I was born Marilyn Mutambira (nicknamed Punkie) in Rusape, a small town in what was then Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) on 23 September 1958. Rusape We visited Rusape a lot because my dad wanted us to know our roots. The bus was old and noisy, with chickens, people selling eggs and…
By David Stoker In the early nineteen fifties few Crawley residents had their own transport beyond a bicycle; the factories on Manor Royal all had large cycle sheds and the cycle tracks beside the by-pass on the A23 or from Northgate to Manor Royal could get quite crowded at the…
Book Review Broadfield House: History and Memories By Shirley Anne Cook Amazon. 167pps Local poet and author Shirley Anne Cook, has produced a fascinating, well researched and readable account of one of the hidden landmarks of the Crawley area: Broadfield House. Part social history, part memoir, the book builds upon…
Book Review Gatwick Airport. The First 50 Years By Charles Woodley The History Press 159pps The growth of air travel has been one of the dominant social, economic and technological features of the post-war world. The role of airports has been an area of debate, especially with climate change such…
Here are a few photos of Langley Green. Please let us know if you have any memories of Langley Green that you’d like to share? We’d also love to have a wider selection of photos in our collections – if you have any to donate please Contact Us RC Church…
This book by well-known Crawley historian Nadine Hygate, provides a fascinating look at ‘… the oldest known survivor of the houses from the original settlement of Crawley.’ Known by a variety of names, including Crawley Place and Elm Tree Cottage, the building is today simply ‘The Tree’. Hygate provides a…
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…
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…
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…
