My parents, Barbara, and Stan Field, moved to Crawley from Wandsworth with so many other families for their new life in Pound Hill at Christmas 1956. I was 18 Months old. My father had a job in Crawley and travelled each day from London until the commission for the New…
The Paralympic flame being carried in. In 2012 the Olympic torch was paraded through Crawley, so could we do something like it for the Paralympics? The members of Crawley’s Access Group (TAG) thought it was worth a try. Council officers agreed and the answer was – YES! The British Paralympic…
Rosemary as a child and her Mum, Dorothy Harris. In May 1945, Crawley in common with towns and villages throughout the land, heard a new and wonderful sound. Older people heard it with disbelief and children were woken so that they might hear it for the first time. It was…
A hand-written version of the following account is now in the Crawley Museum collection, courtesy of a donation by Nadine Hygate. It was written by William James Denman (1877-1945), a renowned Crawley figure: head postman, local councillor, JP, tireless committeeman, supporter of local sports and social organisations, and prolific journalist…
Ifield Mill, A Survey by J. Gibson-Hill and E.W. Henbery In 1975 I was fortunate enough to spend the summer with a friend, Keith Young, working with archaeologist John Gibson-Hill. I was reminded of this the other day when, whilst having a clear out at home, I found a little…
The author in 1965 (© CC BY-SA 4.0 – David Stoker)I recently returned to Crawley for the first time in more than a decade, to attend the cremation service for an old friend, Don Nunn. At the ceremony I met several other friends from my school days and afterwards we…
“Now boys with squibs and crackers play, And bonfires blaze turns night to day.” ‘Poor Robin’s Almanac’ dated 1677 For many people today, Bonfire Night or Guy Fawkes Night means a chance to get together to watch fireworks, and perhaps attend a bonfire party somewhere in the community. The…
The chairs which are now on display in the museum. No! These cane backed arm chairs painted in light blue with some beautiful painted flowers have a lovely local story behind them. They were owned by Alice and Frank Hyder of Three Bridges. Alice was born on the 10 May…
One of the most interesting ways to approach local history is through the memories of those who were there. While taking into account the vagaries of memory, reminiscences of the past provide a unique source of information for the historian. In the case of Crawley before the First World War,…
My father, Anthony Stoker, was the eleventh child of a devout Catholic Irish immigrant couple living in Southport, Lancashire. He was born in May 1918, but his mother died six months later, during the Spanish Flu pandemic. His father was unable to cope with a new baby as well as…
