Volunteering at Crawley Museum has given me the opportunity to peek behind the curtain of how a museum functions and what work goes into organising and storing exhibitions. I had a very romantic idea of how museums looked behind locked doors, and still do to some extent. Thanks to modern…
In the early part of the 20th century it was common for cycle shops to also sell gramophones and records. Kirkman’s was in Crawley Square from the 1930s until the 1950s. They then moved to 40 The Broadway. The Square was the buildings that stood in the middle of the…
We love this advert! We found it in a press cutting from February 1966. As it was just a cutting we unfortunately don’t know which newspaper it was from. The text reads “Saturday Feb 19th, 2-6pm. The Young Socialists southern regional conference. West Green Centre, Crawley. All young workers, students…
This hand carved coat of arms was donated by the Borough Council to Crawley Museum in 1992. This version of the coat of arms was officially granted on February 8th 1957 and thus the carving dates back to the late 1950s. The cross represents the position of the town geographically…
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…
Another object from our collection. It’s a school milk bottle! Do you remember these? People on our social media did, and not everyone had happy memories. People’s comments included: “Yuk! Hated by millions” “Stomach clenching time” “on the positive side was that the older we got the less we were…
Another object from our collection. This is the first aid box that belonged to the last gate keeper at the Horsham Road crossing. What would you write on a label for this one? Crawley’s Collections Revealed – label an object!
Portrait of Kenneth Mitchell, year unknown. CWSCM:2019/4880.157.13 Charles Kenneth Mitchell was born 1st October 1889 to parents Charles James and Sarah Blanch Mitchell. He had one sister; Blanche Mary who was 4 years older. Charles senior worked as the Postmaster for Crawley while the family lived in locally at 24…
Here’s another object from our stores. If you were writing a label for it what would you put on it? Suggestions from our social media followers include: “It probably would say the best cider you can get here in Crawley where our orchards used to be our town.” “Take a…
