The Red Lion Pub
History of the Red Lion
The Red Lion in Handcross was one of the better-known coaching inns on the old London to Brighton road. Its most famous customer was probably Horatio Nelson, whose younger sister, Catherine Matcham, lived in the village. Nelson himself lived for a while in Slaugham, opposite the church in which Catherine is buried.
A highwayman, Jack Ridding, was hanged outside the Red Lion, according to the late Roger Ray, the local historian and former newsagent in Handcross, although the story is uncorroborated.
The Red Lion was the location of the inquest into the deaths of 10 people after a top-heavy Vanguard bus crashed while descending Handcross Hill in 1906; for details, see Wikipedia and this contemporary newspaper report. Photographs of the accident can be found at gravelroots.net and slaughamarchives.org. The Slaugham Archives site contains many old photographs of the Red Lion.
The Red Lion often hosted travelling boxing booths during the early twentieth century. A former British heavyweight boxing champion, “Bombardier” Billy Wells, was the landlord of the pub during the 1930s. Wells is probably best remembered as the original man who banged the gong at the beginning of J. Arthur Rank’s films.
The current building dates from 1540, although there are several modern additions. It was badly damaged by a fire in 1978, but many of the original features were saved or restored.
During the corporate pub era, the Red Lion in Handcross has been owned by Punch Taverns (operating under the Chef and Brewer brand) and the Mitchells and Butlers chain (which also owned the Harvester, Toby Carvery, and All Bar One brands). As of 2025, it is owned by Premium Country Pubs.
Features
In addition to food and drink, the Red Lion pub in Handcross offers:
- a beer garden;
- a patio area;
- a baby-changing area;
- wheelchair access;
- wi fi;
- a car park, which includes blue badge parking spaces and (as of 2025) one electric car charging point, operated by BP Chargemaster.
Opening Hours
- Monday to Thursday: 11.00 to 22.00
- Friday and Saturday: 11.00 to 23.00
- Sunday: 11.00 to 22.00
(These hours were correct in December 2025.)
Location
The Red Lion is at the southern end of Handcross High Street (the B2110):
At the time of writing, the Red Lion’s website insists that the pub is actually in Haywards Heath. Here are some screen shots from the pub’s website’s home page:
The ‘title’ field of each web page (i.e. the short line of text you see at the top of the browser window) also claims that the Red Lion is in Haywards Heath.
For the record, Handcross is a small village a few miles north of the town of Haywards Heath. Its postal address is sometimes given as ‘Handcross, near Haywards Heath’, which may be a partial explanation of the mistake.
This is what’s liable to happen when a faceless corporation takes over a community asset such as a pub. The task of updating the website is given to some junior employee who has no knowledge of the area and has never visited the pub; the junior employee’s superior is unable to spot the mistake because he or she also has no knowledge of the area and has never visited the pub; the junior employee’s superior’s superior doesn’t know what’s going on because he or she is too busy sucking up to his or her own superior … and so on up the food chain.
Contact Details
- website
- www.redlionhandcross.co.uk
- no email
- phone
- 01444 400292
- address
- High Street, Handcross, Sussex, RH17 6BP
Other Pubs Nearby
- The Black Swan Pub, Pease Pottage
- The Cherry Tree Inn, Faygate
- The Dragon Pub, Colgate
- The Royal Oak Inn, Handcross
Sadly, since 2010 both The Grapes in Pease Pottage and The Fountain in Handcross have been knocked down to make way for houses.