West Green, Crawley
Encyclopedia
West Green is one of the 13 residential neighbourhoods in Crawley
, a town and borough
in West Sussex
, England. Crawley was planned and laid out as a New Town
after the Second World War, based on the principle of self-contained neighbourhoods surrounding a town centre of civic and commercial buildings. West Green was the first neighbourhood to be developed, and is one of the smallest and closest to the town centre.
to the south, the A23 (Crawley Avenue)
to the west and north, and the High Street to the east. The latter formed part of the main London to Brighton road until it was bypassed
in the 1930s. Northgate and the town centre lie to the east, Southgate is to the south, Ifield is to the west and Langley Green shares a border to the north.
When the New Town was planned, each neighbourhood was allocated a colour, which appears on street name signs together with the neighbourhood's name. West Green's colour is dark blue.
era around a crossroads where a northeast–southwest trackway connecting the main Saxon-era estates and farms of the Weald
crossed an east–west route between Worth
and Ifield. After the Norman Conquest
, the pattern of land use and travel changed, and a new north-south route between London and the south coast developed slightly to the east. Crawley, originally a small village itself, grew around this from the 13th century onwards. The two settlements, 0.25 mile (0.402335 km) apart, grew slowly alongside each other for the next few centuries. The name "West Green" was first recorded in 1532.
In the 19th century, the increasing prosperity of Crawley—by now, a thriving market town—stimulated residential growth in West Green. In 1841 it had only 20 houses, but the arrival of the railway in the town in 1848 was significant: the existing development at West Green was close to Crawley railway station, and land was available for further building. This took place haphazardly and without any planning: local builders erected individual houses or streets speculatively and in a mixture of styles. The variety of villas, semi-detached houses and terraces in Leopold, Spencers, Victoria, Albany and Princess Roads—built in the 1880s just north of the railway line— typify this. In the same decade a small chapel was built—the forerunner of St Peter's Church, an Anglican
church built on a triangle of land near the ancient crossroads in 1893. The east–west track had become the main Ifield Road, and Horsham Rural District Council—responsible for the land in the early 20th century—built some council housing
along the road in the interwar period
. Overall, of approximately 900 houses built in Crawley during that time, more than 100 were built in West Green.
John George Haigh
, who moved to Crawley from London in 1943, carried out six murders—known as the "Acid Bath Murders"—at a workshop in Leopold Road between 1944 and 1949. He was hanged
for his crimes in August of that year. The case brought notoriety to the town and aroused considerable interest among local people.
identified it as a suitable site for one. A Development Corporation was formed, led by the architect Thomas Bennett
, and planner
Anthony Minoprio provided a master plan for the town's development. He proposed a double ring of nine neighbourhoods surrounding an extended town centre; West Green was to be one of the inner ring of four, and the first to be built. By 1949, when building work started, West Green's population was about 2,000—mainly concentrated in the area between Ifield Road and the railway line—and the Development Corporation had to consider how to fit new development around this.
By the end of the 1948/1949 financial year, the Development Corporation had bought 13 acres (5.3 ha) of land in West Green, and was negotiating the acquisition, mostly by compulsory purchase order
, of another 133 acres (53.8 ha). At that stage, 117.5 acres (47.6 ha) were intended to be developed immediately. Most of the land was designated for housing, the neighbourhood centre (parade of shops, pub and community centre) and a new school, but about 20 acres (8.1 ha) were reserved for open space and allotment
s. Minoprio planned a wide variety of housing types, from high-density low-rise blocks of flats near the town centre to large detached houses.
The New Town's first set of houses were built in West Green during this period. In 1947, the Development Corporation granted the design contract for 34 houses to architectural practice Godman & Kay. A Hove
-based firm, H.J. Paris Ltd, won the £7,397 (£ today) contract for the road construction and site preparation in 1948. The Horsham
-based building firm Hoad & Taylor built the houses at a cost of £45,220 (£ today), and residents moved in during the summer of 1949. The road ran northeastwards from the old Ifield Road and was named Smalls Mead; it lay near the path of one section of the ancient trackway, which had historically been called Smalls Lane. By 1952, 622 houses had been built or started, and the neighbourhood was effectively complete in 1954. By that time, the neighbourhood centre—with shops, post office, community centre and public house—had been established at the junction of Ewhurst Road and West Green Drive.
The southeastern corner of the neighbourhood was redeveloped early in the 21st century as part of the Borough Council's efforts to improve the town centre. Robinson Road, the site of Crawley's original hospital, post office and school, was demolished, and Spencers Road was severed. A large mixed-use development, anchored by an Asda
superstore, was completed on the site in September 2003. Around the same time at the other end of the High Street, and again just within the boundary of West Green, the Crawley Leisure Park was built on the site of the Sun Inn. This was an old house at the northern end of Crawley village, which was converted into an inn in the 1870s.
of the same name, which is one of the fifteen wards in Crawley. These divisions are used for collecting census
and other statistical and demographic data. It had a population of 4,404 at the 2001 United Kingdom Census
. Its population density was therefore 35.82 PD/ha—much higher than the figure of 22.18 PD/ha for Crawley overall. There were 2,005 households, of which 1,125 (56%) were owned by the occupier, 668 (33%) were rented from Crawley Borough Council
or another public-sector landlord, 143 (7%) were rented privately and 69 (3%) were occupied rent-free. The rate of owner-occupancy is much lower than in Crawley as a whole, and a much higher proportion of housing is rented from the council.
According to the census, 91.2% of residents are White, 6.2% are Asian or Asian-British, 1% are Black or Black-British, 0.9% are mixed-race and 0.7% are from another ethnic background. The proportion of white people is slightly higher, and that of Asian people slightly lower, than in Crawley overall; other proportions are comparable to Crawley as a whole. The age distribution of West Green's population is different from that of Crawley as a whole: as at the 2001 census, 866 (19.7% of residents) were under 18 years old, 2,558 (58.1%) were between 18 and 64 years old, and 980 (22.3%) were 65 years old and over. The corresponding figures for Crawley were 23,748 (23.8%), 61,338 (61.5%) and 14,658 (14.7%), indicating that West Green has an older age profile.
was built on a site in West Green Drive between 1959 and 1962. It was extended in the late 1960s and in 1981. It replaced a 1930s building which had in turn succeeded a small cottage hospital
at the south end of Crawley High Street. Since the 1990s many services have been moved to East Surrey Hospital in Redhill
, and Crawley Hospital now has "sub-acute" status and has 143 beds. Crawley's ambulance station
was moved to playing fields off Ifield Avenue by the early 1980s from its former town-centre location. Crawley fire station, headquarters of the Crawley and Mid Sussex District Team of West Sussex Fire and Rescue Service, is on the same road. The station has five vehicle bays with three standard water tenders, a heavy rescue tender and a four wheel drive appliance. It received 1,390 calls in the 2009–10 reporting year.
The town's main cemetery, which existed before the New town was planned, is in the far southwest corner of West Green, between the bypass and the railway line.
parish church
, St Margaret's
, was distant from the community; so in 1880 a chapel of ease
, St Mary Magdalene's, was built. This was replaced by a larger church, St Peter's, in 1892. This was given its own parish in 1901: the Parish of West Crawley was created from territory moved from Ifield. St Peter's Church was designed by W. Hilton Nash and built by local construction firm owner Richard Cook. The sandstone
building, with a chancel
, single-aisled nave
, vestry
and bell-turret, holds 439 people and cost £2,800 (£ as of 2009) to build. It is now part of the Parish of Crawley under St John the Baptist's Church
.
Crawley Baptist Church, established in 1883, moved to Crabtree Road in West Green in 1954. The building was demolished in 2002 and replaced with a new structure on the same site. Crawley's Hindu
community established a mandir
(temple) on Spencers Road in about 1970; and the Sikh
community have a gurdwara
on the same street, which as of 2009 is due to be demolished and replaced with a larger building.
A Church of England school was opened on West Green Drive in the 1930s. In 1951, the Local Education Authority
set up a temporary school on the site in response to the early growth of the New Town, and permanent infant
and junior
school divisions were opened in 1952 and 1953 respectively. Under the name of West Green Primary School, the school now has seven classes of pupils between the ages of 4 and 11.
The master plan proposed that a neighbourhood centre, consisting of community centre, public house, school, church and shopping parade, should be an integral part of each neighbourhood. The Development Corporation provided a temporary community centre building, and West Sussex County Council extended the school building in 1954 to provide a permanent facility. This was augmented by a youth centre in 1960. A pub, the Apple Tree, was built in the mid-1950s, and the Development Corporation provided a parade of seven shops: the smallest parade in any of Crawley's neighbourhoods, reflecting its proximity to the town centre.
The George Hotel
, listed at Grade II*, is an early 16th-century coaching inn
which expanded over the next two centuries to take over surrounding buildings. Crawley's location midway between London and Brighton on the direct route between them, which was turnpiked
in 1770, contributed to its growth, as it became the natural stopping place for traffic of all types. Extensive changes in the next two centuries included various extensions and the building of an annexe (since demolished) in the middle of the High Street.
The other four listed buildings have a Grade II designation. The building now designated as 34 and 36 High Street is a two-storey, red-brick building dating from the late 18th century, with six sash window
s, a pair of original brick chimneys and a tiled roof. The ground floor has been converted into two retail units. Further north, 44–48 High Street, on the corner of Ifield Road, is a group of three shop units housed in a building originally constructed as a four-bay
timber-framed
house in about 1600. The exterior is now stucco
ed, and the building was redesigned in the 18th and 19th centuries, when it was converted into shops. There are four equally-spaced 19th-century sash windows on the side facing the High Street. The north face, fronting Ifield Road, has a jettied
overhang, a traditional feature of timber-framed buildings in the area; the main (east) side was originally jettied as well but has since been built up. The oldest visible parts of the building are the southernmost bay
, where there is 17th-century brickwork and timber, and the chimney from the same period. Many early 18th-century fittings remain inside. On Ifield Road itself, a now-derelict house at No. 10 is a mid-17th century timber-framed house with exterior tile-hanging and 19th-century brickwork; and No. 60 and 62 were a pair of cottages created in the 19th century from a 16th-century timber-framed farmhouse, which is now used as one building again. Its exterior is partly of brick and partly tile-hung, the roof is tiled, and substantial wooden beams and trusses are visible inside.
superstore. Crawley railway station
is near the southeastern corner of the neighbourhood, and Ifield railway station
is close to the west side.
Levels of vehicle ownership, as measured by the 2001 census, are lower than in Crawley as a whole. At the census date, the mean number of vehicles per household was 0.97 (the overall Crawley figure was 1.21), and 32.4% of households had no transport of their own, compared to 20.4% in Crawley overall.
Crawley
Crawley is a town and local government district with Borough status in West Sussex, England. It is south of Charing Cross, north of Brighton and Hove, and northeast of the county town of Chichester, covers an area of and had a population of 99,744 at the time of the 2001 Census.The area has...
, a town and borough
Borough status in the United Kingdom
Borough status in the United Kingdom is granted by royal charter to local government districts in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The status is purely honorary, and does not give any additional powers to the council or inhabitants of the district...
in West Sussex
West Sussex
West Sussex is a county in the south of England, bordering onto East Sussex , Hampshire and Surrey. The county of Sussex has been divided into East and West since the 12th century, and obtained separate county councils in 1888, but it remained a single ceremonial county until 1974 and the coming...
, England. Crawley was planned and laid out as a New Town
New towns in the United Kingdom
Below is a list of some of the new towns in the United Kingdom created under the various New Town Acts of the 20th century. Some earlier towns were developed as Garden Cities or overspill estates early in the twentieth century. The New Towns proper were planned to disperse population following the...
after the Second World War, based on the principle of self-contained neighbourhoods surrounding a town centre of civic and commercial buildings. West Green was the first neighbourhood to be developed, and is one of the smallest and closest to the town centre.
Location within Crawley
West Green is a roughly triangular area of 123 hectares (303.9 acre), bounded by the Arun Valley railway lineArun Valley Line
The Arun Valley Line, also known as the Mid Sussex Line, is part of the Southern-operated railway services. For the initial part of the route trains follow the Brighton Main Line, and at a junction south of Three Bridges the route turns westwards...
to the south, the A23 (Crawley Avenue)
A23 road
The A23 road is a major road in the United Kingdom between London and Brighton, East Sussex. It became an arterial route following the construction of Westminster Bridge in 1750 and the consequent improvement of roads leading to the bridge south of the river by the Turnpike Trusts...
to the west and north, and the High Street to the east. The latter formed part of the main London to Brighton road until it was bypassed
Bypass (road)
A bypass is a road or highway that avoids or "bypasses" a built-up area, town, or village, to let through traffic flow without interference from local traffic, to reduce congestion in the built-up area, and to improve road safety....
in the 1930s. Northgate and the town centre lie to the east, Southgate is to the south, Ifield is to the west and Langley Green shares a border to the north.
When the New Town was planned, each neighbourhood was allocated a colour, which appears on street name signs together with the neighbourhood's name. West Green's colour is dark blue.
History
A small settlement developed in the Anglo-SaxonAnglo-Saxons
Anglo-Saxon is a term used by historians to designate the Germanic tribes who invaded and settled the south and east of Great Britain beginning in the early 5th century AD, and the period from their creation of the English nation to the Norman conquest. The Anglo-Saxon Era denotes the period of...
era around a crossroads where a northeast–southwest trackway connecting the main Saxon-era estates and farms of the Weald
Weald
The Weald is the name given to an area in South East England situated between the parallel chalk escarpments of the North and the South Downs. It should be regarded as three separate parts: the sandstone "High Weald" in the centre; the clay "Low Weald" periphery; and the Greensand Ridge which...
crossed an east–west route between Worth
Worth, West Sussex
The civil parish of Worth, which includes the villages of Copthorne, West Sussex and Crawley Down, covers an area of and has a population of 9888 persons. The ecclesiastical parish was one of the larger West Sussex parishes, encompassing the entire area along the West Sussex/Surrey border between...
and Ifield. After the Norman Conquest
Norman conquest of England
The Norman conquest of England began on 28 September 1066 with the invasion of England by William, Duke of Normandy. William became known as William the Conqueror after his victory at the Battle of Hastings on 14 October 1066, defeating King Harold II of England...
, the pattern of land use and travel changed, and a new north-south route between London and the south coast developed slightly to the east. Crawley, originally a small village itself, grew around this from the 13th century onwards. The two settlements, 0.25 mile (0.402335 km) apart, grew slowly alongside each other for the next few centuries. The name "West Green" was first recorded in 1532.
In the 19th century, the increasing prosperity of Crawley—by now, a thriving market town—stimulated residential growth in West Green. In 1841 it had only 20 houses, but the arrival of the railway in the town in 1848 was significant: the existing development at West Green was close to Crawley railway station, and land was available for further building. This took place haphazardly and without any planning: local builders erected individual houses or streets speculatively and in a mixture of styles. The variety of villas, semi-detached houses and terraces in Leopold, Spencers, Victoria, Albany and Princess Roads—built in the 1880s just north of the railway line— typify this. In the same decade a small chapel was built—the forerunner of St Peter's Church, an Anglican
Church of England
The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...
church built on a triangle of land near the ancient crossroads in 1893. The east–west track had become the main Ifield Road, and Horsham Rural District Council—responsible for the land in the early 20th century—built some council housing
Council house
A council house, otherwise known as a local authority house, is a form of public or social housing. The term is used primarily in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. Council houses were built and operated by local councils to supply uncrowded, well-built homes on secure tenancies at...
along the road in the interwar period
Interwar period
Interwar period can refer to any period between two wars. The Interbellum is understood to be the period between the end of the Great War or First World War and the beginning of the Second World War in Europe....
. Overall, of approximately 900 houses built in Crawley during that time, more than 100 were built in West Green.
John George Haigh
John George Haigh
John George Haigh , commonly known as the "Acid Bath Murderer" , was an English serial killer during the 1940s. He was convicted of the murders of six people, although he claimed to have killed nine...
, who moved to Crawley from London in 1943, carried out six murders—known as the "Acid Bath Murders"—at a workshop in Leopold Road between 1944 and 1949. He was hanged
Hanging
Hanging is the lethal suspension of a person by a ligature. The Oxford English Dictionary states that hanging in this sense is "specifically to put to death by suspension by the neck", though it formerly also referred to crucifixion and death by impalement in which the body would remain...
for his crimes in August of that year. The case brought notoriety to the town and aroused considerable interest among local people.
New Town era
Crawley was designated as a New Town in January 1947 after the New Towns Act 1946New Towns Act 1946
The New Towns Act 1946 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which allowed the government to designate areas as new towns, and passing development control functions to a Development Corporation. Several new towns were created in the years following its passing...
identified it as a suitable site for one. A Development Corporation was formed, led by the architect Thomas Bennett
Thomas Bennett (architect)
Sir Thomas Penberthy Bennett KBE FRIBA was a renowned British architect, responsible for much of the development of the new towns of Crawley and Stevenage....
, and planner
Urban planning
Urban planning incorporates areas such as economics, design, ecology, sociology, geography, law, political science, and statistics to guide and ensure the orderly development of settlements and communities....
Anthony Minoprio provided a master plan for the town's development. He proposed a double ring of nine neighbourhoods surrounding an extended town centre; West Green was to be one of the inner ring of four, and the first to be built. By 1949, when building work started, West Green's population was about 2,000—mainly concentrated in the area between Ifield Road and the railway line—and the Development Corporation had to consider how to fit new development around this.
By the end of the 1948/1949 financial year, the Development Corporation had bought 13 acres (5.3 ha) of land in West Green, and was negotiating the acquisition, mostly by compulsory purchase order
Compulsory purchase order
A compulsory purchase order is a legal function in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland that allows certain bodies which need to obtain land or property to do so without the consent of the owner. It may be enforced if a proposed development is considered one for public betterment - for...
, of another 133 acres (53.8 ha). At that stage, 117.5 acres (47.6 ha) were intended to be developed immediately. Most of the land was designated for housing, the neighbourhood centre (parade of shops, pub and community centre) and a new school, but about 20 acres (8.1 ha) were reserved for open space and allotment
Allotment (gardening)
An allotment garden, often called simply an allotment, is a plot of land made available for individual, non-professional gardening. Such plots are formed by subdividing a piece of land into a few or up to several hundreds of land parcels that are assigned to individuals or families...
s. Minoprio planned a wide variety of housing types, from high-density low-rise blocks of flats near the town centre to large detached houses.
The New Town's first set of houses were built in West Green during this period. In 1947, the Development Corporation granted the design contract for 34 houses to architectural practice Godman & Kay. A Hove
Hove
Hove is a town on the south coast of England, immediately to the west of its larger neighbour Brighton, with which it forms the unitary authority Brighton and Hove. It forms a single conurbation together with Brighton and some smaller towns and villages running along the coast...
-based firm, H.J. Paris Ltd, won the £7,397 (£ today) contract for the road construction and site preparation in 1948. The Horsham
Horsham
Horsham is a market town with a population of 55,657 on the upper reaches of the River Arun in the centre of the Weald, West Sussex, in the historic County of Sussex, England. The town is south south-west of London, north-west of Brighton and north-east of the county town of Chichester...
-based building firm Hoad & Taylor built the houses at a cost of £45,220 (£ today), and residents moved in during the summer of 1949. The road ran northeastwards from the old Ifield Road and was named Smalls Mead; it lay near the path of one section of the ancient trackway, which had historically been called Smalls Lane. By 1952, 622 houses had been built or started, and the neighbourhood was effectively complete in 1954. By that time, the neighbourhood centre—with shops, post office, community centre and public house—had been established at the junction of Ewhurst Road and West Green Drive.
The southeastern corner of the neighbourhood was redeveloped early in the 21st century as part of the Borough Council's efforts to improve the town centre. Robinson Road, the site of Crawley's original hospital, post office and school, was demolished, and Spencers Road was severed. A large mixed-use development, anchored by an Asda
Asda
Asda Stores Ltd is a British supermarket chain which retails food, clothing, general merchandise, toys and financial services. It also has a mobile telephone network, , Asda Mobile...
superstore, was completed on the site in September 2003. Around the same time at the other end of the High Street, and again just within the boundary of West Green, the Crawley Leisure Park was built on the site of the Sun Inn. This was an old house at the northern end of Crawley village, which was converted into an inn in the 1870s.
Demography
The neighbourhood is coterminous with the administrative wardWards of the United Kingdom
A ward in the United Kingdom is an electoral district at sub-national level represented by one or more councillors. It is the primary unit of British administrative and electoral geography .-England:...
of the same name, which is one of the fifteen wards in Crawley. These divisions are used for collecting census
Census in the United Kingdom
Coincident full censuses have taken place in the different jurisdictions of the United Kingdom every ten years since 1801, with the exceptions of 1941 and in both Northern Ireland and the Irish Free State in 1921; simultaneous censuses were taken in the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man, with...
and other statistical and demographic data. It had a population of 4,404 at the 2001 United Kingdom Census
United Kingdom Census 2001
A nationwide census, known as Census 2001, was conducted in the United Kingdom on Sunday, 29 April 2001. This was the 20th UK Census and recorded a resident population of 58,789,194....
. Its population density was therefore 35.82 PD/ha—much higher than the figure of 22.18 PD/ha for Crawley overall. There were 2,005 households, of which 1,125 (56%) were owned by the occupier, 668 (33%) were rented from Crawley Borough Council
Council house
A council house, otherwise known as a local authority house, is a form of public or social housing. The term is used primarily in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. Council houses were built and operated by local councils to supply uncrowded, well-built homes on secure tenancies at...
or another public-sector landlord, 143 (7%) were rented privately and 69 (3%) were occupied rent-free. The rate of owner-occupancy is much lower than in Crawley as a whole, and a much higher proportion of housing is rented from the council.
According to the census, 91.2% of residents are White, 6.2% are Asian or Asian-British, 1% are Black or Black-British, 0.9% are mixed-race and 0.7% are from another ethnic background. The proportion of white people is slightly higher, and that of Asian people slightly lower, than in Crawley overall; other proportions are comparable to Crawley as a whole. The age distribution of West Green's population is different from that of Crawley as a whole: as at the 2001 census, 866 (19.7% of residents) were under 18 years old, 2,558 (58.1%) were between 18 and 64 years old, and 980 (22.3%) were 65 years old and over. The corresponding figures for Crawley were 23,748 (23.8%), 61,338 (61.5%) and 14,658 (14.7%), indicating that West Green has an older age profile.
Services
Crawley HospitalCrawley Hospital
Crawley Hospital is a National Health Service hospital in Crawley, a town and borough in West Sussex, England. Since 2006 it has been part of the West Sussex Primary Care Trust, which has overall management responsibility. Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust also provides some services...
was built on a site in West Green Drive between 1959 and 1962. It was extended in the late 1960s and in 1981. It replaced a 1930s building which had in turn succeeded a small cottage hospital
Cottage Hospital
The original concept of a cottage hospital was a small rural hospital having up to 25 beds. One advantage of such a hospital in villages was the familiarity the local physician might have with their patient that may affect their treatment...
at the south end of Crawley High Street. Since the 1990s many services have been moved to East Surrey Hospital in Redhill
Redhill, Surrey
Redhill is a town in the borough of Reigate and Banstead, Surrey, England and is part of the London commuter belt. Redhill and the adjacent town of Reigate form a single urban area.-History:...
, and Crawley Hospital now has "sub-acute" status and has 143 beds. Crawley's ambulance station
Ambulance station
An ambulance station is a structure or other area set aside for storage of ambulance vehicles, medical equipment, personal protective equipment, and other medical supplies. Most stations are made up of garage bays or a parking area, normally undercover...
was moved to playing fields off Ifield Avenue by the early 1980s from its former town-centre location. Crawley fire station, headquarters of the Crawley and Mid Sussex District Team of West Sussex Fire and Rescue Service, is on the same road. The station has five vehicle bays with three standard water tenders, a heavy rescue tender and a four wheel drive appliance. It received 1,390 calls in the 2009–10 reporting year.
The town's main cemetery, which existed before the New town was planned, is in the far southwest corner of West Green, between the bypass and the railway line.
Public buildings
Until the early 20th century, West Green was in the Parish of Ifield. Its AnglicanChurch of England
The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...
parish church
Parish church
A parish church , in Christianity, is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish, the basic administrative unit of episcopal churches....
, St Margaret's
St Margaret's Church, Ifield
St Margaret's Church is an Anglican church in the Ifield neighbourhood of Crawley, a town and borough in West Sussex, England. It is the ancient parish church of the village of Ifield; the medieval settlement was expanded to form one of the New Town of Crawley's 13 neighbourhoods, and the church's...
, was distant from the community; so in 1880 a chapel of ease
Chapel of ease
A chapel of ease is a church building other than the parish church, built within the bounds of a parish for the attendance of those who cannot reach the parish church conveniently....
, St Mary Magdalene's, was built. This was replaced by a larger church, St Peter's, in 1892. This was given its own parish in 1901: the Parish of West Crawley was created from territory moved from Ifield. St Peter's Church was designed by W. Hilton Nash and built by local construction firm owner Richard Cook. The sandstone
Sandstone
Sandstone is a sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized minerals or rock grains.Most sandstone is composed of quartz and/or feldspar because these are the most common minerals in the Earth's crust. Like sand, sandstone may be any colour, but the most common colours are tan, brown, yellow,...
building, with a chancel
Chancel
In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar in the sanctuary at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building...
, single-aisled nave
Nave
In Romanesque and Gothic Christian abbey, cathedral basilica and church architecture, the nave is the central approach to the high altar, the main body of the church. "Nave" was probably suggested by the keel shape of its vaulting...
, vestry
Vestry
A vestry is a room in or attached to a church or synagogue in which the vestments, vessels, records, etc., are kept , and in which the clergy and choir robe or don their vestments for divine service....
and bell-turret, holds 439 people and cost £2,800 (£ as of 2009) to build. It is now part of the Parish of Crawley under St John the Baptist's Church
St John the Baptist's Church, Crawley
St John the Baptist's Church is an Anglican church in Crawley, a town and borough in West Sussex, England. It is the parish church of Crawley, and is the oldest building in the town centre, dating from the 13th century—although many alterations have been made since, and only one wall remains of...
.
Crawley Baptist Church, established in 1883, moved to Crabtree Road in West Green in 1954. The building was demolished in 2002 and replaced with a new structure on the same site. Crawley's Hindu
Hinduism
Hinduism is the predominant and indigenous religious tradition of the Indian Subcontinent. Hinduism is known to its followers as , amongst many other expressions...
community established a mandir
Hindu temple
A Mandir, Devalayam, Devasthanam, or a Hindu temple is a place of worship for followers of Hinduism...
(temple) on Spencers Road in about 1970; and the Sikh
Sikhism
Sikhism is a monotheistic religion founded during the 15th century in the Punjab region, by Guru Nanak Dev and continued to progress with ten successive Sikh Gurus . It is the fifth-largest organized religion in the world and one of the fastest-growing...
community have a gurdwara
Gurdwara
A Gurdwara , meaning the Gateway to the Guru, is the place of worship for Sikhs, the followers of Sikhism. A Gurdwara can be identified from a distance by tall flagpoles bearing the Nishan Sahib ....
on the same street, which as of 2009 is due to be demolished and replaced with a larger building.
A Church of England school was opened on West Green Drive in the 1930s. In 1951, the Local Education Authority
Local Education Authority
A local education authority is a local authority in England and Wales that has responsibility for education within its jurisdiction...
set up a temporary school on the site in response to the early growth of the New Town, and permanent infant
Infant school
An Infant school is a term used primarily in the United Kingdom for school for children between the ages of four and seven years. It is usually a small school serving a particular locality....
and junior
Junior school
A junior school is a type of school which caters for children, often between the ages of 7 and 11.-Australia:In Australia, a junior school is usually a part of a private school that educates children between the ages of 5 and 12....
school divisions were opened in 1952 and 1953 respectively. Under the name of West Green Primary School, the school now has seven classes of pupils between the ages of 4 and 11.
The master plan proposed that a neighbourhood centre, consisting of community centre, public house, school, church and shopping parade, should be an integral part of each neighbourhood. The Development Corporation provided a temporary community centre building, and West Sussex County Council extended the school building in 1954 to provide a permanent facility. This was augmented by a youth centre in 1960. A pub, the Apple Tree, was built in the mid-1950s, and the Development Corporation provided a parade of seven shops: the smallest parade in any of Crawley's neighbourhoods, reflecting its proximity to the town centre.
Listed buildings
The boundary between the West Green and Northgate neighbourhoods follows the ancient parish boundary between the Parishes of Ifield and Crawley. This ran up the middle of the High Street, so all buildings on its west side are within West Green. There are five listed buildings in the neighbourhood.The George Hotel
The George Hotel, Crawley
The George Hotel, also known as The George Inn and now marketed as the Ramada Crawley Gatwick, is a hotel and former coaching inn on the High Street in Crawley, a town and borough in West Sussex, England....
, listed at Grade II*, is an early 16th-century coaching inn
Coaching inn
In Europe, from approximately the mid-17th century for a period of about 200 years, the coaching inn, sometimes called a coaching house or staging inn, was a vital part of the inland transport infrastructure, as an inn serving coach travelers...
which expanded over the next two centuries to take over surrounding buildings. Crawley's location midway between London and Brighton on the direct route between them, which was turnpiked
Turnpike trust
Turnpike trusts in the United Kingdom were bodies set up by individual Acts of Parliament, with powers to collect road tolls for maintaining the principal highways in Britain from the 17th but especially during the 18th and 19th centuries...
in 1770, contributed to its growth, as it became the natural stopping place for traffic of all types. Extensive changes in the next two centuries included various extensions and the building of an annexe (since demolished) in the middle of the High Street.
The other four listed buildings have a Grade II designation. The building now designated as 34 and 36 High Street is a two-storey, red-brick building dating from the late 18th century, with six sash window
Sash window
A sash window or hung sash window is made of one or more movable panels or "sashes" that form a frame to hold panes of glass, which are often separated from other panes by narrow muntins...
s, a pair of original brick chimneys and a tiled roof. The ground floor has been converted into two retail units. Further north, 44–48 High Street, on the corner of Ifield Road, is a group of three shop units housed in a building originally constructed as a four-bay
Bay (architecture)
A bay is a unit of form in architecture. This unit is defined as the zone between the outer edges of an engaged column, pilaster, or post; or within a window frame, doorframe, or vertical 'bas relief' wall form.-Defining elements:...
timber-framed
Timber framing
Timber framing , or half-timbering, also called in North America "post-and-beam" construction, is the method of creating structures using heavy squared off and carefully fitted and joined timbers with joints secured by large wooden pegs . It is commonplace in large barns...
house in about 1600. The exterior is now stucco
Stucco
Stucco or render is a material made of an aggregate, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as decorative coating for walls and ceilings and as a sculptural and artistic material in architecture...
ed, and the building was redesigned in the 18th and 19th centuries, when it was converted into shops. There are four equally-spaced 19th-century sash windows on the side facing the High Street. The north face, fronting Ifield Road, has a jettied
Jettying
Jettying is a building technique used in medieval timber frame buildings in which an upper floor projects beyond the dimensions of the floor below. This has the advantage of increasing the available space in the building without obstructing the street...
overhang, a traditional feature of timber-framed buildings in the area; the main (east) side was originally jettied as well but has since been built up. The oldest visible parts of the building are the southernmost bay
Bay (architecture)
A bay is a unit of form in architecture. This unit is defined as the zone between the outer edges of an engaged column, pilaster, or post; or within a window frame, doorframe, or vertical 'bas relief' wall form.-Defining elements:...
, where there is 17th-century brickwork and timber, and the chimney from the same period. Many early 18th-century fittings remain inside. On Ifield Road itself, a now-derelict house at No. 10 is a mid-17th century timber-framed house with exterior tile-hanging and 19th-century brickwork; and No. 60 and 62 were a pair of cottages created in the 19th century from a 16th-century timber-framed farmhouse, which is now used as one building again. Its exterior is partly of brick and partly tile-hung, the roof is tiled, and substantial wooden beams and trusses are visible inside.
Transport
Metrobus, which operates all local bus services in Crawley, serves Crawley Hospital and other stops in West Green on routes 1 and 2. There is also a free service from Crawley bus station to the AsdaAsda
Asda Stores Ltd is a British supermarket chain which retails food, clothing, general merchandise, toys and financial services. It also has a mobile telephone network, , Asda Mobile...
superstore. Crawley railway station
Crawley railway station
Crawley railway station is a railway station serving the town of Crawley in West Sussex. The station is 47 km south of London Victoria and is owned and operated by Southern...
is near the southeastern corner of the neighbourhood, and Ifield railway station
Ifield railway station
Ifield railway station serves the neighbourhoods of Ifield and Gossops Green in the West Sussex town of Crawley. It is on the Arun Valley Line, and is miles from London Bridge. Train services are provided by Southern.-History:...
is close to the west side.
Levels of vehicle ownership, as measured by the 2001 census, are lower than in Crawley as a whole. At the census date, the mean number of vehicles per household was 0.97 (the overall Crawley figure was 1.21), and 32.4% of households had no transport of their own, compared to 20.4% in Crawley overall.