Hassocks is a large village and civil parish in the Mid Sussex district of West Sussex, England. Its name is believed to derive from the tufts of grass found in the surrounding fields.^[2][3]

Located approximately 7 miles (11 km) north of Brighton, with a population of 7,667,^[4] the area now occupied by Hassocks was just a collection of small houses and a coaching house until the 19th century, when work started on the London to Brighton railway. Hassocks until 2000 was just a postal district and prior to that the name of the railway station. The Parishes were named Clayton and Keymer and it is believed that when the railway came in 1841 the Parish Councils were given the opportunity of naming the station. However they could not agree and eventually the directors of the London, Brighton & South Coast Railway gave up waiting and named the station Hassocks Gate themselves.