IS KEYMER PART OF HASSOCKS, OR VICE VERSA ?

December 2025. Keymer and Hassocks.

An exciting Tuesday in the South Downs, but not exciting enough to attract Mrs RM away from the comfort of her caravan in Rye Harbour where she had a) working WiFi, b) crisps, c) that can of 10% Imperial stout that would later prevent her from collecting me from Rye Station.

In brutal truth, I didn’t actually want Mrs RM to come. It’s a trip through dull suburbia to unglamorous pubs with multiple train changes, and I’d have made her run for all of them.

I leave that Burgess Hill Spoons with an Old Boy stacking plates and apologising to the “waitress” for the mess on the table, and take a 4 minute trip down to Hassocks Station. From what I can deduce Hassocks is basically the result of that train station, and the parish was formed from Clayton and Keymer at the turn of this century.

Pretty much your first rail halt leaving Brighton, I’d been here once before, parked up in the station car park waiting for Mrs RM to finish her IT assignment in the Laines, fish and chips ready for her (Husband rating NHSS 4.9).

It’s always tempting to be distracted by the first pub out of the station, particularly when The Hassocks pub has 3 CAMRA pint pots for its Harvey’s Sussex.

But it doesn’t look that busy, and I’ve got 70 minutes till my real target opens, so best not overdo it, hey ?

Let’s explore Hassocks, which seems rapidly to become Keymer as you reach the Sally Army care home at Villa Adastra,

and Keymer certainly has the best of the buildings,

there’s even a thatched pub somewhere.

Note the heritage Greyhound.

“Why didn’t you go in then, Retired Martin ?“

Well, I want to reach 61 (22 December, but it’s already on your calendars) and can’t go in every pub like BRAPA does, so I have a potent double espresso at Aroma Café,

and for a moment consider an ascent to Ditchling Beacon.

But, I’m ashamed to say, those unplanned half dozen extra onion rings are weighing me down, so instead it’s a sedate exploration of St Cosmas and St Damian, which is truly the “Pelican in her Piety” of church names.

Mysterious numerals on the door, possibly the equation of the new beer scoring system that Stafford Paul is proposing at the St Albans CAMRA conference,

and the joy of a still darkness.

An unfussy NCSS 3 for St. C + D, as the Keymer kids call it.

Ooh, it’s twenty to two. My craft beer pub might, just might, be gearing up to open.

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Published by retiredmartin

Retired NHS, doing long walks around UK and the world to record the great bits. Focused on Good Beer Guide pubs and live music.

10 thoughts on “IS KEYMER PART OF HASSOCKS, OR VICE VERSA ?”

  1. Hassocks station, was the finishing point for Eric and I, when we walked the first stage of the South Down’s Way, back in May 2009 (seems a lifetime ago now!). It was also the starting point when we returned, a few months later, to walk the next phase.

    Your photo, of the Hassocks pub, reminds me that we called in there, soaked to the skin, after walking down from the Clayton windmills. Somewhat unusually for the time, the pub was selling TT’s Landlord, and a most welcome few pints, before the train home, it turned out to be.

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    1. I knew they ran residential centres (9, I think) but that was the first one I’d seen.

      There are Salvation Army officers in my family, old and recent, and that photo is very typical. I enjoyed that Nottingham post. As with Wesley and Spurgeon, there are a lot of sites linked to the preaching and work of the Booths.

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      1. Wesleyan chapels are all over and always great to see. This year I went to visit the tabernacle (from the outside) in Elephant & Castle where Spurgeon was resident.

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  6. “December 2025. Keymer and Hassocks.”

    (looks up)
    Ok, I’m ignoring maps as that’s a rabbit hole I don’t want to go down, right now. 😉

    ” c) that can of 10% Imperial stout that would later prevent her from collecting me from Rye Station.”

    Ooooooohh!

    “and I’d have made her run for all of them.”

    (slow golf clap)

    “From what I can deduce Hassocks is basically the result of that train station, and the parish was formed from Clayton and Keymer at the turn of this century.”

    (looks at map; no, that map below but Google Maps)
    I know the UK is small, so it’s chock full of bucolic small towns and villages and whatnot but… at what point do they become suburbs of an area that has grown up over the years?

    “fish and chips ready for her (Husband rating NHSS 4.9)”

    Ok, that’s serendipitous. I just commented on an earlier post that getting a ‘5’ should be rarer than hen’s teeth.

    “and I’ve got 70 minutes till my real target opens, so best not overdo it, hey ?”

    Has Simon ever gone by that rule?

    “which seems rapidly to become Keymer as you reach the Sally Army care home at Villa Adastra,”

    (checks Google Maps)
    Blimey! You’re almost in the centre of Keymer by that point. Oh, and the Hassocks Sports Centre is listed as being just over the line… in Keymer.

    Ok, I’ve clicked on a few things on the map and it appears that Keymer is now officially a suburb of Hassocks. If it’s in Keymer, the address shows as … Keymer, Hassocks. Couldn’t find anything that just says ‘Keymer’.
    (even the Hassocks Library is in Keymer)

    “there’s even a thatched pub somewhere.”

    I think everything is thatched down there, isn’t it? 😎

    “Well, I want to reach 61 (22 December, but it’s already on your calendars) and can’t go in every pub like BRAPA does, ”

    Wise man. I don’t have a beer, normally, until 11am.

    “But, I’m ashamed to say, those unplanned half dozen extra onion rings are weighing me down, so instead it’s a sedate exploration”

    Hang on, if Mrs RM was there you were going to have running between trains, and now it’s merely a sedate exploration?

    “Mysterious numerals on the door, ”

    Ask ChatGPT.

    “An unfussy NCSS 3 for St. C + D, as the Keymer kids call it.”

    Maybe that’s a clue to the mysterious numerals.

    “Ooh, it’s twenty to two. My craft beer pub might, just might, be gearing up to open.”

    And the sedate exploration turns into a vigorously strided walk.

    Cheers

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