Bewbush is one of 14
neighbourhoods
A neighbourhood (British English, Irish English, Australian English and Canadian English) or neighborhood (American English; American and British English spelling differences, see spelling differences) is a geographically localised community ...
in
Crawley
Crawley () is a large town and borough in West Sussex, England. It is south of London, north of Brighton and Hove, and north-east of the county town of Chichester. Crawley covers an area of and had a population of 106,597 at the time of th ...
in
West Sussex
West Sussex is a county in South East England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the shire districts of Adur, Arun, Chichester, Horsham, and Mid Sussex, and the boroughs of Crawley and Worthing. Covering an ar ...
,
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
. Bewbush is located in south west Crawley and is bordered by
Broadfield to the south,
Ifield to the north,
Kilnwood Vale
Kilnwood Vale is a village in the Horsham district of West Sussex, England. It borders the High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty along the A264 east of Faygate between Horsham and Crawley. The development first opened in 2016 which w ...
to the west and
Gossops Green
Gossops Green is one of 14 neighbourhoods within the town of Crawley in West Sussex, England. Gossops Green is located in the west of the town and is bordered by Bewbush to the south west, Ifield to the north and Southgate to the east across t ...
to the north east. The neighbourhood has a population of approximately 9,000.
History
A park was recorded at Bewbush as early as 1295. It was a manor which later became known as the Holmbush Estate. The manor belonged for most of the twentieth century to the Clifton Brown family. In 1973, some were purchased by Crawley Borough Council.
The manor house was first mentioned in the early 14th century, although this no longer remains. A building with some 17th-century elements remains, although it was clad in brick in the 19th century.
The building now stands amid modern developments in the neighbourhood.
The borough council began development of the new neighbourhood of Bewbush in 1974, with a leisure centre opening in 1984, and a shopping parade the following year. Additional land was brought into the borough of Crawley from Lower Beeding in 1983 to see the extension of the neighbourhood to reach its capacity population of 9000.
Development of the neighbourhood continued into the 1990s.
Governance
Bewbush
neighbourhood
A neighbourhood (British English, Irish English, Australian English and Canadian English) or neighborhood (American English; see spelling differences) is a geographically localised community within a larger city, town, suburb or rural are ...
is a co-terminus with the local government
ward
Ward may refer to:
Division or unit
* Hospital ward, a hospital division, floor, or room set aside for a particular class or group of patients, for example the psychiatric ward
* Prison ward, a division of a penal institution such as a pris ...
of Bewbush in the
Borough
A borough is an administrative division in various English-speaking countries. In principle, the term ''borough'' designates a self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely.
History
In the Middle Ag ...
of
Crawley
Crawley () is a large town and borough in West Sussex, England. It is south of London, north of Brighton and Hove, and north-east of the county town of Chichester. Crawley covers an area of and had a population of 106,597 at the time of th ...
. It is also a ward of the upper-tier authority of
West Sussex County Council
West Sussex County Council (WSCC) is the authority that governs the non-metropolitan county of West Sussex. The county also contains seven district and borough councils, and 158 town, parish and neighbourhood councils. The county council has 7 ...
.
The neighbourhood forms part of the
parliamentary constituency of Crawley.
Demography
![Bewbush within Crawley](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/55/Bewbush_within_Crawley.jpg)
As at the
2001 census, the ward had a population of 9081. The neighbourhood has a younger population than the national average, with some 77% of residents being aged under 45, compared to 60% nationally. This is also reflected in the average age of the residents at 29, compared to 37 nationally.
Around 90% of the properties in the neighbourhood are
terraced
In agriculture, a terrace is a piece of sloped plane that has been cut into a series of successively receding flat surfaces or platforms, which resemble steps, for the purposes of more effective farming. This type of landscaping is therefore ...
properties or flats.
The vast majority of the properties were originally council-owned, with over one-third remaining owned by the local authority of other social landlords.
There is an ethnically diverse population in the neighbourhood, with a large proportion (17.3%) of black and ethnic minority groups represented.
This is reflected in the area's large
Hindu
Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism.Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...
and
Muslim
Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...
populations which are both well above the national averages at 9% and 5% respectively.
In terms of social classification, the neighbourhood is made up of approximately 45% in the
ABC1
ABC TV, formerly known as ABC1, is an Australian national public television network. It is owned and operated by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, and is the flagship ABC Television network. The headquarters of the ABC TV channel an ...
grouping, compared to the national figures of around 51%.
Education
Bewbush is served by two
Primary school
A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary e ...
s. The first school to open in the neighbourhood was Bewbush First School in 1978. This was shortly followed by Bewbush Middle School in 1982, with Waterfield First School opening officially in 1985.
Bewbush first and middle schools were closed in 2004 when the
three-tier education
Three-tier education refers to those structures of schooling, which exist in some parts of England, where pupils are taught in three distinct school types as they progress through the education system.
Terminology
In a three-tier local educa ...
model was amended, and a new school -
Bewbush Community Primary School
Education in Crawley, West Sussex is co-ordinated by West Sussex County Council. Since 2004, provision for compulsory education has been made wholly through primary and secondary schools, following the closure of the town's Middle schools earlie ...
, though it is currently called The Bewbush Academy Primary School, opened in the middle school buildings in September of that year. At the same time, Waterfield First School was extended to become Waterfield Primary School.
Other Facilities
There is a
Church of England
The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britain ...
church
Church may refer to:
Religion
* Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities
* Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination
* Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship
* Chris ...
named for
Saint Mary Magdalene
Mary Magdalene (sometimes called Mary of Magdala, or simply the Magdalene or the Madeleine) was a woman who, according to the four canonical gospels, traveled with Jesus as one of his followers and was a witness to his crucifixion and
resurr ...
in the west of the neighbourhood. At the neighbourhood centre, alongside the primary school is a
Sure Start
Sure Start is a UK Government area-based initiative, announced in 1998 by the then Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown, applying primarily in England with slightly different versions in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. The initiative o ...
Children and Family Centre and a doctor's surgery. However, in March 2007, the local authority announced its intention to redevelop the area of central Bewbush. In 2009 the closure and demolition of the Bewbush Leisure Centre and The Dorsten public house took place, with the creation of a smaller pavilion style community building next to where the leisure centre had been.
The new pavilion opened for use on 14 May the same year. A new park opened on 27 July 2009 on land that was previously part of Bewbush Primary School, which serves as a replacement for the old Bewbush Leisure Park. It holds various new playground equipment and England's first training area for
Parkour
Parkour () is an athletic training discipline or sport in which practitioners (called ''traceurs'') attempt to get from point A to point B in the fastest and most efficient way possible, without assisting equipment and often while performing a ...
Public transport is provided by the
Metrobus bus routes, which include the 24-hour
Crawley Fastway
Fastway is a bus rapid transit network in Surrey and West Sussex, United Kingdom, linking Crawley with Gatwick Airport and Horley, the first to be constructed outside a major city. It uses specially adapted buses that can either be steered by the ...
guided bus route to the
Crawley
Crawley () is a large town and borough in West Sussex, England. It is south of London, north of Brighton and Hove, and north-east of the county town of Chichester. Crawley covers an area of and had a population of 106,597 at the time of th ...
Town centre and
Gatwick Airport
Gatwick Airport (), also known as London Gatwick , is a major international airport near Crawley, West Sussex, England, south of Central London. In 2021, Gatwick was the third-busiest airport by total passenger traffic in the UK, after H ...
.
References
External links
Some photographs of Bewbush
{{Crawley
Neighbourhoods in Crawley