Horsted Keynes

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The view looking along the Horsted Keynes village green

Horsted Keynes is a village and civil parish in the Mid Sussex District of West Sussex, England. The village is located about 5 miles (8km) north east of Haywards Heath, and lies on the southern edge of the Weald. The civil parish is largely rural, covering 1581.46ha, and has a population of 1507 persons (2001 census)

Horsted Keynes is centred around its village green with its pubs, Post Office and village store. The Post Office is interesting as it was to be closed down for lack of use but was bought up by a group of villagers who invested in its continued use for the community. It is now proving very popular and serves a large rural area.

An interesting historical note is that just a couple of months before being assassinated, President John F. Kennedy actually slept in the Parish when he stayed one Saturday night at Birch Grove, the home of the former Prime Minister Harold Macmillan. A whole article could be written about how the American Secret Service closed the village for the night.

The two principal churches are: the Parish Church dedicated to St Giles and the final resting place of former British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan; and the Roman Catholic church of St Stephen which is unoccupied and controlled from the nearest town, Haywards Heath. The railway station, three-quarters of a mile from the village, is now owned and operated by the Bluebell Railway, which is largely run by volunteers and operates using vintage steam trains. The station originally also had a connection with Haywards Heath, between 1883 and 1963.

On the 1st July 2003 a lightning bolt struck the electricity pole beside The Crown public house on the village green which has stood there for at least 300 years and probably much longer. The roof and much of the building was destroyed in one of the largest fires in the area for many years. More than three years on, the building is still swathed in plastic sheeting bringing a desolate feel to one of the most beautiful villages in England. It is only good fortune (and good design) that prevented the fire spreading to the petrol storage tanks of the adjacent Crown Garage. Had these exploded the heart would easily have been torn from the village.

This part of Sussex was known for its iron industry long before the industrial revolution and the coming of the railways. Little remains of this now, except for the hammer ponds and other traces of this activity dotted around the surrounding countryside, although iron working is remembered in many local place names.