Editing Crawley (section)

===Origins===
The area may have been settled during the [[Mesolithic]] period: locally manufactured [[flint]]s of the Horsham Culture type have been found to the southwest of the town.<ref name="Gwynne9"/> Tools and [[burial mound]]s from the [[Neolithic period]], and burial mounds and a sword from the [[Bronze Age]], have also been discovered.<ref name="cbchist">{{cite web|url=http://www.crawley.gov.uk/stellent/idcplg?IdcService=SS_GET_PAGE&nodeId=221&strCSS=PB1_SS_MAIN|title=A Brief History of Crawley|access-date=31 July 2007|publisher=Crawley Borough Council|year=2007|work=Crawley Borough Council website|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070928091601/http://www.crawley.gov.uk/stellent/idcplg?IdcService=SS_GET_PAGE&nodeId=221&strCSS=PB1_SS_MAIN|archive-date=28 September 2007|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="Cole-CAHC-10">{{Harvnb|Cole|2004a|p=10.}}</ref> Crawley is on the western edge of the [[High Weald]], which produced iron for more than 2,000&nbsp;years from the [[Iron Age]] onwards.<ref name="HighWeald">{{cite web|url=http://www.highweald.org/text.asp?PageId=16|title=About The High Weald: The Iron Story|access-date=2 April 2008|publisher=High Weald AONB Unit|year=2008|work=High Weald AONB Unit website |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070807043509/http://www.highweald.org/text.asp?PageId=16 |archive-date = 7 August 2007}}</ref> Goffs Park—now a recreational area in the south of the town—was the site of two late Iron Age furnaces.<ref name="RIS1">{{cite web|url=http://www.romansinsussex.co.uk/level3/themes/life_in_late_iron_age_sussex_trade_indus.asp|title=Life in Late Iron Age Sussex: Trade & Industry|access-date=2 April 2008|publisher=The Sussex Archaeological Society|year=2008|work=Romans in Sussex website|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080906180816/http://www.romansinsussex.co.uk/level3/themes/life_in_late_iron_age_sussex_trade_indus.asp|archive-date=6 September 2008}}</ref> Ironworking and mineral extraction continued throughout [[Roman Britain|Roman times]], particularly in the [[Broadfield, West Sussex|Broadfield]] area where many furnaces were built.<ref name="cbchist"/><ref name="RIS2">{{cite web|url=http://www.romansinsussex.co.uk/level3/themes/life_roman_britain/crafts_industry_iron.asp|title=Life in Roman Sussex: Crafts & Industry: Weald Iron Industry|access-date=2 April 2008|publisher=The Sussex Archaeological Society|year=2008|work=Romans in Sussex website|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070911082426/http://www.romansinsussex.co.uk/level3/themes/life_roman_britain/crafts_industry_iron.asp|archive-date=11 September 2007}}</ref>

[[File:St John the Baptist's Church, Crawley (October 2011).JPG|thumb|left|[[St John the Baptist's Church, Crawley|St John the Baptist's Church]] from the southeast]]

Passing through the north of the modern borough, the historic Sussex-Surrey border follows ridges and a trackway, in contrast to the Sussex-Kent border to the east, which follows waterways.<ref name="MOTHW">{{cite web|url=https://www.highweald.org/downloads/publications/uk-landscape-research-reports/120-the-making-of-the-high-weald-report/file.html|title=The Making of the High Weald|first=Roland B. |last=Harris|year=2003|publisher=High Weald AONB|access-date=18 May 2020}}</ref> According to Mark Gardiner, the border dates at least as far back as the Saxon period, although may in fact be earlier and represent the border between Roman cantons or Iron Age kingdoms.<ref name="MOTHW"/>
In the 5th&nbsp;century, [[Saxons|Saxon]] settlers named the area Crow's Leah—meaning a crow-infested clearing, or Crow's Wood.<ref name="Cole-CAHC-14">{{Harvnb|Cole|2004a|p=14.}}</ref> This name evolved over time, and the present spelling appeared by the early 14th&nbsp;century.<ref name="cbchist"/> By this time, nearby settlements were more established: the Saxon church at [[Worth village, West Sussex|Worth]], for example, dates from between 950 and 1050 AD.<ref name="WorthChurch">{{cite web|url=http://www.crawley.gov.uk/stellent/idcplg?IdcService=SS_GET_PAGE&ssDocName=INT009968|title=Crawley Borough Council: St Nicholas Church|access-date=28 March 2007|publisher=Crawley Borough Council|year=2008|work=Crawley Borough Council website|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060927032345/http://www.crawley.gov.uk/stellent/idcplg?IdcService=SS_GET_PAGE&ssDocName=INT009968|archive-date=27 September 2006|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Although Crawley itself is not mentioned in the [[Domesday Book]] of 1086,<ref name="VCH56939">{{cite web|url=https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/Sussex/vol7/pp144-147|title=A History of the County of Sussex: Volume 7 – The Rape of Lewes. Parishes: Crawley|editor-last=Salzman|editor-first=L. F. |year=1940|work=Victoria County History of Sussex|publisher=British History Online|pages=144–147|access-date=30 October 2009|archive-date=8 January 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150108002053/https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/Sussex/vol7/pp144-147|url-status=live}}</ref> the nearby settlements of [[Ifield, Crawley|Ifield]] and [[Worth village, West Sussex|Worth]] are recorded.<ref name="Domesday">{{cite web|url=http://www.crawley.gov.uk/stellent/idcplg?IdcService=SS_GET_PAGE&ssDocName=INT009967|title=Crawley Borough Council: St Margaret's Church|access-date=28 March 2007|publisher=Crawley Borough Council|year=2008|work=Crawley Borough Council website|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060927032338/http://www.crawley.gov.uk/stellent/idcplg?IdcService=SS_GET_PAGE&ssDocName=INT009967|archive-date=27 September 2006|url-status=dead}}</ref> Crawley's High Street was built on part of the route from London to the port of [[Shoreham-by-Sea|New Shoreham]], a major port in the 12th and 13th centuries that was on the most direct route between London and Normandy, used by the king and his knights and soldiers. The first written record of Crawley dates from 1202, when King John issued a licence for a weekly market on Wednesdays.<ref name="Cole-Misc">{{Harvnb|Cole|2004b|loc=Unpaginated.}}</ref> As a small [[market town]], Crawley grew slowly in importance over the next few centuries and as the Wealden iron industry declined, Crawley became an important centre for smuggling between the Sussex coast and London. Later in the 18th century, Crawley was boosted by the construction of the [[Turnpike trust|turnpike]] road between London and [[Brighton]]. When this was completed in 1770, travel between the newly fashionable seaside resort of Brighton and London became safer and quicker, and Crawley (located approximately halfway between the two) prospered as a coaching halt.<ref name="Gwynne98">{{Harvnb|Gwynne|1990|p=98.}}</ref>  By 1839 it offered almost an hourly service to both destinations.<ref name="Cole-CAHC-56">{{Harvnb|Cole|2004a|p=56.}}</ref><ref name="Pigot681">{{Harvnb|s.n.|1839|p=681.}}</ref> A [[Timber framing|timber-framed]] house on the High Street dating from the 15th century expanded to become a large coaching inn later known as Originally known as [[The George Hotel, Crawley|the George Hotel]], taking over adjacent buildings and at one stage includedan annexe in the middle of the wide High Street that survived until the 1930s.<ref name="George">{{cite web|url=http://www.crawley.gov.uk/stellent/idcplg?IdcService=SS_GET_PAGE&strCSS=PB1_SS_MAIN&ssDocName=INT009956|title=Crawley High Street|access-date=3 August 2007|publisher=Crawley Borough Council|year=2007|work=Crawley Borough Council website|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070928091835/http://www.crawley.gov.uk/stellent/idcplg?IdcService=SS_GET_PAGE&strCSS=PB1_SS_MAIN&ssDocName=INT009956|archive-date=28 September 2007|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="IoE363355">{{NHLE|desc=The George Hotel, High Street (west side), Crawley, Crawley, West Sussex|num=1187088|year=2007|access-date=29 October 2009}}</ref>

Crawley's oldest church is [[St John the Baptist's Church, Crawley|St John the Baptist's]], between the High Street and the Broadway. It is said to have 13th-century origins,<ref name="StJB">{{cite web|url=http://www.acny.org.uk/venue.php?V=4860|archive-url=https://archive.today/20121223220816/http://www.acny.org.uk/venue.php?V=4860|url-status=dead|archive-date=23 December 2012|title=Diocese of Chichester: St John the Baptist, Crawley|access-date=13 September 2007|publisher=Oxford Diocesan Publications Ltd|year=2007|work=A Church Near You website}}</ref> but there has been much rebuilding (especially in the 19th century) and the oldest part remaining is the south wall of the [[nave]], which is believed to be 14th&nbsp;century. The church has a 15th-century [[Bell tower|tower]] (rebuilt in 1804) which originally contained four bells cast in 1724. Two were replaced by Thomas Lester of London in 1742; but in 1880 a new set of eight bells were cast and installed by the Croydon-based firm Gillett, Bland & Company.<ref name="MoreStJB">{{cite web|url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=56939#s3 |title=Parishes: Crawley |access-date=13 September 2007 |publisher=British History Online |year=1940 |author=Hudson, T.P. (Ed) |work=A History of the County of Sussex: Volume 7: The Rape of Lewes |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110525074813/http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=56939 |archive-date=25 May 2011 }}</ref><ref name="roughwoodStJB">{{cite web|url=http://www.roughwood.net/ChurchAlbum/WestSussex/Crawley/CrawleyStJohnBaptist2004.htm|title=St John the Baptist Parish Church, Crawley, West Sussex – 22nd&nbsp;April 2004|access-date=12 March 2008|publisher=Mark Collins|year=2007|work=The Roughwood website|archive-date=8 July 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080708203615/http://www.roughwood.net/ChurchAlbum/WestSussex/Crawley/CrawleyStJohnBaptist2004.htm|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="StJBBells">{{cite web|url=http://dove.cccbr.org.uk/detail.php?searchString=Crawley&Submit=++Go++&DoveID=CRAWLEY+WS|title=Dove Details|access-date=12 March 2008|publisher=Sid Baldwin, Ron Johnston and Tim Jackson on behalf of the Central Council of Church Bell Ringers|date=24 February 2008|work=Dove's Guide for Church Bell Ringers website|archive-date=16 October 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151016212720/http://dove.cccbr.org.uk/detail.php?searchString=Crawley&Submit=++Go++&DoveID=CRAWLEY+WS|url-status=live}}</ref>