Haywards Heath is a remarkable place with an intriguing history. Misguidedly characterised as 'large and quite amorphous', detailed inspection actually reveals a dynamic settlement that spread like a patchwork quilt in a distinctive pattern of development. It was indisputably the railway, a Victorian marvel cut through bare heathland in 1841 and bringing with it the county asylum and one of the country's largest cattle markets, which was the making of Haywards Heath. There is far more to the district than that, however. The town's standing buildings and the local place names hint in places at much earlier history: a deadly battle of the Civil War in 1642, two thriving medieval manors, and even travellers and traders on a Roman road. This collection of evocative old and new images vividly illustrates these events as well as the intricacies of generations of everyday life in Haywards Heath.
