St John The Baptist's Church, Crawley - History

History

In the Norman era, Slaugham and Cuckfield were the most important places in the north of the county of Sussex. When Crawley first started to develop as a village in the 13th century, it was in the parish of Slaugham in the Hundred of Buttinghill (hundreds were ancient divisions of land covering several parishes). As the new village was distant from the parish church at Slaugham (St Mary's), several miles south, a stone church was built as a chapel of ease. It is known to have existed before 1267, when it was passed on in a will, and it was still the daughter church of Slaugham in 1291; but by the early 15th century it was referred to as a "free" church and a "permanent chantry". The parish of Crawley was therefore established separate from Slaugham at some point, probably by the end of the 14th century, and St John the Baptist's was regarded as its parish church by the time chantries were abolished in the 1540s. Crawley was a small, very narrow, split parish, and did not cover the whole of the village of Crawley: the boundary between it and the parish of Ifield—and between the Hundred of Buttinghill and the Hundred of Burbeach, in which Ifield lay—ran up the middle of the High Street. The detached part of Crawley parish consisted of heavily forested land and one farm near Pease Pottage. The total area of the parish was less than 800 acres (300 ha); Ifield parish was six times larger, in contrast.

The first additions to the structure came in the 15th century, when a tall tower was added at the western end, the windows in the nave were enlarged and a rood screen was installed between the chancel and the nave. The nave roof was also rebuilt at this time, and the earliest surviving memorial carvings and stones in the church are also 15th-century.

By the 16th century, Crawley's development into a thriving market village meant that its the parish was much more important than that of Slaugham, and the connection between their two churches was legally severed. At least 150 people regularly attended the church, but its income was modest and priests frequently moved on to richer parishes. The building fell into disrepair in the 17th and 18th centuries, although the four cracked bells in the tower were replaced by London bell-founder Thomas Lester in 1742. Lester cast dozens of bells for Sussex churches, and reused the metal from the old bells in his work at Crawley.

Major changes took place in the 19th century. The tower partially rebuilt and heightened by 1814, although the original stone was reused. Some more work took place in 1845, but the greatest changes happened in 1879 and 1880. A new north aisle was added, a porch was built on the north side, the chancel was completely rebuilt and reordered, an organ chamber was built, and the bells were replaced by a new ring of eight bells, hung for change ringing, cast by Gillett, Bland & Company of Croydon. Nikolaus Pevsner has criticised the resulting appearance of the church, calling it "dully Victorian" and noting that its best feature is the unrestored 15th-century nave roof.

The church's location just east of the High Street meant that it was very close to the boundary of Ifield parish. People who lived on or around the west side of the High Street would often attend St John the Baptist's although their parish church was St Margaret's. One such worshipper was Mark Lemon, founding editor of the satirical magazine Punch. Having adopted Crawley as his home town, he lived at Vine Cottage on the west side of the High Street, and regularly attended St John the Baptist's instead of St Margaret's. However, his substantial girth caused him problems: he had to sit in the gallery because there were no pews large enough to accommodate him in the nave.

The church, graveyard and church walk are haunted a number of paranormal sightings have happened over the years.