Langley Green is a one of 14 neighbourhoods within the town 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 ...

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. Langley Green is in the north-west of the town and is bordered by

Manor Royal Manor Royal is an industrial zone within the town of Crawley in West Sussex, England. Manor Royal is in the north of the town near to Gatwick Airport. The area is devoted to light industry and offices and was designed for industry as part of t ...

to the east, Northgate to the south east, West Green to the south across the ring road and Ifield to the west. The main streets running through the community are Stagelands, Martyrs Avenue and Langley Drive. Many of the streets are named after trees and plants (Honeysuckle Lane, Hawthorn Close) animals (Hare Lane, Fox Close) or birds (Jackdaw Close, Swallow Road, Raven Lane). A small shopping parade, St Leonards Church, The Dr. Johnson Pub and Langley Green Primary School formed the centre of the community.

History

20th century

Work started on Langley Green in the early 1950s with workers being brought down from

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

by train and living in huts on site. After nine months workers were entitled to a council house, and many of the early population of Langley Green were builders by profession. As Langley Green was within walking distance of the new factory estate, many of the factory workers brought down from London with firms such as APV settled here. Houses in Langley Green ranged from two to four bedrooms, with a small number of flats and bungalows. Heating was by coal, with the coal being stored under the staircase. In some houses water was also heated by solid fuel burners. Many of Langley Green's residents became private house holders in the 1980s when the

Margaret Thatcher Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. S ...

government had a policy of selling council houses to tenants. Over the years virtually every house on the estate had been improved. The addition of central heating has been almost universal. Other common improvements include double glazing, insulation of walls and roofs and removal of walls and doors to create bigger rooms.

Today

Today the small neighbourhood is one of the most multi cultural in Crawley and has a lively and friendly community. There were few ethnic-minority families living in Langley Green before the late 1960s. The first families tended to buy their own property and as these were limited at the time, the new immigrants concentrated in areas around Denchers Plat and Beckett Lane. Langley Green is now home to the Crawley Islamic Centre and

Mosque A mosque (; from ar, مَسْجِد, masjid, ; literally "place of ritual prostration"), also called masjid, is a place of prayer for Muslims. Mosques are usually covered buildings, but can be any place where prayers ( sujud) are performed, ...

. Two of the neighbourhood's most notable residents were

Roy Whiting Sarah Evelyn Isobel Payne (13 October 1991 – c. 1 July 2000), was the victim of a high-profile abduction and murder in West Sussex, England in July 2000. Her disappearance and the subsequent investigation into her murder became a prominent c ...

and boxer Alan Minter.Crawley Borough Council :: Langley Green
/ref> In 1972 he won an Olympic bronze medal and went on to become world middleweight champion. Whiting, who was born locally in 1959, was convicted of one of the most high-profile murder cases in Britain in modern times in December 2001; the murder of Sarah Payne, who went missing in

Littlehampton Littlehampton is a town, seaside resort, and pleasure harbour, and the most populous civil parish in the Arun District of West Sussex, England. It lies on the English Channel on the eastern bank of the mouth of the River Arun. It is south sout ...

on the

coast on 1 July 2000 and whose body was found near

Pulborough Pulborough is a large village and civil parish in the Horsham district of West Sussex, England, with some 5,000 inhabitants. It is located almost centrally within West Sussex and is south west of London. It is at the junction of the north–south ...

16 days later.

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 ...

is also within the Langley Green Area and provides another important source of employment.

References

External links

{{Crawley Neighbourhoods in Crawley