Origins The area may have been settled during the
Mesolithic period: locally manufactured
flints of the Horsham Culture type have been found to the southwest of the town. Crawley is on the western edge of the
High Weald, which produced iron for more than 2,000 years from the
Iron Age onwards. Goffs Park—now a recreational area in the south of the town—was the site of two late Iron Age furnaces. Ironworking and mineral extraction continued throughout
Roman times, particularly in the
Broadfield area where many furnaces were built. from the southeast Passing through the north of the modern borough, the historic Sussex–Surrey border follows ridges and a trackway, in contrast to the Sussex–Kent border to the east, which follows waterways. According to Mark Gardiner, the border dates at least as far back as the Saxon period, although may in fact be earlier and represent the border between Roman cantons or Iron Age kingdoms. This name evolved over time, and the present spelling appeared by the early 14th century. Although Crawley itself is not mentioned in the
Domesday Book of 1086, the nearby settlements of Ifield and Worth are recorded. Crawley's High Street was built on part of the route from London to the port of
New Shoreham, a major port in the 12th and 13th centuries that was on the most direct route between London and Normandy, used by the king and his knights and soldiers. The first written record of Crawley dates from 1202, when
King John issued a licence for a weekly market on Wednesdays. As a small
market town, Crawley grew slowly in importance over the next few centuries and as the Wealden iron industry declined, the town became an important centre for smuggling between the Sussex coast and London. Later in the 18th century, Crawley was boosted by the construction of the
turnpike road between London and
Brighton. When this was completed in 1770, travel between the newly fashionable seaside resort of Brighton and London became safer and quicker, and Crawley (located approximately halfway between the two) prospered as a coaching halt. By 1839 it offered almost an hourly service to both destinations. The George, a
timber-framed house dating from the 15th century, expanded to become a large coaching inn, taking over adjacent buildings. Eventually an annexe had to be built in the middle of the wide High Street; this survived until the 1930s. The original building has become the
George Hotel, with conference facilities and 84 bedrooms; it retains many period features including an iron
fireback. Crawley's oldest church is
St John the Baptist's, between the High Street and the Broadway. It is said to have 13th-century origins, but there has been much rebuilding (especially in the 19th century) and the oldest part remaining is the south wall of the
nave, which is believed to be 14th century. The church has a 15th-century
tower (rebuilt in 1804) which originally contained four bells cast in 1724. Two were replaced by Thomas Lester of London in 1742; but in 1880 a new set of eight bells were cast and installed by the Croydon-based firm Gillett, Bland & Company.
Railway age and Victorian era The
Brighton Main Line was the first railway line to serve the Crawley area. A station was opened at
Three Bridges (originally known as East Crawley) in the summer of 1841.
Crawley railway station, at the southern end of the High Street, was built in 1848 when the
Horsham branch was opened from Three Bridges to Horsham. A line was built eastwards from
Three Bridges to East Grinstead in 1855. The village of
Three Bridges had become the hub of transport in the area by this stage: one-quarter of its population was employed in railway jobs by 1861, mainly at the
London, Brighton and South Coast Railway's railway works near the station. The Longley company—one of
South East England's largest building firms in the late 19th century, responsible for buildings including
Christ's Hospital school and
King Edward VII Sanatorium in
Midhurst—moved to a site next to Crawley station in 1881. In 1898 more than 700 people were employed at the site. There was a major expansion in house building in the late 19th century. An area known as "New Town" (unrelated to the postwar developments) was created around the railway
level crossing and down the Brighton Road; the
West Green area, west of the High Street on the way to Ifield, was built up; and housing spread south of the Horsham line for the first time, into what is now
Southgate. The population reached 4,433 in 1901, compared to 1,357 a century earlier. In 1891, a racecourse was opened on farmland at Gatwick, to the north of Crawley. Built to replace a
steeplechase course at
Waddon near
Croydon in
Surrey, it was used for both steeplechase and flat racing, and held the
Grand National during the years of
World War I. In the early 20th century, many of the large
country estates in the area, with their
mansions and associated grounds and outbuildings, were split up into smaller plots of land, attracting haphazard housing development and small farms. By the outbreak of World War I in 1914 Crawley had grown into a small but prosperous town, serving a wide rural area and those passing through on the London–Brighton road (the present
A23). Three-quarters of the population had piped water supplies, all businesses and homes had electricity, and piped gas and street lighting had been in place for 50 years. The of land set aside for the new town were split across the county borders between
East Sussex,
West Sussex and
Surrey. Architect
Thomas Bennett was appointed chairman of
Crawley Development Corporation. Members of the working group developing a master plan included Lawrence Neal,
Alwyn Sheppard Fidler,
Caroline Haslett,
Molly Bolton, Sir
Edward Gillett, Eric Walter Pasold and Alderman James Marshall. A court challenge to the designation order meant that plans were not officially confirmed until December 1947. By this time, an initial plan for the development of the area had been drawn up by
Anthony Minoprio. This proposed filling in the gaps between the villages of Crawley,
Ifield and
Three Bridges. Bennett estimated that planning, designing and building the town, and increasing its population from the existing 9,500 to 40,000, would take 15 years. ,
Marks & Spencer and the former
Woolworths store Work began almost immediately to prepare for the expansion of the town. A full master plan was in place by 1949. This envisaged an increase in the population of the town to 50,000, residential properties in nine neighbourhoods radiating from the town centre, and a separate industrial area to the north. Later, a fourth campus, in Southgate, was added to the plans. At first, little development took place in the town centre, and residents relied on the shops and services in the existing high street. The earliest progress was in West Green, where new residents moved in during the late 1940s. In 1950 the town was visited by the then heir to the throne,
Princess Elizabeth, when she officially opened the
Manor Royal industrial area. Building work continued throughout the 1950s in West Green,
Northgate and Three Bridges, and later in
Langley Green, Pound Hill and Ifield. In 1956, land at "Tilgate East" was allocated for housing use, eventually becoming the new neighbourhood of
Furnace Green. construction started in 2015.
Forge Wood is to have a maximum of 1,900 homes. Another major residential development,
Kilnwood Vale, began in 2012 adjacent to the western side of Crawley but separate from it, in
district of Horsham. A plan for a new railway station fell through. == Governance ==