New Jerusalems: Crawley

New Jerusalems: Crawley New Town

Between 2021 and 2025, the Wellcome Trust funded the New Jerusalems: Post-war New Town Archives in Britain and Ireland project. This collaborative initiative has now been completed. It has increased the evidence available to understand the New Town Movement and its impact on post-war life in Britain and Ireland.

The project has made eleven archives from New Towns — Basildon, Bracknell, Crawley, Cwmbran, Newton Aycliffe, Peterlee, Redditch, Runcorn, Shannon, Stevenage and Warrington — fully accessible. West Sussex Record Office served as the lead and coordinating partner, working with nine other organisations including County Record Offices and a University. This was a truly international project, with partners in Wales and the Republic of Ireland.

Through detailed cataloguing, preservation and improved access, the project has opened up thousands of records documenting the planning, architecture, and community development of the New Towns. The collections are exceptionally visually rich, including photographs, masterplans, architects’ drawings, and promotional brochures that vividly capture the optimism and design ambition of the period. This material provides a vital resource not only for academic researchers, but also for community groups, local historians, and residents interested in exploring how the New Town Movement shaped everyday life. The New Town Movement makes a unique contribution to debates about housing and place-making today.

You can read more about the national project and access links to the participating archives on the New Jerusalems website.

Here at WSRO, we have catalogued the archive of the Crawley Development Corporation which includes minutes, correspondence, maps and plans, photographs, and planning records. To find out more about this collection, read our user guide below! You can also view blog posts written throughout the project on this page.

WSRO User Guide Crawley New Town Download