The South Downs, among which the village lies, were settled during the Stone Age, c.20,000BC with an incursion of people and livestock from Europe (to which what is now Great Britain was still connected by land).

A good example of an Iron Age fort is to be found on the top of the nearby Wolstonbury Hill on the South Downs.

[6][7] Both roads had the dual purposes of servicing the iron industry in the Weald and connecting the prosperous farmlands of the coastal plain and lower Downs with London.

A special feature of the Hassocks Homes development ordered by Mr Ferguson was the planting of flowering cherry trees along the main roads.

MSDC have now stopped work on the Hassocks Neighbourhood Plan whilst it waits for a decision on the number of homes required for the whole of Mid Sussex District.

The former council buildings, which housed the road maintenance department on London Road, have been demolished and have become a number of homes, whilst the land given to the people of Hassocks (via East Sussex County Council) by a benefactor, previously used by a children's charity, was built upon in 2014/15, the charity having claimed ownership.

[13] Two miles west of Hassocks in the adjoining village of Hurstpierpoint lies Danny House, an Elizabethan manor where David Lloyd George came to draw up terms for the armistice at the end of World War I.

Jill, a post mill, was built in Dyke Road in Brighton in 1821 and was later moved to Clayton in 1852 by a team of oxen.

The working life of the mills ended in about 1906, and Jack is now in private ownership; Jill was restored in 1986 and is open to the public.

Clayton to Offham Escarpment, which stretches from Hassocks in the west, passing through many parishes including Ditchling, to Lewes in the East.

They sit on Gault Clay beds and are divided by the Brighton Railway Line and the A273 Burgess Hill Road.

To the south of Hassocks stations is a small 7.12 hectares (17.6 acres) ancient woodland known as Butcher's Wood (TQ 303 149).

On the eastern side of the railway, along the footpath to Clayton Church, there is pepper saxifrage, nettle-leaved bellflower, St John's wort, wild marjoram and basil.

It is mainly an oak and hazel woodland but there is also field maple, birch and ash coppice together with native woody shrubs including hawthorn, wild crab apple, holly and honeysuckle.

The streams support much wildlife including European bullhead and minnow, tiny orb shell mussels, freshwater shrimp and three-spined stickleback.

The Clayton Stream runs down behind Spring Lane (TQ 303 141), south of New Road it makes a clear pond, once a sheepwash.

They were a group of three small wealden meadows divided by ancient hedgerows from the time they were still a part of St John's Common.

This area is particularly rich in biodiversity and is the western boundary of the Clayton to Offham Escarpment which is a Site of Special Scientific Interest.

Clayton Down (TQ 305 136) has been described by David Bangs, a Sussex field naturalist, as "one of nature's self-grown orchards".

Clayton Holt (TQ 310 134) is a downland wood that is thought to have stood for ten thousand years or more with at least thirteen ancient woodland indicator species, including two big hybrid large-leaved/small-leaved limes growing at the base of slope.

[citation needed][32] In late 2010 the 30-year-old sports pavilion was demolished to make way for a new 'green' building designed by Ecotecture[33] and completed in April 2011.

The new building is state of the art and built to very stringent airtight tolerances utilising the latest air source heat pump technologies.

A 5 a-side football competition often takes place in August in the park, in which teams from the whole of the south east compete in a day long tournament.

[36] Hassocks Sports Centre is situated within the grounds of Downlands Community School and is operated by Freedom Leisure.

Facilities include an indoor sports hall, a multi-purpose dance studio, a full sized 4g astro turf football pitch and a gym.