History
Before 1946
There is mention of Gossipsgreen on a map dated 1795. Maps in the first half of the 1800s show Gossipsgreen in varying layouts surrounded by farmland and close to a few small estates. Gossipsgreen amounted to a hamlet along the north side of what is now known as Gossops Green Lane. The main road ran east–west through the settlement. At the west end the road turned north towards the village of Ifield passing The Craigans, a house with gardens which was demolished and developed as private housing in the 1970s. To the east the road ran to Crawley through what is now Goffs Park and West Green.
A road led south from Gossipsgreen approximately along what is now Dower Walk, past Dower House and Woldhurstlee estate and on towards Buxwood (later Buckswood) Farm. Woldhurstlee was demolished during the New Town development. The site of the house is now in public woodland off Buckswood Drive.
The railway was built in the 1830s to the north of Gossipsgreen and ran by Hazelwood, a wooded area behind the hamlet, then past The Craigans before dividing Ifield Mill Pond to the west. Ifield railway station was first a halt on the road leading from Gossipsgreen to Ifield.
During Victorian times, Gossipsgreen disappeared from published maps, though The Craigans, Dower House and Woldhurstlee continued to be marked. By 1946, a year before the formation of the Crawley Development Corporation, the hamlet reappeared on the map but the name had changed to Gossops Green.
1946 and After
Crawley Development Corporation was formed in 1947 as a result of the New Towns Act 1946. At this time, Crawley had a population of 6,000 people. It was a declared objective that the New Town would be home to 50,000 people by 1961. It had achieved this by 1958 before Gossops Green was built.
According to A History of the County of Sussex (1987, Hudson et al., online), the new neighbourhood of Gossops Green was ninth and last of the original New Town communities laid out during 1956-7 and built between 1958 and 1961. Later developments include The Holy Trinity School (1967), Hillmead and Parkhurst Close (formerly The Craigans) and private housing between The Holy Trinity School and Buckswood Drive (1970-80s).
The old road into Ifield was reconstructed as an extension to Ifield Drive leading into another new neighbourhood of Ifield over a manually operated railway crossing similar to that still found down the line at Littlehaven railway station. The road name was changed to Craigans (after the adjacent, demolished house of the same name) after the construction of a road bridge over the railway at Overdene Drive, following which the railway crossing was closed.
Crawley is a large town and borough in West Sussex, England. It is 28 miles (45 km) south of London, 18 miles (29 km) north of Brighton and Hove, and 32 miles (51 km) north-east of the county town of Chichester. Crawley covers an area of 17.36 square miles (44.96 km2) and had a population of 106,597 at the time of the 2011 Census.
Pease Pottage is a village in the Mid Sussex District of West Sussex, England. It lies on the southern edge of the Crawley built-up area, in the civil parish of Slaugham.
Southgate is one of the 14 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. Southgate was one of the four in the "inner ring" closest to the town centre, and was intended to be the largest of the nine designed in the original master plan. It was built in two stages between the 1950s and the 1970s, but retains some older buildings from before the New Town era and has "significant areas of pre-New Town character".
West Green is one of the 14 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.
Broadfield is one of 14 neighbourhoods within the town of Crawley in West Sussex, England. Broadfield is located in the south west of the town. It is bordered by Bewbush to the north, Southgate to the north east and Tilgate to the east.
Bewbush is one of 14 neighbourhoods in Crawley in West Sussex, England. Bewbush is located in south west Crawley and is bordered by Broadfield to the south, Ifield to the north, Kilnwood Vale to the west and Gossops Green to the north east. The neighbourhood has a population of approximately 9,000.
Ifield is a former village and now one of 14 neighbourhoods within the town of Crawley in West Sussex, England. Ifield is in the west of the town and is bordered by Ifield West, Horsham, Langley Green to the north east, West Green to the east across the ring road and Gossops Green and Bewbush to the south across the Arun Valley railway line.
Ifield railway station serves the neighbourhoods of Ifield and Gossops Green in the West Sussex town of Crawley, England. It is on the Arun Valley Line, 31 miles 66 chains (51.2 km) down the line from London Bridge, measured via Redhill. Train services are provided by Thameslink and Southern.
Ifield Community College (ICC) is a maintained comprehensive secondary school for pupils aged 11 to 18.
As of 2011 there were 102 listed buildings and structures in the English borough of Crawley, West Sussex. Two others have subsequently gained listed status. The Borough of Crawley is based on the town of the same name, located approximately halfway between London and Brighton. Although Crawley expanded substantially after World War II when it was designated a New Town by an Act of Parliament, many older buildings remain.
St John the Baptist's Church is an Anglican church in Crawley, West Sussex, England. It is the parish church of Crawley, and is the oldest building in the town centre, dating from the 1250—although many alterations have been made since, and only one wall remains of the ancient building. In September 2017, a team from St Peter's Brighton began a new phase in the life of St John's Crawley. St John's offer a variety of services, traditional and informal, contemporary services.
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 modern parish now serves several other neighbourhoods as well.
Crawley Development Corporation was set up in February 1947 by the Government of the United Kingdom to establish, administer and control the development of the New Town of Crawley in accordance with the New Towns Act 1946. The Corporation had the task of growing the ancient Sussex market town of Crawley from a population of 9,000 to 40,000 by the early 1960s, expanding its commercial and industrial base and developing a balanced, socially cohesive community. A master plan supplied by planning consultant Anthony Minoprio would guide the Corporation's work. The "energy and enthusiasm" of its chairman Thomas Bennett helped it meet many of its targets early, and it was formally dissolved in 1962. Its assets passed to the Commission for New Towns in that year; they are now owned privately or by the local authority, Crawley Borough Council.
As of November 2010, there were 59 locally listed buildings in Crawley, a town and borough in the county of West Sussex in southeast England. One of these has subsequently been demolished. A locally listed building is defined as "a building, structure or feature that, whilst not statutorily listed by the Secretary of State, the Council considers to be an important part of Crawley's heritage due to its architectural, historic or archaeological significance". Crawley Borough Council administers the selection and deselection process, defines the criteria for inclusion, and produces and updates the local list.
Crawley, a postwar New Town and borough in the English county of West Sussex, has a wide range of public services funded by national government, West Sussex County Council, Crawley Borough Council and other public-sector bodies. Revenue to fund these services comes principally from Council Tax. Some of Crawley's utilities and infrastructure are provided by outside parties, such as utility companies and West Sussex County Council, rather than by the borough council. To help pay for improved infrastructure and service provision in proposed major residential developments such as Kilnwood Vale and the North East Sector, the borough council has stated that as part of the Crawley Local Plan it would require developers to pay a Community Infrastructure Levy.
Forge Wood is the 14th residential neighbourhood in Crawley, a town and borough in West Sussex. The 1,900 houses and other facilities will be built on open land in the northeast of the borough, adjoining the ancient village of Tinsley Green and to the north of the Pound Hill neighbourhood.
