What it's like to live in Storrington

Housing in the Horsham district is dominated by owner occupiers, who make up 72.3% of households. Social renting accounts for 11.5%, below the England figure of 17.1%, and most of that is housing association rather than council stock, at 10.2% against just 1.2%. Private renting takes 14.5%.

Saxon Weald is comfortably the largest social landlord locally with around 4,799 homes, followed by Southern Housing with 1,176, then Moat Homes, Clarion and Hyde, each with a few hundred. Average weekly social rents across the district in 2024/25 were about £115 for a one bed, £135 for two beds and £155 for three.

The age profile leans older than England as a whole: 22.8% of residents in the council area are 65 or over, compared with 18.4% nationally, while the 25 to 44 group is smaller. Storrington's village setting tends to reflect that. For context, 716 households were on the Horsham council housing register at March 2025 and 276 social homes were let through the council that year, which is one reason an exchange is worth exploring.

Families are well served for schools. Storrington Primary School is about a third of a mile from the centre, with Thakeham Primary School under a mile away. A little further out you'll find St Mary's C.E. Primary School at around two miles, West Chiltington Community Primary School and Ashington CofE Primary School both under three.

For older children, Steyning Grammar School's Rock Road Campus is less than a mile away, which is a short journey by village standards. Windlesham House School sits about two and a half miles out. As always, check current admissions and catchment details with West Sussex County Council before you plan around a particular school.

Outside school hours, Storrington Library is on the doorstep, and there are three parks within a mile and a half: Sullington Parish Hall Park, Hamper's Green and Millford Grange Country Park. Village halls in Storrington, Thakeham, Washington and West Chiltington, plus the Ravenscroft Guide & Community Centre, tend to be where clubs and children's groups meet. In the wider Horsham area, 17.7% of residents are under 16, slightly below the England figure.

Storrington has its own bus station, right in the middle of the village about a tenth of a mile from the shops. That is unusual for a village this size and it matters a great deal if you don't drive, since buses are the main public transport link to surrounding towns.

There is no railway station within three miles, so rail travel means getting to a station further afield, usually by bus or car first. If trains are part of your daily routine, check timetables and journey times carefully before you commit to a swap.

On foot, the centre works well. The library, both supermarkets, the pharmacies and The Moon pub are all within a few minutes' walk of each other, and the primary school is only about a third of a mile out. Further afield, country lanes connect the nearby villages, which is pleasant walking but not always well lit or pavemented.

A car gives you the most freedom here, particularly for evening trips, but plenty of day-to-day life can be done without one if you live near the centre.

This is village leisure rather than city nightlife, and it helps to know that going in. The Moon sits in the centre of Storrington, with The Crown Inn under a mile out and The Five Bells and The White Lion Inn within a couple of miles. West Sussex Golf Club is about two miles away.

Green space is the real pull. Millford Grange Country Park, roughly a mile and a half out, is the biggest of the three nearby parks, with Hamper's Green and the smaller Sullington Parish Hall Park closer in. The surrounding lanes and countryside are made for walking and cycling.

For everything else, Storrington Library is a hub as well as a place to borrow books, and the village hall and community centre host the sort of local groups, fairs and classes that village life runs on. If you want cinemas, big shopping or a wide choice of restaurants, you will be travelling to a larger town, so factor that into your plans.

The figures here cover the wider Horsham council area rather than Storrington alone, but they paint a healthy picture. Just under 60% of adults are in work, a shade above the England average of 57.4%, and unemployment sits at 2.4% against 3.5% nationally.

That pattern holds in more recent data too. In September 2026, 2% of 16 to 64 year olds in the Horsham area were claiming unemployment-related benefits, half the England figure of 4%. In short, this is a district where most working-age people are in a job.

What that doesn't tell you is where those jobs are. Storrington itself is a village, so local work tends to mean shops, schools, care, trades and services, while many residents travel to Horsham or other towns. If you have a job lined up or are job hunting, work out the commute before you accept a swap, especially if you rely on buses. A short trip on paper can be a long one in practice from a rural village.