Book Review of John George Haigh. The Acid Bath Murderer by Jonathan Oates Published by Pen and Sword, 214pps In February 1948 a man and woman were lured to a basement property in Leopold Road, Crawley, and there were murdered and their bodies dissolved in an oil drum filled with…
My name is Graham Hackney. We moved from Wimbledon to Crawley in 1958 (I was a baby) when we opened a new branch of the family business which was Tooting Tyre Service at 7 Horsham Road, West Green. We lived above the depot. My Uncle, George Mullen (Mum’s Brother) owned…
We are sad to report that Eunice Clement died on 1st May 2020 aged 91. She leaves three daughters, Catherine, Sorrell and Louise.The cause of death was Covid-19 pneumonia and she died in hospital. The funeral was led by Roger Baker of Ifield Quaker Meeting on 26th May. (If you…
By Sandra Lowton Our familyOur parents were George (1913-1994) and Beatrice (1918-2008) Layzell, originally from Bermondsey and Rotherhithe respectively. They married during the war in 1941 at St James, Hatcham, and lived with his parents in New Cross, London. It was there that Brenda was born in 1942 and George…
We are aware of the fact that the content of our museum displays and the demographic of our trustees, staff and volunteers do not fully reflect the experience of people who live in Crawley. For example, most of the people in our photograph collection are white. We must do better!…
Click the link below to download our colouring sheet as a pdf. High Street Colouring Sheet
By David Stoker At first sight, Crawley was not a particularly good place to be a train spotter in 1960. The nationalised British Railways (BR) had been in existence since 1948 and five years previously they had published a modernisation plan phasing out steam power in favour of diesel and electric…
Another object from our collection. This is a decorative hair comb from a collection donated to us by Ruth Coste. It belonged to her grandmother. Ruth’s brother was Frank Wyatt, who worked at Tilgate Park. What would you write on a label for this one? Here are some suggestions from…
Another object from our collection. It’s some household soap. Comments on our social media included: “Monday is wash day. The day the housewife did the laundry with her bar of Fairy soap.” “Mum used to shave flakes off the bar to put in the boiler with the washing.” “These blocks…
There has been a primary school in West Green since 1824. When the New Town was built, so was a new primary school. A temporary building was built in 1950, and the permanent buildings followed soon after. Here are some photographs from our archives of the New Town school. For…
