Editing Crawley (section)

===Railway age and Victorian era===
[[File:Crawley-signalbox-2008.JPG|thumb|upright|Crawley signal box in 2008]]
The [[Brighton Main Line]] was the first railway line to serve the Crawley area. A station was opened at [[Three Bridges, West Sussex|Three Bridges]] (originally known as East Crawley)<ref name="eastcrawley">{{cite web|url=http://www.maidenbower.org.uk/history/palmerhistory.pdf|title=A brief history of Maidenbower|access-date=6 September 2007|author=David Palmer|publisher=Stuart Cummings|year=2003|work=Maidenbower Village website|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927202025/http://www.maidenbower.org.uk/history/palmerhistory.pdf|archive-date=27 September 2007}}</ref> in the summer of 1841. [[Crawley railway station]], at the southern end of the High Street, was built in 1848 when the [[Arun Valley Line|Horsham branch]] was opened from Three Bridges to Horsham. A line was built eastwards from [[Three Bridges to Tunbridge Wells Central Line|Three Bridges to East Grinstead]] in 1855. [[Three Bridges, West Sussex|Three Bridges]] had become the hub of transport in the area by this stage: one-quarter of its population was employed in railway jobs by 1861 (mainly at the [[London, Brighton and South Coast Railway]]'s railway works near the station).<ref name="Gray9">{{Harvnb|Gray|1983|p=9.}}</ref> The Longley company—one of [[South East England]]'s largest building firms in the late 19th century, responsible for buildings including [[Christ's Hospital]] school and [[Edward VII|King Edward VII]] [[Sanatorium]] in [[Midhurst]]—moved to a site next to Crawley station in 1881.<ref name="longley">{{cite web|url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=18407|title=Ifield: Economic History|access-date=3 March 2008|publisher=British History Online|year=1987|author=Hudson, T.P. (Ed)|work=A History of the County of Sussex: Volume 6 Part 3|archive-date=25 May 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110525132553/http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=18407|url-status=live}}</ref> In 1898 more than 700 people were employed at the site.<ref name="Gwynne119">{{Harvnb|Gwynne|1990|p=119.}}</ref>

There was a major expansion in house building in the late 19th century. An area known as "New Town" (unrelated to the postwar developments) was created around the railway [[level crossing]] and down the Brighton Road;<ref name="Gray9"/><ref name="Cole-CAHC-62">{{Harvnb|Cole|2004a|p=62.}}</ref> the [[West Green, Crawley|West Green]] area, west of the High Street on the way to Ifield, was built up; and housing spread south of the Horsham line for the first time, into what is now [[Southgate, Crawley|Southgate]]. The population reached 4,433 in 1901, compared to 1,357 a century earlier.<ref name="popC">{{cite web |year=2001 |title=Crawley District: Total Population |url=http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/data_cube_table_page.jsp?data_theme=T_POP&data_cube=N_TPop&u_id=10076730&c_id=10001043&add=N |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071001001149/http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/data_cube_table_page.jsp?data_theme=T_POP&data_cube=N_TPop&u_id=10076730&c_id=10001043&add=N |archive-date=1 October 2007 |access-date=2 August 2007 |work=A Vision of Britain Through Time website |publisher=National Statistics}}</ref> In 1891, a racecourse was opened on farmland at Gatwick. Built to replace a [[Steeplechase (horse racing)|steeplechase]] course at [[Waddon]] near [[Croydon]] in [[Surrey]], it was used for both steeplechase and [[flat racing]], and held the [[Grand National]] during the years of the [[First World War]].<ref name="cbchist"/> The course had its own railway station on the Brighton Main Line.<ref name="Gwynne146">{{Harvnb|Gwynne|1990|p=146.}}</ref>

In the early 20th century, many of the large [[Estate (house)|country estates]] in the area, with their [[mansion]]s and associated grounds and outbuildings, were split up into smaller plots of land, attracting haphazard housing development and small farms.<ref name="Gray11–12">{{Harvnb|Gray|1983|pp=11–12.}}</ref> By the outbreak of the First World War in 1914 Crawley had grown into a small but prosperous town, serving a wide rural area and those passing through on the [[A23 road|A23]] London–Brighton road. Three-quarters of the population had piped water supplies, all businesses and homes had electricity, and piped gas and street lighting had been in place for 50 years.<ref name="Gray9"/> An airfield was opened in 1930 on land near the racecourse. This was a private concern until the [[World War II|Second World War]] when it was claimed by the [[Royal Air Force]].<ref name="cbchist"/>