Crawley: the back story

About Crawley: the back story

By the ULTIMATE Brighton Editorial Team

Editor-in-Chief: Jai Michael

Crawley’s name comes from the Anglo-Saxon crawe leah, a crow-infested clearing. It was granted a market in 1203, prospered on the iron industry and the London to Brighton road, and on 9 January 1947 was designated a new town; Gatwick Airport opened beside it in 1958.

Crawley is easy to pass through: about half an hour from Brighton by train, ten minutes from Gatwick, on the main line to London. But under the new town lies a much older place, and its High Street still remembers it.

A clearing for crows

Crawley’s history goes back to the Neolithic. Its name comes from the Anglo-Saxon crawe leah, meaning a crow-infested clearing, and was written Crauleia around 1203, Crawele around 1250 and Croule in 1279 before settling as Crawley around 1316. The town grew from three parishes, Ifield, Crawley village and part of Worth, and Worth Church, with its Saxon origins, is its oldest building.

Check opening times and trains on the official sites before you travel.

On the Brighton road

Crawley is first mentioned in 1203, when it was granted a licence for a weekly market. It grew steadily for the next four hundred years, helped by the iron industry, and later as a stopping place on the road between London and Brighton. The arrival of the railway in the 1840s killed off the coaching trade but brought new people to the town.

From racecourse to airport

Gatwick Racecourse opened in 1891 and hosted the Grand National during the Great War. An airfield opened nearby in the 1930s and was requisitioned by the RAF during the Second World War; afterwards, in June 1958, Gatwick Airport was opened by the Queen.

A new town

Crawley was designated a new town on 9 January 1947, joining the villages of Three Bridges and Ifield to the small market town. The planners imagined nine residential neighbourhoods, each built like a village with its own shops, primary school, church, community centre and pub, around a town centre and an industrial estate. By 1962 the town had 60,000 people.

Crawley today

Crawley now has around 114,000 people in 14 neighbourhoods: the largest inland town in West Sussex. Its parks, Tilgate and Goffs Park above all, are worth the trip on their own.

Our advice: start on the old High Street, walk through the Memorial Gardens, and give Tilgate Park the rest of the day.

Opening hours, prices and seasonal openings change, so please check with Crawley: the back story before you go.