ECONOMIC HISTORY
Employment
Crawley, like other new towns, was intended to be economically balanced. The planners feared that it would
become a dormitory town; it was therefore essential
that Crawley should be provided with its own industry. (fn. 37) As a result the early years of the town's
growth were dominated by a rapid expansion of
manufacturing industries; the second largest source
of employment was the large-scale civil engineering
and building works needed to provide main services,
roads, factories, houses, schools, and shops, even
though many building workers at first commuted
from elsewhere. By 1956 newly established industries employed 46 per cent of all workers, old industries nearly 15 per cent, building and civil
engineering 18 per cent, and non-industrial concerns
only 21 per cent. (fn. 38) During the second phase of
development from the mid 1950s to the early 1960s
the growth of Gatwick airport, of the retail trade, and
of town services, provided a growing proportion of
employment while building declined. Manufacturing industry continued to grow but did not increase
its overall share of employment. By 1958 industrial
employment was lower than the average for new
towns, because Crawley's shopping and commercial
facilities were more advanced. (fn. 39) In 1962 manufacturing industry, old and new, employed just over 60 per
cent of all workers, Gatwick and service trades 34
per cent. (fn. 40) During the third phase, to the early
1970s, manufacturing grew steadily but nonindustrial employment expanded far more quickly.
In 1971 services employed 53.5 per cent of all those
working in the new town, manufacturing 46 per cent.
In the 1970s, however, there was little net growth of
manufacturing employment, while service employment doubled. Of 63,610 employed in Crawley in
1981, 42,890, over 67 per cent, worked in service
trades. (fn. 41) By then, far from being a dormitory town,
Crawley gave work to many people living outside its
boundaries. In 1971 c. 15,000 people from outside
Crawley worked there, while c. 5,000 Crawley people
commuted elsewhere to work. The net inflow had
doubled by 1981 to 20,120. (fn. 42)
The changing pattern of employment affected the
class structure of the town. Crawley always had a
lower than average proportion of unskilled and semiskilled workers; thus while those classes comprised
29 per cent of the nation in 1951, they comprised
only 12 per cent of Crawley's population in 1960. On
the other hand, skilled and clerical workers and their
families formed an above average proportion of the
population, some 60 per cent in 1960. (fn. 43) The proportion of different classes among workers moving to the
town changed. Between 1948 and 1952, for example,
professional and senior white-collared workers
formed 17 per cent of newcomers, skilled and clerical
workers 62 per cent, and unskilled and semi-skilled
workers 21 per cent; between 1957 and 1960 the
comparable figures were 25.5 per cent, 63 per cent,
and 11.5 per cent. (fn. 44) Moreover the low proportion of
unskilled jobs could not be expected to be matched
by a low proportion of unskilled school leavers.
Hence by the early 1960s the development corporation was giving special attention to the employment
of young people, and the Crawley youth employment committee was pressing industry to expand
training facilities. In early 1961 only two out of
1,262 school leavers were unemployed, and at
Christmas 1960 some 65 per cent of boys and 59 per
cent of girls who had left school that year had been
placed in posts leading either to indentured apprenticeships or day-release courses. (fn. 45) Nevertheless by
the early 1980s it had become apparent that 'attempts
to solve a threatened shortage of opportunities for
school-leavers . . . increased the demand for labour;
attempts to solve the labour shortage by importing
workers only generated large numbers of future
school-leavers'. (fn. 46) It was perhaps because local skills
could not match local opportunities that despite the
increasing influx of non-resident workers in the
1970s unemployment, following national trends
though below the national average, rose from 1 per
cent in 1970 to 6.4 per cent by 1983. (fn. 47) In early 1986
it was 5 per cent, said to be the lowest of any town in
Great Britain. (fn. 48)
Existing industry
Crawley was already a centre
of manufacturing industry, particularly light engineering, when the new town was designated. In
1949 there were 1,529 people employed in manufacturing, of whom 506 worked in machine tool
manufacture and engineering, 420 in aircraft repair,
240 in motor repair, 175 in metalworking, and 130 in
plastics. (fn. 49) More were employed in service trades
including 636 based at Three Bridges station, (fn. 50)
where employment later fell to 40 by 1981. (fn. 51) Existing
firms shared, at least at first, in the growth of the
new town, employing 2,500 in 1956 and 2,700 in
1959. (fn. 52) Crawley Industrial Products (Crawley Tools)
employed between 300 and 400 people in 1949. (fn. 53)
Hellerman Electric Co. Ltd., established in 1948 and
employing 130 in 1949 in making plastic sleeves for
the electrical trade, had moved by 1971 to Gatwick
Way where as Bowthorpe & Hellerman Ltd. it employed nearly 1,000, making cable identification and
cable-fixing products and thermoplastic mouldings.
The firm claimed that every British aircraft then
flying included one of its products. (fn. 54) In the 1970s the
firm moved most of its operations out of Crawley
because of a labour shortage, but as Bowthorpe plc
it still had a works in Gatwick Road in 1985. (fn. 55)
Building and related trades were the town's most
important industry in 1949, employing c. 800 people.
Besides the large firms of James Longley & Co. Ltd.
and Richard Cook & Sons Ltd. (fn. 56) there were 4 other
firms of builders, 9 jobbing builders, and 4 firms of
joiners and carpenters. (fn. 57) Construction work for the
new town greatly boosted employment in the trade,
but with the completion of the original planned
neighbourhoods and the slower development of new
ones employment in building and civil engineering
declined from 3,000 jobs in 1956 to 1,200 in 1962. (fn. 58)
New industies
The master plan 'plonked industry down in an isolated area'. (fn. 59) It designated a single
zone of c. 260 a. north-east of the town for industrial
development. The land was fairly flat and near to
the sewage works, and flanked the London-Brighton
railway, whence sidings could be provided; it was
also close to Gatwick and Three Bridges stations, to
the main London road, and to the proposed motorway. Medium and light industry was to be west of the
railway and any heavy industry on 44 a. east of it, a
distinction not followed in practice. A green belt
would screen the area from the ring road. Service
industry was to be sited near Crawley and Three
Bridges stations and each neighbourhood centre. (fn. 60) It
was assumed that manufacturing industry would
eventually employ 8,500 workers. (fn. 61) The first section
of the industrial area was opened in 1950 by Princess
Elizabeth, duchess of Edinburgh, who named the
main carriageway Manor Royal, (fn. 62) a name later
applied to the whole industrial estate. (fn. 63)
The development corporation specified six or
seven industries whose labour requirements could
be easily met, including engineering, woodworking,
printing, and the manufacture of food, drugs, and
electrical goods. (fn. 64) It planned to bring to the town
firms whose employees would mainly be men, which
paid high wages, and which took a progressive attitude. (fn. 65) Since Crawley was the only new town south
of London, was developed during the economic
boom following the Second World War, and provided space both for factories and for workers' housing, the corporation had no difficulty in attracting
such firms. (fn. 66) Sites were offered on lease to larger
firms who wished to build their own factories; in
addition, the corporation designed and built standard
factories of various sizes which could be let to smaller
firms. (fn. 67) The corporation planned to build small and
large factories next to each other to ensure that no
part of the industrial area should be looked on as a
section of small men or small industries. (fn. 68) In fact,
however, the larger works lined Manor Royal, Fleming Way, and Gatwick Road, while smaller factories
were mainly on minor roads at the rear of the
thoroughfares.
The first ten years saw rapid progress in establishing factories. By March 1950 sites for four large
factories of 10-25 a. had been let to three firms, and
four standard factories had been built. (fn. 69) By 1951
provision had been made for 18 firms, of which one
employed over 1,000 workers, four between 100 and
200 each, three between 50 and 100 each, and the
rest under 50. (fn. 70) In 1953 there were 14 firms involved
in engineering, 4 in making electrical goods, 5 in
printing, 3 in making detergents, glassware, and food
and drugs, and 3 in woodworking. (fn. 71) By 1958, when
the new factories covered nearly 2 million sq. ft. of
floor space, there were also 4 firms making plastics
products and 4 engaged in metalworking; engineering and electrical trades still predominated. (fn. 72) That
was still true in 1962, with 31 out of 78 factories
engaged in engineering and 13 in electrical and
electronic work; in addition the plastics industry
occupied 9 factories, printing 7, food and drugs
manufacture 7, woodworking 5, metalworking 5, and
the clothing trade one. (fn. 73)
In 1964 there were thought to be two firms each
employing over 1,000 people, six employing between 500 and 1,000, 12 employing between 250 and
500, 36 employing between 50 and 250, and 22 employing fewer than 50. (fn. 74) By then new industries
employed nearly 16,000, almost double the number
originally planned; 82 factories and 40 extensions
had been built, providing over 3 million sq. ft. of
floor space. In the next ten years the area of factories increased by half and employment in new
firms reached a peak of c. 22,000. The slumps of
1974-6 and 1980-1, despite recovery in between,
reduced industrial employment (fn. 75) which in 1984 was
estimated at 22,300. (fn. 76) Nevertheless the number and
extent of new and enlarged factories continued to
grow, though more slowly. By 1984 a total of 156
completed factories was claimed, with 476,900 square
metres (over 5 million sq. ft.) of floor space. (fn. 77)
The range of industries had changed little. In
1985 firms in Crawley (including those outside the
industrial area) comprised 44 in metalworking, metal
goods manufacture, and mechanical engineering; 43
in electronics, making electrical goods, and electrical
engineering; 31 builders and building material suppliers; 12 in printing and publishing; 8 in chemical
and drug manufacture; 7 in the glass, plastics, rubber, and synthetics industries; 4 in woodworking;
2 in the textile, clothing, and footwear trades; and 2
in packing and paper goods manufacture. (fn. 78)
Although the development corporation was anxious to avoid the risks to employment of dependence
on one or two large firms, a few Crawley firms,
mostly among those established in the first ten years
after designation, have usually accounted for a high
proportion of industrial workers. Several of them
grew rapidly in the 1950s and 1960s, but some were
taken over by outside concerns which in the late
1970s and the 1980s reduced production in Crawley.
One of the largest firms was the A.P.V. Co. Ltd.,
a family company founded by Richard Seligman
(1878-1972), which supplied processing equipment
to the brewing, dairying, and allied industries. In
1949 it began to investigate a move from Wandsworth (Surr.) and four other sites around London to
Crawley. Encouraged by the development corporation's willingness to rehouse its London employees,
it leased a site in Manor Royal in 1950. Its operations
moved there in three stages in 1952, 1955, and
1956. (fn. 79) It was later claimed that A.P.V. brought
1,500 families to Crawley. (fn. 80) The move coincided
with a fall in profitability, and in 1956 the Crawley
works suffered the first large strike in the firm's history. Its fortunes, however, began to recover in 1957
and except for 1963 its turnover and profits increased
steadily for the next twenty years. (fn. 81) In 1962 the firm
became a subsidiary of A.P.V. Holdings Ltd. (fn. 82) In
1965 more land was leased and the works extended
to over 400,000 sq. ft., an eighth of all new factory
space in Crawley. There were further extensions in
1968 and 1971. (fn. 83) The Seligman family gave up the
chairmanship in 1977. (fn. 84) In 1984 the site was occupied by APV International Ltd., with 1,600
employees, making and supplying both plant and
process engineering services to the dairy, food, and
chemical industries, and by APV Paramount, a
foundry company with 350 workers making high
alloy steels. Vent-Axia, by then another A.P.V. company, had a site nearby from 1958. Most of the
group's employees in Britain, however, worked outside Crawley in 1984. (fn. 85)
W. C. Youngman Ltd., makers of industrial
trucks and builders' plant, leased a 10-a. site in
Manor Royal in 1949 and began production there in
1951 with 187 employees. By 1964 the factory had
over 500 workers. The founder died in 1968, and in
1984 the firm was a subsidiary of the SGB Group
Ltd. (fn. 86)
W. Edwards (London) Ltd., a south London
vacuum-pump maker, arranged to move to Crawley
in 1953 and opened a works with c. 300 employees
on a 9½-a. site in Manor Royal in 1954. In that year
it became a public company as Edwards High
Vacuum Ltd. An extension of 45,000 sq. ft. was
added in 1959, and in 1963 the firm became Edwards
High Vacuum International Ltd. After the death of
the founder it was taken over in 1968 by the British
Oxygen Co. Ltd., which had had a factory in Crawley since 1959, and in 1970 Edwards became a division of that firm. Employment in the Crawley works
reached a peak of c. 600 that year, later reduced to
c. 450 in 1985, when it was a subsidiary of BOC
Ltd., a member of BOC plc. The main products
were then secondary vacuum pumps, special pumping systems made to customers' specifications, and
small vacuum systems for laboratories; three quarters
of production was exported. Other work had been
transferred to the firm's works at Eastbourne
(acquired in 1957) and Shoreham-by-Sea (acquired
1963). (fn. 87)
Silentbloc Ltd., a subsidiary of T. V. André,
automotive engineers, opened a factory in Manor
Royal c. 1954 for manufacturing anti-vibration components for vehicles and industrial machinery. The
works was extended in the 1960s, when it employed
between 250 and 400 workers and was the headquarters of the André Silentbloc group. About 1980
the company, with c. 400 staff, was taken over by the
BTR group. The workforce in Crawley had been
reduced to c. 200 by 1985, partly because the site
was no longer a head office. At the same time, however, the factory was re-equipped and the range of
products extended to include, for example, aircraft
engine mountings, although bearings and mountings
for railway trains, marine engines, road vehicles, and
industrial plant remained more important. (fn. 88)
Telcon Metals Ltd., an alloy and metal product
manufacturer, was formed from the metals division
of the Telegraph Construction and Maintenance Co.
Ltd. of Greenwich (Kent) and moved to a 10-a. site
south of Manor Royal in 1955. BICC Ltd. bought it
in 1959. An enlarged sheet metal shop was built in
1957, the laboratories and the foundry were extended
in 1958 and 1967 respectively, and a cooling tower
was built in 1973. The firm employed over 500 in
1965 and 1970, but its workforce later declined to
475 in 1975, 414 in 1980, and 234 in 1985, when
2½ a. of the site were sold. In 1983 the management
bought the company and continued trading as a
private limited company which in 1985 made alloys
and metal products for the electronics, electrical,
aircraft, automotive, and instrument industries. (fn. 89)
M.S.E. Precision Instruments Ltd. (later MSE),
centrifuge and scientific equipment maker, moved its
staff of c. 90 from the east end of London to a works
on the south side of Manor Royal in 1955. Concentrating on export, the firm grew rapidly, employing
between c. 250 and 500 people in 1964 and over 900
at its peak in the early 1970s. It was taken over by
Fisons Ltd. in 1972 to form part of Fisons' scientific
equipment division. In the later 1970s MSE was
losing money; Fisons transferred production to
Uxbridge (Mdx.) and reconstructed MSE as a
marketing company, with c. 85 employees in Crawley
in 1985. (fn. 90)
Redifon Ltd., a subsidiary of the Rediffusion
Organization and a manufacturer of flight simulators
and advanced training devices, moved from Blackfriars, London, to Crawley in 1954 and occupied its
present site in Gatwick Road in 1957. The main
factory was extended from 90,000 sq. ft. in 1957 to
230,000 by 1985. A second works was established in
1974 and two more in 1975, with a total of 103,000
sq. ft. Employment increased from c. 450 in 1954 to
c. 750 in 1959, c. 1,400 in 1963, and c. 1,800 in 1979,
falling back to c. 1,300 in 1985. The firm's style
changed to Rediffusion Simulation Ltd. in 1980. In
1985 besides the main works in Gatwick Road it or
its associates had works in Crompton Way, Kelvin
Way, Gatwick Road, and Manor Royal. (fn. 91)
Mullard Equipment Ltd., a division of the Philips
group, moved from London to a large site bounded
by London Road and Manor Royal in 1961 to make
electronic and telecommunications equipment. The
works was extended to 312,000 sq. ft. in 1966. As
M.E.L. Equipment Co. Ltd. the firm employed over
1,000 in 1964, almost 2,000 in 1971, and c. 2,250 at
its peak in the 1970s. The style changed to MEL in
1981. In 1985 the works, with c. 2,000 employees,
produced mainly electronic components and systems
for military purposes, medical and industrial particle
accelerators, optical components, and optical character readers. (fn. 92)
Although several of the larger firms experienced
takeovers from the later 1960s and contraction from
the later 1970s, smaller firms were more severely
affected by the depression. Of firms on the industrial
estate in 1964, fewer than a quarter of those which
then had over 250 employees had disappeared altogether by 1984, whereas almost three quarters of
those with between 50 and 250 employees had gone.
Very small firms with fewer than 50 employees in
1964 proved somewhat hardier; just under half had
disappeared by 1984. Of the firms existing in 1964,
those which were longest established were more
likely to survive. Three fifths of those which had
been established in Crawley in the earlier 1950s were
still there in 1984, compared with only two fifths of
those established in the later 1950s and earlier
1960s. (fn. 93)
The Crawley Industrial Group was founded c.
1953 as a pressure group for companies wishing to
accelerate the building of houses, roads, and schools
in Crawley. By 1960 there were c. 70 members. The
group negotiated regularly with the development
corporation. In the early 1960s the corporation
underestimated the growth of industry in the new
town, and the Industrial Group in 1964 brought
direct pressure to bear on the Ministry of Housing to
get more houses built. (fn. 94) The group, by 1985 renamed the Crawley and District Industries Association, was still voicing similar concerns in 1986. (fn. 95)
Trade unionism developed rapidly in the 1950s.
Some incoming firms, such as A.P.V. and Edwards
High Vacuum, were already unionized, but the
Amalgamated Engineering Union (later the Amalgamated Union of Engineering Workers) in particular was active in recruiting members in other firms.
A committee which it started is alleged to have
organized the rent strike in 1955. Union membership reached a peak in 1962, then declined. (fn. 96)
Warehouses
In the 1970s the spread of warehousing was the most notable new feature of Crawley's economic development; it was only in part a
result of the growth of Gatwick airport. Warehouses
encroached on land formerly reserved for factories.
In 1972 a transport firm completed a 90,000-sq. ft.
warehouse in the industrial area. (fn. 97) By 1973 the
demand for warehousing and storage exceeded that
for factories, and the Commission for the New
Towns agreed that a 100,000-sq. ft. factory should
be converted to a warehouse. (fn. 98) A total of 72,000 sq.
ft. of warehouses was built in the 1970s, excluding
those on Gatwick airport; 29,000 sq. ft. were for
regional distribution, 24,000 were for purposes related to the airport, and only 4,381 were for the use
of local industry. (fn. 99) Moreover three quarters of new
factory space was for ancillary storage rather than
manufacturing; the proportion increased in the late
1970s. (fn. 1) In 1981 the Commission for the New Towns
completed the Gatwick International Distribution
Centre in Gatwick Road, with 17 warehouses providing 11,680 square metres of storage; the centre was
particularly aimed at the needs of Gatwick. (fn. 2) While
warehouses and factory stores consumed much land,
they employed few people. (fn. 3)
Gatwick
From the late 1950s the growth of
Crawley has been distorted by the development of
an international airport on, and from 1974 within,
its boundary. In 1948 the development corporation
was alarmed by suggestions from the Ministry of
Civil Aviation that the small airport of Gatwick
should be raised to international status; it feared the
constraints on the height of buildings and a distortion of the employment pattern. (fn. 4) When the proposal
was revived two years later, the corporation regarded it as incompatible with the proper development of the new town; it hoped that the airport
would be retained as a base for private and charter
flying. (fn. 5) By 1952 the corporation had withdrawn its
objections and a public inquiry was set up. (fn. 6) In 1954,
following the inquiry, the government decided to
expand the airport for continental services. (fn. 7) Queen
Elizabeth II opened the new airport in 1958. (fn. 8) By
1960 it employed at least 1,300 people and the
development corporation had provided 628 subsidized dwellings for airport staff. (fn. 9) Further housing
problems were foreseen in 1961. (fn. 10) In the 1960s
Crawley industrialists complained that competition
with the airport made it hard to attract workers, and
that high airport wages caused people to leave skilled
jobs in industry for unskilled airport work. (fn. 11) The
Commission for the New Towns in the early 1970s
continued to express anxiety about housing problems
and labour shortages expected from the airport's
further expansion; by 1971 Gatwick employed 7,300
people, and by 1972 c. 9,300. (fn. 12) One effect of the airport's growth in the 1970s was a need for warehouses, which the commission felt obliged to meet. (fn. 13)
In 1979 the British Airports Authority agreed not to
build a second runway at Gatwick within 40 years. (fn. 14)
In the early 1980s, however, proposals were accepted
to increase the number of passengers that the airport
could handle. A satellite terminal was opened in
1983. A public inquiry was held in 1981 to assess
whether a second main terminal to increase the airport's capacity from 16 million passengers a year to
25 million should be built. The borough council,
fearing unemployment, supported the scheme, West
Sussex county council opposing it for fear of overemployment; industrialists again claimed to suffer
from competition with the airport for labour. The
government approved the proposed terminal in
1982, when already 11 million passengers were passing through each year; in the early 1980s the airport
was the fourth busiest in the world. It then employed c. 14,000 people, of whom fewer than a third
lived in Crawley, and 15,740 in 1985. (fn. 15)
Nevertheless the airport's growth was providing
opportunities for local companies, particularly those
engaged in warehousing, office work, and catering.
Most airport-related activities c. 1980 involved fairly
well established local firms which had moved to
nearby sites. Six in every seven firms depending on
the airport, however, were branches of larger companies. (fn. 16) The borough council planned that firms
serving the airport should be within the airport
boundary to reduce competition for land in Crawley's industrial areas, (fn. 17) where in 1985 several such
firms, notably caterers, were nevertheless established.
Offices
The 1960s and early 1970s saw a rapid
increase in the building of offices in Crawley. By
1962 the development corporation had completed
only 55,000 sq. ft. of offices; the Commission for the
New Towns claimed that it had completed 321,000
sq. ft. of offices by 1965, 621,000 by 1971, and
726,000 by 1976. (fn. 18) Although the figures for the
1970s seem to have been exaggerated, (fn. 19) the increase
was proportionately far greater than that in factory
accommodation. Notable buildings, besides those
for local government, included a four-storeyed block
south of Three Bridges Road for the Westminster
Bank, completed by 1963; (fn. 20) the 120,000-sq. ft. headquarters of Woodhall Duckham Construction Ltd.
completed in 1965 to employ 520 people; (fn. 21) a
144,000-sq. ft. national headquarters at Three
Bridges for the Paymaster-General's office, completed in 1969 (fn. 22) and extended by 52,500 sq. ft. c.
1975; (fn. 23) a large office block above the new railway
station, opened in 1968; (fn. 24) and 47,150 sq. ft. of offices
above Sainsbury's store in the town centre, opened
in 1970. (fn. 25) Other very large office blocks were being
proposed in 1973; the large British Caledonian headquarters at County Oak was a prominent feature by
1981. (fn. 26) More office blocks were built in the early
1980s, mainly in Crawley High Street, Station Road,
and Station Way. (fn. 27)
Shopping
A survey of 1949 counted 177 shops in
the new town area, including 99 in Crawley High
Street; (fn. 28) the existing shops were adequate only for
basic needs. (fn. 29) The Crawley chamber of trade,
founded in 1939, opposed the designation of the new
town because it thought that compensation for shopkeepers would be inadequate, and because it feared
the development corporation's powers under the
New Towns Act, 1946, to build and run a towncentre store. (fn. 30) In fact the master plan gave little
attention to shopping problems. There was to be a
small shopping centre with at least 20 shops in each
neighbourhood. (fn. 31) The shopping area in the town
centre was to cover 30 a. including the High Street
and the area east of it; space for 573 shops would be
provided if there were no large shops, although a
department store was foreseen. (fn. 32) It was claimed,
however, in the early 1970s that Crawley still had no
good department store. (fn. 33) The development corporation compulsorily purchased 76 shops in Crawley
High Street in 1950, reletting them to the occupiers
on 21-year leases. (fn. 34) In the neighbourhoods the corporation was faced with the problem whether to
build houses before shops, making shopping difficult
for the inhabitants, or shops before houses, depriving the first traders of a market for their wares. In
Langley Green, for example, the first policy was
followed; in response to local criticism, at Ifield
neighbourhood the shops were built first. (fn. 35) The
earliest neighbourhood shops were finished in 1954,
with 7 at West Green and 13 at Northgate. (fn. 36) Broadwalk in the town centre, with 23 shops, was opened
later that year. (fn. 37) By 1956 the corporation had built
73 shops in the neighbourhoods but only 26 in the
town centre; (fn. 38) it began to concentrate on correcting
that imbalance. By 1958 some 140 new shops had
been finished in the centre and 108 in the neighbourhoods. (fn. 39) Nevertheless there was then only one shop
to every 110 people in the new town, compared with
a national average of one for every 68 people; there
were far fewer shops in neighbourhood centres than
at, for example, Harlow (Essex). (fn. 40) By 1960 the corporation had completed its shop-building programme in the town centre. By then the town served
as a regional shopping centre; a survey in 1960
showed that most cars parked in the centre came
from a wide hinterland. (fn. 41)
By the late 1960s many neighbourhood shops had
been taken over by 'multiples', which had less stake
in the community. Conflicts arose between neighbourhood traders and the town-centre businessmen;
the latter, mainly professional people in service
trades rather than retailers, controlled the chamber
of trade and wanted to divert as many shoppers as
possible to the centre. (fn. 42) At the same period the Commission for the New Towns encouraged large chain
stores to build and open supermarkets in the centre.
Marks & Spencer opened a store in Queensway in
1968; Tesco Stores Ltd. bought a store in Queens
Square in 1969, when it was the company's largest;
Sainsbury's moved to premises adjoining Marks &
Spencer in 1969. (fn. 43)
From the 1970s the shops in the town centre were
threatened with competition from hypermarkets outside the new town. The commission successfully
opposed a plan for such a market at Pease Pottage
(in Slaugham) in 1973, and again when it was revived between 1978 and 1981. (fn. 44) It also decided in
1975 to expand the town-centre shopping area southeastwards towards Haslett Avenue to provide by
1981 a further 500,000 sq. ft. of shopping space and
a multi-storey car park. (fn. 45) Because the scheme was
delayed by public spending cuts, by 1983 only the
10 new shops north of Haslett Avenue, which included large stores for C & A and Mothercare, were
trading. It was decided in 1981 or 1982 to sell the
site south of the avenue for private development, (fn. 46)
which had not taken place by 1985. A hypermarket
at Three Bridges was proposed in 1986, perhaps
partly to counter the attractions of another opened in
that year at Hookwood (Surr.) 3 miles north of
Crawley. (fn. 47)
The Crawley consumers' association was founded
in 1962 as a branch of the national Consumers'
Association. It survived until 1971, publishing a
quarterly magazine, Crawley Choice. (fn. 48)