THE CROW I am the crow From my perch on high I see the town below. I’ve watched you Crawley, I’ve seen you grow. From stones to iron and the age old market. The coaching stops, trains and the old racecourse Machines matching my ability to fly The New Town…
As part of our 2020 exhibition on historical writing about Crawley, we were running a writing competition and displaying the entries in our temporary exhibition space. As we then closed to the public due to Covid-19 we wanted to find a different way of sharing the writings with people, so…
(Written by Graham Crozier, 2020)Photograph of South Side of Crawley High Street, from Crawley Museum’s Collection. Date unknownThe Victorian period witnessed the commercial expansion of Crawley and one of the key figures in that process was Frederick Russell, the proprietor of Russell’s Emporium in the High Street.Frederick Russell was born…
In these strange and unprecedented times, local author Renny Richardson is offering a free of charge electronic version of his first book via Crawley Museum. All the Bright Company of Heaven, first published in 2011, and long out of print tells the story of another dark time in Crawley’s history…
(Written by Graham Crozier, 2019) Painting of the Rent Strike from Crawley Museum’s collection. Painted by J.E. Fuller, 1955, Crawley. 90cm x 78cm. The Rent Strike of October 1955 has all but disappeared from the awareness of people living in Crawley today. However, it can be seen as representing an…
Here’s another object from our stores. If you were writing a label for it what would you put on it? It doesn’t have to be serious! Comments from our followers on social media included: “Iron. Something my Mum used to spit on before she started ironing.” “Iron, often put in…
At Crawley Museum we love crows. Why? Because the word ‘Crawley’ comes from the Saxon word for ‘Crows Wood’. When we’re open people love to colour in Crows in our Learning Space. While we’re closed for a while, why not colour one in at home? Just click the link below:…
The Old Toll House in Northgate was near the entrance to what is now Ifield Drive, at the junction with the High Street. As well as a photograph of it, we’ve recently been donated a watercolor painting, presumably based on the photo. There is no artist’s name on the painting.…
As part of our Crawley’s Collections Revealed project (funded by Arts Council England), we’re meant to be running face to face sessions with people, looking at objects and writing labels. Obviously we can’t do the face to face bit right now, but we can still show you objects and ask…
In 2019 Crawley Museum was awarded a grant from Arts Council England for a new project – Crawley’s Collections Revealed.This 18 month project runs from November 2019 until April 2021.It has been doing two main things: 1 Going through our collections to identify things that are not relevant to the…
