Horsham Society 70th Anniversary Talks

In celebrating our 70th Anniversary year we are hosting a series of five talks.  These are open to everyone and are free to attend.

They are relevant to our town and cover a wide range of subjects, all of which are important today.

Each talk will be for approximately an hour, including the opportunity to ask questions.

Free refreshments will be served. Your friends and neighbours are welcome to come along, they do not need to be members.

There is a car park to the rear of each of the venues.

 

8th May 2025: Wild About Warnham, and some Wilding Ideas for Horsham.

David Bridges, from ‘Wild about Warnham’, will look at how we can protect wildlife habitats and help conserve threatened species in our town. 

​Roffey Millennium Hall 7.30pm

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19th June 2025: Shops & Shopping: the Small Shop Through the Ages

Dr Janet Pennington, well-known historian and public speaker, explores how different shopping was for our ancestors and looks at shops, their signs and names. 

Roffey Millennium Hall 7.30pm.

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17th July 2025: Waste Water and Clean Water in Horsham

Southern Water will be looking at Horsham in terms of supply and waste water and the issues that arise.

Roffey Millennium Hall 7.30pm

 

 

 

A New Vision for Horsham Town Centre​

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HDC are seeking to improve public areas in Horsham Town Centre in a way that considers the needs of everyone. This will cover Bishopric, Carfax and Worthing Road

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Proposals includes:

• improved street furniture and facilities​

• a better environment for walkers and cyclists

• improved green spaces for people and wildlife

• improved way-finding

 

Have your say by commenting via www.horsham.gov.uk/consultations

Closing date Wednesday 30 April

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You can visit Unit 60 Swan Walk on Saturday 26 April 10.30-3.30pm to see the display, ask questions and share your views

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It is important that as many people as possible express their view of the proposals.  Horsham Society's Executive Committee will formally respond to the consultations on behalf of its membership.

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​​Horsham Heritage Free Guided Walks

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Town Centre Guided Walks restart on April 2nd 2025. Walks start from outside Horsham Museum at 2.30pm every Wednesday and Sunday.

No booking is required.

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Denne Road Cemetery Guided Walks:

We are sorry but this seasons cemetery walks are now closed for the season.

Saturday 10th May - FULLY BOOKED

Friday 20th June - FULLY BOOKED

Thursday 3rd July - FULLY BOOKED

The tours start at 2:30pm and last about an hour and a half.

Booking is required via events@horshamsociety.org

Group size is limited to 20 people, please book early to avoid disappointment.

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Horsham Park Guided Walks - watch out for details later this Spring.

 

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 Local Heritage List for Horsham Town 2025

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Horsham Society proposed an additional 60 buildings and structures to be added to Horsham District Council's Local List.  Following a Public consultation, which ended on 31st May 2024, Horsham District Council approved the revised Local List on March 19th 2025.

A big thank you to those committee members who have spent a very large number of hours in bringing this to fruition.

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National Planning Policy Framework​

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The Government are consulting on their proposed reforms to the Planning Policy. These proposals,  and Horsham Society's response, can be found on our Planning page

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​Council’s Draft Greenspace Strategy

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The consultation on Horsham District Council’s draft Greenspace Strategy has now closed.

 

The Horsham Society welcomes the publication of the Strategy and supports its aims.

 

The Council owns and manages approximately 400 hectares of green space across the District, ranging from large formal parks to cemeteries and pockets of open space within housing estates.

Green spaces are important in towns to support public health and wellbeing, and as part of the townscape offsetting the hard landscaping associated with urban design.

 

This strategy is particularly important to Horsham town.  In other parts of the District many green spaces are owned and managed by Parish councils whereas in the unparished area of Horsham town similar ones are managed by HDC. Furthermore, we host a number of the larger sites such as Horsham Park, Warnham Nature Reserve, Chesworth Farm, Owlbeech and Leechpool Woods.

 

The draft Strategy sets out HDC’s vision and strategic priorities including the protection and enhancement of existing greenspaces, opportunities for leisure, maintenance arrangements and the use of volunteers.

 

The Society has responded to the consultation by suggesting that the vision statement is somewhat lacking in ambition in that currently it doesn’t aim to increase public use and enjoyment of its green spaces or to increase the overall number of green spaces. We have also made more detailed comments including the importance of the Riverside Walk and the need for the management plans for individual green spaces to be responsive to public expectations.

  

You can read the Council’s draft Strategy and our full response on our Planning page.

 

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Horsham Town Trail

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The new edition, guiding you to places of historical interest in and around the town. Now on sale from Horsham Museum.

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Horsham District Local Plan 2023 -2040

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Read Horsham Society's response to HDC's consultation on our Planning page.

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Asset of Community Value

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Our President, John Steele, has successfully re-registered The Capitol Theatre and Arts Centre as an Asset of Community Value. 

 

In addition to the Capitol, Horsham Society has now registered The Drill Hall & Music Studios and Rookwood. 

 

For more information read the article in the West Sussex County Times dated 18th January 2024. This can be found in the Member's area of the website.

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WEBSITE UPDATE 

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A new ARCHIVE button has appeared in the Member's Area. 

As part of our ongoing plan to digitise all of our paper records thousands of pages are being scanned by hand and files sorted. Once organised they will be available on our website for access. All of our scrapbooks  covering the period of  1960 -2012 have been digitised and now the long process of organising these files and uploading them to the website is under way. 

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• Members can now download all of our out of print publications free of charge. Within the Members section is a Publications Download button. This gives members the opportunity of fully downloading any of our publications that are no longer on sale. These go back to 1980.  If the button does not work it is waiting for the appropriate booklet to be uploaded. To my knowledge the only missing book is the 2001 edition of the Children's Trail. Does anyone have a copy that I can borrow?

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• Members will find that the past copies of our Newsletter, going back to 1962, can now be read online. This section will be updated following the publication of each future issue. I am now missing three newsletter only: February 1980, July 1984 and February 1987. Please let me know if you have a copy.

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• The last twelve issues of the newsletter can be found under 'Current Newsletters'.

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• Within the Newsletter Archive is a new button 'Newsletter Indexes' These were completed by volunteers and cover the period of 1991 -2020.  An index for 1974 - 1984 has now been added. Hopefully members may find these of value.

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• Our fortnightly articles in the West Sussex  County Times are also available for members to read.  This archive goes back to January 2018.

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• We have purchased a new scanner which will enable us, with the help of volunteers, to digitise our paper archives. There are thousands of pages, which during the course of the year, will be added to our website giving an insight into the past.

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