Crawley

Whether you've just moved to Crawley and want to know more about the area; or you need help with a local history project, this guide aims to help you get started with links to local organisations and information, online resources, newspapers, photographs and maps.

Whether you have just moved to Crawley and would like to know more about the area; you're researching the history of your family in Crawley; or you need help with a local history project, this guide aims to help you get started with links to local organisations and information, online resources, photographs and maps.

You may also find it helpful to look at our Local Studies Guide to Broadfield.

For more information or enquiries, please contact us.

Maps

A current map of Crawley can be found on the Ordnance Survey website

Historic maps of Crawley and Broadfield are also available on the National Library of Scotland Maps Database

Online Resources

Victoria County History: Crawley

Founded in 1899 and originally dedicated to Queen Victoria, the Victoria County History (VCH) is an encyclopaedic record of England's places and people from earliest times to the present day.

Archaeological Survey of Tilgate Park

Crawley Historic Character Assessment Report

Crawley Signal Box Preservation Society

Sussex Gardens Trust Reports:

Goffs Park

Ifield Park

Worth Park and Grattons Park

Manor Royal

History behind Crawley’s industrial and business park that is a major source of employment in the town.

Sussex Record Society – Crawley Bibliography

History of Crawley Down Village

Crawley Town Football Club History

Slaugham, Handcross, Pease Pottage, Warninglid and Staplefield Archives

Images of Crawley

Around 1500 images of Crawley can be found on our West Sussex Past Pictures website.

Go to 'Advanced Search: Catalogue' and search for 'Crawley' in 'Any Text'.

Further images of Crawley are also available on the West Sussex Record Office Online Photo Database

Roger Bastable Collection

Teacher, local history researcher and author Roger Bastable spent most of his life in Crawley and became one of the leading experts on Crawley's past. He wrote four books about the town (see library catalogue). Roger bequeathed his local history collection to Crawley Library, and the collection has more than 9,000 photographs and pictures mainly of Crawley New Town photographs from the 1940's to 1970s , plus articles, books, ephemera, maps, newspapers, pamphlets and his unpublished PhD thesis.

Around 1000 photographs from the Roger Bastable collection can be found on West Sussex Past Pictures. Images from the Roger Bastable exhibition held at Crawley library are also available on Flickr.

Crawley Newspapers

The current edition of the Crawley and Horley Observer is available to view at Crawley and Broadfield libraries. Paper copies are kept for one month at Broadfield and one year at Crawley. The last three months of the Mid Sussex Times are also available to view at Crawley. A browsable collection of newspaper cuttings about local topics is kept at Crawley Library.

The Crawley Observer is available on microfilm at Crawley Library from 1946-2016. Back issues from 2017 are available to view on the public computers in all West Sussex Libraries, as searchable digital copies.

Search the library catalogue for more details.

The Crawley & District Observer was originally published as the Sussex and Surrey Courier from 1882-1946. The Sussex and Surrey Courier 1914-1925 and 1939-1945 is available to view on the public computers in all West Sussex Libraries as searchable digital copies. The years 1925 and 1939-1946 are available on microfilm at Crawley Library. The years 1884-1943 are available on microfilm at West Sussex Record Office

The Horsham Times and West Sussex Courier (1882-1941) also covered the Crawley area. It is available to view on the public computers in all West Sussex Libraries, as searchable digital copies for the years 1939-1945. It is available on microfilm at Horsham Library for the years 1882-1940 (incomplete), and on keyword searchable CDRom at Crawley, Horsham and Worthing libraries for the years 1914-1922.

The Argus and West Sussex Gazette are available to library members from home via Press Reader

The Times Digital Archive (TDA) includes some coverage of events in Crawley and West Sussex from 1785-2014. Available to all library members from home.

For any enquiries about newspapers, please use our Ask a Librarian form.