The origins of the placename 'Barcombe' may have derived from two sources: the Saxon 'Berecampe', meaning 'barley land' and the Latin loan word 'campus', a field.

Barcombe (Bercham) was recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as comprising 26 households, including two smallholdings.

Barcombe Cross only became the hub of the parish when the railway line opened; before such time it was just one of the dispersed hamlets.

It is part of the Historical Railways Estate managed by National Highways on behalf of the Department for Transport, comprising 3,200 bridges, tunnels and viaducts, including 77 listed structures.

The property passed through generations of the Shelley family until the early 19th century when the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley who was the next in line to inherit the property sold out to his younger brother in 1815, who himself sold it to Sir John Dodson, a well-known judge and politician, in the 1840s.

Through much of this period, they let it with notable tenants including George Murray Levick, a surgeon on the ill-fated Terra Nova Antarctic expedition of Scott in 1912, and the Marchioness of Queensberry and family which included her grandson Lord Alfred Douglas, poet and former lover of Oscar Wilde.

The section of the North End Stream to the south has a bank side Bluebell wood, and more woodland the east (TQ 410 136).

Around the demolished mill is a pasture remarkable for its botanical richness, (TQ 422 152) with a range of archaic meadow plants.

The soil is Wealden Clay and three tiny-but-colourful old meadows still survive around Spithurst, including the old 'St Bartz' churchyard.

The church was part of a unique experiment in inter-church co-operation when the Anglican minister allowed the local Russian Orthodox clergy to use it on the Sundays that he was not.

The small Orthodox congregation was made up of Russian exiles and converts and the church became famous for their elaborate ritual.

In 1969 plans were drawn to close and demolish the building until a year later the Queen signed an order withdrawing the scheme.

Species recorded there (2017) include "Anemones, Bluebells and Goldenrod mixed in with Devils Bit and Betony, Ling Heather, Pepper Saxifrage, Bitter Vetch and Tormentil, lots of Birds Foot Trefoil, Mouse Ear Hawkweed and Red Clover".

The woodland is an Oak-Hornbeam with Small Leaved Lime, Wild Service tree, Alder Buckthorn and Aspen and active coppice management.

The rides are wide and sunny and in spring Willow and Garden Warblers, Blackcap, Chiffchaff and even Nightingales can be heard in the coppice regrowth.

They are attractive woods with flowery rides, sunny glades, clay banks and big ponds.

It is coniferised to the north and the wood is used for Christmas trees, but is still "open, pine-scented and airy, with old coppice on the lower ground".

[13] The Bevern Stream runs from the South Downs and there are many Downland flints brought by ice age torrents.

It is particularly attractive to the west of Clappers Bridge, where there are water crowfoot, marsh frogs and minnows and bullheads swimming between the reeds.

The big pond at Red Bridge, (TQ 426 159) on Camoys Court Farm, was enlarged for crop irrigation circa 1980.

Much if its banks are made from Ardingly Sandstone (deep mud) and are botanically rich and support many butterflies and beetles.

In areas it creates marshy brooks such as Beak's Marsh (TQ 439 177) where archaic fen and damp meadow vegetation partly remains.

Sadly these populations are on the brink of collapse due to mismanagement of these waterways, largely by Southern Water and sometimes farmers who have allowed their effluent to overflow into them.

[4] The disused Bluebell Line still has the wildflowers of ancient open places and is popular with walkers and nature enthusiasts.

Species recorded there include (2018) Wild Carrot, Corn Mint, Pepper Saxifrage, Agrimony, vetches, thistles and Teazel, Upright Hedge Parsley and Meadow-sweet.

Species found there have included several orchids, Zigzag Clover, Milkwort, String Sedge, Guelder Rose, Spiny Restharrow, Dodder (a rare parasitic herb) and Dyers Greenweed.

In Knowlands Wood the ground gets damper and it is possible to find Ragged Robin, Marsh Bedstraw and False Fox Sedge.

The Liberal Democrat Norman Baker served as the constituency MP from 1997 until 2015, when Conservative Maria Caulfield was elected.

Prior to Brexit in 2020, Barcombe was part of the South East England constituency in the European Parliament.