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Crawley Leasing

Did You Know?

Crawley is a large town and borough in West Sussex, England. It is 28 miles south of London, 18 miles north of Brighton and Hove, and 32 miles north-east of the county town of Chichester.

Crawley is on the western edge of the High Weald, which produced iron for more than 2,000 years from the Iron Age onwards. Goffs Park—now a recreational area in the south of the town—was the site of two late Iron Age furnaces.

Crawley's name is derived from the Anglo Saxon crawe leah meaning a 'crow infested clearing'. The spelling changed during the Middle Ages: Crauleia (c1203) Crawele (c1250)

Crawley is an ancient town, having received a charter from King John in 1202, but the remains of this medieval and 18th-century coaching community have been completely engulfed by the planned new town developments, though some medieval buildings have been preserved.

Crawley was designated as a new town on January 9 1947, merging the villages of Three Bridges and Ifield with the small market town of Crawley filling in the gaps.

Frederick Knott wrote Dial M for Murder in a house on Langley lane in Crawford, Lord Alfred Douglas is buried at the Friary Church of St Francis and St Anthony in the town centre and poet Francis Thompson resided at 11 Victoria Road (although he's more well known as a suspect in the Jack the Ripper case).

The story goes that Sweeney Todd stayed in Crawley and worked at an old butcher’s shop in one of the side streets. It was here that he first learned the trade and mastered the use of knives. Sweeney was much liked and his employer in Crawley was sad to see him go, but Sweeney wanted to get to Hastings to see the seaside. However, he promised that one day he would return to Crawley.

A coach was preparing to leave Crawley to deliver documents to London one night, but a strange mist gathered - weather unlike anything that had ever been seen before. The coachman still travelled, desperate to get the money promised on arrival, but disappeared into the night, never to be seen again.

the first evidence of human activity in the Crawley area dates back to the Neolithic period (around 4000-2000 BC). Archaeological finds suggest that early settlers lived in the area, farming crops and looking after animals. Evidence of a Roman road passing through the area also suggests that Crawley was an important trading hub during Roman times.