Crawley was a village on the Weald and had played its part in the early Wealden iron industry until the seventeenth century. The Weald supplied iron ore to local and then London based foundries for the production of weapons before both trades gravitated to the coal of the West Midlands. I write more about the Wealden iron industry in a separate blog piece.
In the eighteenth century Crawley's position on the main London to Brighton road brought carriage trade which increased with Brighton's popularity. The arrival of the London to Brighton railway put pay to this, but brought Crawley closer to the ever growing London.
After the Second World War, Crawley was eventually designated a new town and prospered as a result. Manufacturers were attracted but only few larger concerns, the majority being SMEs.
Vent Axia was formed with the invention of the first electrically operated window ventilator in 1936. The company provided ventilation equipment for 10 Downing Street during the Second World War and moved to a factory in Putney in 1946. In 1957 it took a 99 year lease of a factory in Manor Royal, Crawley where it still manufactures after a short period of offshore manufacture in China. Vent Axia was bought by Halls of Dartford and the combined business became part of APV.
APV, founded in Wandsworth in 1910, set up in Crawley in the fifties. Its full name was the Aluminium Plant and Vessel Company and was working with a new way of welding aluminium. It began making heat exchangers and developed into supplying equipment for the dairy, food and chemical industries. In 1987 it merged with Baker-Perkins, but the APV business was bought be Siebe in 1997. At one time it had 1,600 employees.
The subsequent massive growth of Gatwick airport encouraged a good many supporting businesses and housing for a large number of airport employees. The Manor Royal business district has also attracted a good number of businesses, many with international connections.
In recent years Crawley had become the headquarters for Gatwick Diamond a designated economic development area comprising Crawley, Epsom & Ewell, Horsham, Mid Sussex, Reigate & Banstead and Tandridge. It is home to 45,000 businesses and claims better economic performance than similar areas: Thames Valley including Reading, South East Midlands including Milton Keynes and Enterprise M3 including Woking and Greater Medway including Chatham. It highlights Life Sciences and Knowledge Based Industry as key areas.
Further reading:
Peter Gwynne, A History of Crawley (Chichester: Phillimore, 1990)
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