Albourne is a village and civil parish in the Mid Sussex district of West Sussex, England. It lies just off the A23 road three miles (4.8 km) east of Henfield. The parish has a land area of 772.9 hectares (1909 acres). In the 2001 census 600 people lived in 234 households, of whom 321 were economically active. The population at the 2011 Census was 644. The name comes from an alder-lined stream, which is likely to have been the Cutler's Brook. English inventor and father of the bicycle industry, James Starley, was born in Albourne in 1831. The village has a golf course, a riding school and a country club. During World War II a bomb fell in the village and did blast damage to the local school. The parish council appealed to raise £200 for immediate repairs to the school and £600 for future repairs. The bomb also damaged the Rectory of the Church and left it without electric lighting or a functioning bath. Notable buildings and areas The fact Albourne sits on fertile Lower Greensand, has been both a blessing and a curse. On one side it has been very productive for crops but on the other, the countryside has been rather ruined because of the intensive farming that has resulted. The village is home to a number of old and historic buildings. Albourne Street () has a series of very fine old houses, often timber framed, at its south end, such as Gallops (an old timber building, and the oldest building in the village), and The Pound now owned by Brighton & Hove Albion footballer Garry Nelson, which was used to impound straying animals. Both buildings were built in the 17th century. In the heart of the village is Woodbine Cottage, childhood home of James Starley, the pioneer of the different gear used on early bicycles, whose success brought prosperity of Coventry. Church Lane runs west out of Albourne and takes you down past some veteran oak trees, past the old school, over the stream to the tiny church, St. Bartholomew, () and grand rectory, which has yellow winter aconites flowers and snowdrops on the lawn in January. In the crook of the Lane, to its south () the Cutler's Brook meets two other streams. The area is a sheltered tangle of tiny fields and streams, squelchy plats, dry banks and slopes, bushes and mature oaks. To