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History of Crawley (pre-New Town)

The pre-New Town history of Crawley covers a 2,000-year period between the area's settlement by a Belgic tribe in the 1st century BC and the designation in 1947 of 5,920 acres (2,400 ha) of land as the site of a centrally planned town to house tens of thousands of Londoners. This development joined together the small market town of Crawley, the neighbouring Victorian development of West Green, the ancient village of Ifield and the railway settlement of Three Bridges.

The area now covered by Crawley borough was split across three counties—East Sussex, West Sussex and Surrey—and three districts: Dorking and Horley Rural District (the Surrey portion), Cuckfield Rural District (East Sussex) and Horsham Rural District (West Sussex). Adding further complication to local governance and the provision of services, five parishes were also involved in local governance: Slaugham, Ifield, Lower Beeding, Worth and Charlwood.

World War II

Farms in the Crawley area had to increase their crop production. Much land was unsuitable for intensive farming because of the heavy, damp clay soil which is prevalent in the area, but this was converted into public allotments anyway. Many of the large houses were requisitioned for alternative uses: two housed schools evacuated from London, others were used by companies which had temporarily left the capital, and the Canadian Army occupied Tilgate House in Tilgate Park. The Royal Air Force moved into Gatwick Aerodrome, and the recently built Crawley Bypass (A23) was used to park military vehicles.

More than 2,000 bombs landed on Crawley during the war. A major raid on 4 February 1943 killed two people and damaged many buildings in the town centre, including the newly built post office. The primary school at West Green was also hit. Two V-1 flying bombs landed on the residential Southgate area on 10 July 1944, killing seven people, injuring another 44 and destroying 15 Victorian houses in Oak Road and West Street.

Although Britain was at war, much effort was put in at national level during the early 1940s to debating planning issues and defining the future of urban growth in the country. The reports of three Royal Commissions were particularly significant in shaping Crawley's future. The Barlow Commission of 1940 suggested stopping the uncontrolled growth of large urban areas by moving people and jobs en masse from city centres to new satellite towns. The Scott Committee (1941) focused on how satellite towns should be built, emphasising the importance of not building on good quality agricultural land. The Uthwatt Committee (1942) recommend the compulsory purchase of land for the construction of new towns.

1944-1947

By the mid-1940s, the group of people who had been meeting to discuss the future direction of Crawley had become influential. In 1944 they drew up a plan of how they envisioned an expanded Crawley would look, and presented it to local councillors and other officials. The following year, they set up a local debate about whether local boundaries should be changed in order to bring Crawley and its environs under the control of one local authority. From this came a proposal to move the whole urban area into West Sussex, which was accepted.

References

Bibliography

• Gwynne, Peter (1990). A History of Crawley (1st ed.). Chichester: Phillimore & Co. ISBN 0-85033-718-6.