** History **
The Princess Royal Hospital in Haywards Heath, West Sussex, is situated in the heart of Mid Sussex.
In 1859 the Sussex County Lunatic Asylum (later 'St. Francis Hospital' and now the Princess Royal Hospital opened and the asylum, along with the railway, became the area's biggest employer housing well over 900 patients.
In 1841 the first railway link between London and Haywards Heath was opened, giving rise to a new period of growth and prosperity, centred on the railway which brought new residents and business to the town.
Part of St. Francis Hospital was renamed the Princess Royal when the Cuckfield and Haywards Heath hospital moved into new buildings in the grounds of St. Francis in the 1980s.
