This page contains local information to help residents and
visitors alike. If you find any errors, links that no longer
work or think we have missed
something out please take the time to email and let us know.
| Buses | Broadband | Churches | Cinemas | Dentists | Doctors | Electricity |
| Employment | Gas supply | Hospitals | Nature | Phones | Police | Rubbish |
| Schools | Shopping | Sports | Television | Theatre | Trains | Water |
| Where are we? |
Barns green is 4 miles south of Horsham, 3 miles north east of
Billingshurst and 12 miles south west of Crawley. We are in between
the A24 and A29 roads which run north south between London and the
South Coast.
Gatwick airport is 24 miles north of the village.
Click
here for an aerial view and map of Barns Green
We
have our own local primary school, Itchingfield Primary School, the
infant department is in Barns Green Village and the junior site is
at Itchingfield. The Headteacher is Mr Simon Simmons.
Our local secondary schools are The Weald in Billinghurst, and, Tanbridge, Millais
(girls) and Forest School (boys) in Horsham. There is a Church of
Engalnd secondary school in Crawley (Holy Trinity). West Sussex
County Council provide buses to take the children to secondary
school which pick up and drop off at various locations around the
village from 8am. We are very close to the dividing line between the
catchment areas for Tanbridge School and The Weald School, most of
Barns Green village falls into Tanbridge's catchment.
Further
and adult education facilities are available at Horsham (Collyers College), Crawley (Crawley College) Chichester University and Brighton University.
We also have Christ's Hospital School on our doorstep. This is an independent charity school. Some children from Barns Green do attend CH instead of the local secondary schools. Christ's Hospital School also have an arts centre and sports centre.
Muntham House School in Barns Green is a specialist school offering support to boys and young men who were unable to learn in mainstream education. Attendance at Muntham is by referral. It is an excellent school rated as Outstanding in its last Ofsted inspection. Muntham also offers its excellent sporting and support facilities to the local community and other schools.
We have a local bus service operated by Compass Travel. Buses into Horsham run every hour.
Click
here to view the bus timetable.
Our nearest railway station is Christ's Hospital which has a good peak time service into London and off peak trains every hour.
Click
here to go to Southern Trains timetables page and select No.
15 Crawley and Horsham.
Horsham has a good mix of shops and the
centre of the town is pedestrianised. There are several large car
parks in the town centre. From Barns Green the nearest car park is
Blackhorse Way. Parking costs £1.40 for up to 2 hours. Shopmobility
is available from the Swan Walk car park.
Crawley has
the largest indoor shooping mall in the South East (apparently!)
- County Mall - with an equally large outdoor shopping centre and is very easy to get to by
car.
There is a small out of town shopping area in Broadbridge Heath.
There are a number of doctors and dentists surgeries in Horsham, Southwater and Billingshurst who treat residents of Barns Green. Southwater is closest to Barns Green but you need a car to get there. Horsham and Billingshurst are both on the bus routes. Click on one of the buttons below for more information on doctors or the Dentists button for a list of dentsis in the Horsham area.
We are equi-distant from East Surrey Hospital at Redhill, Worthing Hospital and the Princess Royal Hospital at Haywards Heath. St Richards Hospital in Chichester is a little further away. Horsham and Crawley both have local hospitals with Minor Injuries Units and out patients departments. If you have the need to go to hospital you could end up at any one of them. For maternity services it depends on your GP and you may get a choice, but all the hospitals are a long way by car if you are trying to get there in a hurry!
There is a vigorous campaign underway pressing for a fully functioning hospital to serve Horsham and Crawley as for in patient services people have to go to Redhill, Worthing or Chichester. Access to hospitals is very much an issue in this area.
Our local Parish church is St Nicolas at Itchingfield. There are other Anglican churches in Southwater, Billingshurst and Horsham.
In Horsham there are also Catholic, Baptist, Methodist, Free and evangelical churches.
In Horsham there is Friends Meeting House (Quaker) and we are close to the Blue Idol Meeting House founded by William Penn in the 17th century.
There is a mosque in Horsham.
Horsham, Broadbridge Heath, Billingshurst and Crawley all have leisure centres offering a range of sporting activities. Use the buttons below to check them out. The "Others" button will take you to a list of sports clubs in the Horsham District, everything from athletics to water sports! Closest to us is Christ's Hospital's Bluecoat Sports Centre which has a excellent facilities but you need to be a member to use some of the facilities.
We have numerous golf clubs in the wonderful countryside around us including 3 public access courses, 2 in Horsham, Rookwood and Horsham Golf & Fitness, and 1 in Crawley at Tilgate Park.
The Capitol in Horsham offers a wide range of films, concerts and theatre events. On our doorstep is Christ's Hospital school with it's own Arts Centre which offers a wide range of performing arts events which are open to the general public. In Crawley there is a multiplex cinema and the Hawth Arts Centre. We are also close to major theatres such as the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre in Guildford and costal towns such a Brighton and Worthing offer events for all tastes.
Barns Green is a small place, but many local residents are employed locally at Muntham House School, Christ's Hospital or at businesses in Horsham such as Novartis, Royal Sun Alliance and the RSPCA, whose headquarters are in Southwater. Gatwick airport and the surrounding commercial and industrial estates also offer wide opportunities for employment at all levels.
Barns Green is most fortunate to be surrounded by some lovely countryside with miles and miles of footpaths. You can probably walk all the way to the South Coast by footpath! The Downs Link runs nearby giving a brilliant walking, cycling and horse riding route from Guidlford to Shoreham by Sea. We are also on the West Sussex Literacy Trail and Horsham District Council run a comprehensive guided walks programme throughout the year. Or you can just amble about on your own!
In Barns Green we have Sumners Ponds. A local farm which now offers a campsite, fishing lakes and some absolutely lovely walks through spectacular bluebell woods. After your walk, the Cafe by the Lake serves refreshments and meals.
At Southwater, there is a beautiful country park, with walks around the lakes, playground, water sports and a very nice visitor centre with cafe.
We do get broadband in the village but it is not the very high speed sort so don't waste your money paying for 20mb broadband because you won't get it!
Mobile phone signals are a bit patchy too. Vodaphone is the best coverage and O2 is OK but you will probably have to stand by a window or go outside to get a good signal.
As with hospitals, broadband and mobile phones, TV signals can be a bit problematice here. We are right on the edge of transmission from the Midhurst (relay transmitter for Rowridge on the Isle of Wight) and Crystal Palace transmitters so depending which way you point your aerial you can choose London News or South Today (which does feature Horsham stories).
The digital signal is OK but you may need a tall aerial from some parts of the village as we are in a bit of a hollow and being rural we do have a lot of very tall trees in the way! We do not get the full range of Freeview channels, but we do get all the major ones. A larger range can be obtained by going the Freesat route.
Water - we are in the Southern Water area.
Electricity - Depending on where you are in the village your electricity supply will be carried by Southern Electric or EDF. You can buy it from whom you prefer but these two companies are responsible for the actual cables. Power supply is much better than it used to be, but we do get occasional power cuts, especially during poor weather - so be prepared!
Gas - Not all houses have a gas supply in this area. There is gas laid on to the main village but not all houses chose to be connected. Outside the centre of the village there is no gas supply at all, so the oil delivery lorries are a familiar site around here.
Our refuse is collected by Horsham District Council who operate the very user friendly ACORN collection scheme. Here we have 3 rubbish bins, green lid for refuse, blue lid for recyclables (glass, paper, plastic, tins, cardboard) and brown lid for garden waste. The green bin is emptied every week and the blue and brown bins alternate. A calendar of collection dates is published in the BIG Mag or you can go to the Horsham District Council website and check the calendar for your postcode.
We have a local PCSO, Sylfan Hammond who visits the village regularly and holds surgeries at Barns Green Stores. Dates and times are published in the BIG Mag.
Our nearest police station is in Hurst Road, Horsham and it is open from 8.30am to 6pm Monday to Saturday.
