha) of woodland and water gardens at High Beeches Garden. [1]

Handcross has one public house, The Red Lion [2] (High Street), which was refurbished in 2010 in contemporary style. It formerly had three, the other two being The Fountain (demolished in 2012 and replaced by housing) and The Royal Oak (closed in 2020). Handcross also has a Social club.

Handcross Primary School, [3] situated at the northern end of the village recently underwent extensive building works to increase capacity. Opposite the primary school is Handcross Park School, an independent prep school.

Handcross Hill

Handcross Hill is a stretch of the A23 road which runs past the village. This part of dual carriageway used to be notorious for accidents due to its being on a steep gradient, being surrounded by trees and containing a number of sharp bends, those being unsuitable for a road of its type.

On 12 July 1906, a bus crashed into a tree following a mechanical failure, killing 10 people and injuring 26 in the worst road crash in Sussex history. [4]

The hill has proved to be dangerous enough to be widened and straightened by the Highways Agency and the cutting of the surrounding trees began overnight in mid-2011. The project was completed in late 2014. [5] [6]

Sharp righthand bend on the original road design Sharp Righthand bend on Handcross Hill (A23 Southbound) - geograph.org.uk - 69937.jpg
Sharp righthand bend on the original road design

References

  1. High Beeches Garden http://www.highbeeches.com/
  2. The Red Lion, Handcross http://www.redlionhandcross.co.uk/
  3. Handcross Primary School http://www.handcrossprimary.uk/ Archived 23 August 2014 at the Wayback Machine
  4. "MOTOR OMNIBUS ACCIDENT" (PDF). The Times . 13 July 1906. Retrieved 5 February 2023.
  5. A23 Handcross to Warninglid http://www.highways.gov.uk/roads/road-projects/a23-handcross-to-warninglid Archived 10 August 2013 at the Wayback Machine
  6. "A23 Handcross to Warninglid: Five-year post-opening project evaluation" (PDF). National Highways. Retrieved 10 March 2024.

Commons-logo.svg Media related to Handcross at Wikimedia Commons