Crawley is a large town and borough in West Sussex, England, located 28 miles south of Greater London, 18 miles north of Brighton, and 32 miles northeast of Chichester. The area was used by the Romans for ironworking and was later settled by the Saxons during the early 5th century AD. The Anglo-Saxons named the town Crow's Leah, meaning "crow's wood". Crawley became a market town during the 13th century, and it became a coach stop between London and Chichester; it was linked to London by rail in 1841. During the 1940s, Gatwick Airport opened on the outskirts of Crawley, leading to commercial and industrial growth. In 1946, Crawley was designated a "new town" in the aftermath of World War II, experiencing a population boom. By 2019, Crawley had a population of 112,409 people, and its seat in Parliament was competitive between the Labour Party and Conservative Party, with the Conservatives holding the seat from its creation in 1983 to 1997, Labour from 1997 to 2010, and the Conservatives from 2010 on.
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