Maidenbower is one of 14 neighbourhoods within the town of

Crawley Crawley () is a town and Borough status in the United Kingdom, 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 populat ...

West Sussex West Sussex is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Surrey to the north, East Sussex to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Hampshire to the west. The largest settlement is Cr ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. Maidenbower is located in the south east corner of the town, bordering the

M23 motorway The M23 is a motorway in the United Kingdom, running from the south of Hooley in Surrey, where it splits from the A23 road, A23, to Pease Pottage, south of Crawley in West Sussex where it rejoins the A23. The northern end of the motorway star ...

. It is bordered by

Pound Hill Pound Hill is one of 14 neighbourhoods within the town of Crawley in West Sussex, England. Pound Hill is located on the east of Crawley. It is bordered by Three Bridges and Manor Royal to the west and Maidenbower to the south. It is the large ...

to the north and Furnace Green to the west across the railway line. In 1986 Crawley Borough Council declared the farmland between the M23 and the London-Brighton railway line to be the 13th neighbourhood, named Maidenbower after one of the farms in the area. A consortium of builders was formed to develop the site which was to include community facilities and a new junction giving access to the M23. By 2000 development was almost complete, although small areas of infill development continue. The original 16th-century Frogshole farm building, unlike the adjoining Maidenbower farm that gave the area its name, remains as the

public house A pub (short for public house) is in several countries a drinking establishment licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption Licensing laws of the United Kingdom#On-licence, on the premises. The term first appeared in England in the ...

for the neighbourhood. It was refurbished and opened in 1994. On 8 February 2007 it suffered a major fire. Frogshole Farm Pub re-opened in July 2008 after a major refurbishment. A secondary school, the

Oriel High School Oriel High School is a maintained Community school (England and Wales), community secondary school and sixth form for pupils aged 11 to 16, and 16 to 18 respectively. It opened in September 2004 as part of a reorganisation of secondary educati ...

, has been built at Maidenbower under the

Private Finance Initiative The private finance initiative (PFI) was a United Kingdom government procurement policy aimed at creating "public–private partnerships" (PPPs) where private firms are contracted to complete and manage public projects. Initially launched in 1992 ...

: a private company designed and built the school and is planned to provide facilities management for the next 25 years. West Sussex County Council provides all the educational services and staff. Maidenbower also has two infants schools and a large junior school. There is a

parade of shops A shopping parade, also known as a parade of shops, suburban parade, neighbourhood parade, or just a simply a parade is a group of between five and 40 shops in one or more continuous rows, mostly being retail and serving a local customer base; in ...

and a community centre that provides daycare facilities for elderly people and people with disabilities. The Gatwick Stream runs through Maidenbower (formerly through Frogshole farm), past the back of the parade of shops and on to Three Bridges. Maidenbower sign - geograph

In September 2006, close to one of the entrance roads to Maidenbower leading from the

Balcombe Balcombe is a village and civil parish in the Mid Sussex District of West Sussex, England. It lies south of London, north of Brighton, and east-northeast of the county town of Chichester. Nearby towns include Crawley to the northwest and Ha ...

Road, a large piece of public art was installed. A community project, it was created in five pieces by the four schools in the neighbourhood and one piece by the community. The pieces fit together like a giant

jigsaw puzzle A jigsaw puzzle (with context, sometimes just jigsaw or just puzzle) is a tiling puzzle that requires the assembly of often irregularly shaped interlocking and mosaicked pieces. Typically each piece has a portion of a picture, which is comple ...

to form an outline representing a map of the neighbourhood. The streams that run through it create the joins between each of the pieces. The overall theme of the piece is the history and development of Maidenbower.

References

External links

Neighbourhood WebsiteOriel High SchoolBrook School
Neighbourhoods in Crawley {{WestSussex-geo-stub