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Welcome to
Crawley
West Sussex - England

A Brief History of Crawley

A number of readers have e-mailed with requests for information about the town's name. Finally I made the effort and did a bit of research.

Crawley is derived from the Anglo Saxon crawe leah - a 'crow infested clearing'. Not very exotic I'm afraid!

The spelling has changed a little with such variations as Crauleia (circa 1203), Crawele (circa 1250), Croule (circa 1279) and finally Crawley in 1316.

If your surname is Crawley - Do you often feel that you are surrounded by a load of trees? Does everybody crow at you? Maybe, just maybe, you are related to my town <G>.

A little History
Crawley has been around a long time (over 1000 years) and was an important stopping point for the coaches (horse drawn). It is roughly half way between the capital and the coast. A toll was collected at the Toll House at the north end of the town. Now long since gone.

The Toll House photographed early 1900’s. The word ‘Crawley’ was not on the building but it seems that the photographer added it to the print. No doubt his creative genius added different town names to the same photo. Such is Crawley Enterprise! <G>

Crawley was designated a New Town after the 2nd World War, this probably upset quite a few residents with a long family history in the town. The official starting date for this development was January 9th 1947 with a design capacity, built into the planned infrastructure for 50,000. The town now has over 85,000 residents, without any significant improvement in the original infrastructure, and even today continues to grow rapidly. Development of shops, offices and houses (generally on flood plains now, it seems) continues unabated.

The above scenes are of the same street, from approximately same position but about 50 years apart.

The modern town of Crawley is the result of merging a number of small villages over a period of time. The new town ultimately engulfed the surrounding villages:
Ifield to the west.  Worth to the east.  Pease Pottage to the south.  Lowfield Heath to the north

Strictly speaking, Pease Pottage is outside the town boundary but the growth to the south is such that there is only a few yards of 'free' space left. The latest plan is that the neighbouring authority, Horsham District Council, will build 3,000 house abutting the town boundary. This is a neat bit of buck passing by Horsham. They build and gain the financial benefits, together with the council tax payments and - Crawley supplies all the services and support!! .

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