Turning Crawley Blue, One Plaque at a Time Quiz

Answer: Caroline Haslett

Dame Caroline Haslett was born in Worth. At the time the village of Worth was not part of Crawley and wasn't even the next settlement. Three Bridges stood in between. Following World War 2 when Crawley New Town was created from the existing towns and villages both Three Bridges and Worth became part of Crawley.

During World War 1, Dame Haslett learnt electrical engineering. She saw electrical devices as a way to relieve the drudgery of women. However it is the safety standards of UK household electronics that probably constitutes her greatest contribution to the day to day life of most people.

In Crawley, the road named in her honour, Haslett Avenue, originally ran from Three Bridges railway station to Crawley High Street. I put that statement in the past tense as when the shopping centre, County Mall, was built in the early 1990s the road was split in two, Haslett Avenues East and West. The plaque is close to Three Bridges railway station along Haslett Avenue East, on the wall of the electrical distributor. The company operating it may change but the infrastructure will remain at the same location.

Answer: Elizabeth Fry

All of the options are people noted as campaigners for prison reform but the one who held what the blue plaque describes as "a satisfactory reading with the people" and whose visit is commemorated is Elizabeth Fry. At the time the village of Ifield was a separate entity from the market town of Crawley.

However, following the creation of Crawley New Town after World War 2 Ifield was subsumed into Crawley.

Answer: The Hound of Heaven

Francis Thompson was born in Lancashire, studied medicine in what is now Manchester University and spent some years living as an opium addict on the streets of London. After he submitted his poetry to a magazine called "Merrie England" the editors found him and arranged for him to live in a Catholic Priory in West Sussex. In the remainder of his life, he lived in various places before his early death in London at the age of 47. One of those places was just off Crawley High Street.

In case you are not familiar with the poem "The Hound of Heaven" the first few lines of are:
I fled Him, down the nights and down the days;
I fled Him, down the arches of the years;
I fled Him, down the labyrinthine ways
Of my own mind; and in the mist of tears

The poem is claimed to represent God trying to recover one who has fallen from grace, back into his family.

Of the other poems, "If" is a fairly well-known poem by Rudyard Kipling, "The Tay Bridge Disaster" by the renowned (for being bad) poet William McGonagall and the "Ode To A Small Lump of Green Putty I Found In My Armpit One Midsummer Morning" (to give it its full title) is referenced in the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams.

Answer: Dial M for Murder

The play "Dial M for Murder" is the only work by Frederick Knott listed. The plaque is on the side of the Masonic Hall in Ifield as his parents' house no longer exists, but the site it stood on is close by. "Dial M for Murder" was originally written for the BBC before becoming a work for the stage. Subsequently, it was made into a film by Alfred Hitchcock. Another play by the same author was "Wait Until Dark" written after he moved to America.
The wrong answers are all novels by Agatha Christie.

Answer: James Pulham

James Pulham set up the firm of landscape gardeners called James Pulham and Son. His son James Pulham created the artificial stone call Pulhamite. This was used in landscape gardening around the south-east of England but apparently, he kept the recipe secret and once he died no more Pulhamite could be made. The grandson of the founder, another James Pulham laid out the gardens at Milton Mount using Pulhamite. His son James, along with the three gentlemen already mentioned, all managed the firm in their turn. Milton Mount Garden is now a public park, Worth Park which forms part of the Pound Hill neighbourhood. It is also the home of Crawley Croquet Club.

The other names listed have also been involved with artificial stone. Alfred Edward "Ted" Ringwood led a team that invented Synrock, (short for synthetic rock). Eleanore Coade invented the ceramic Coade Stone and Frederick Ransome patented an artificial sandstone.

Answer: Street naming

Most towns grow piecemeal over time. Street naming is likewise done in small quantities or by using traditional names in the oldest parts of towns. This all goes out the window when planned new towns are built. All of a sudden several hundred street names are required, preferably avoiding duplications.

In Crawley a large chunk of this task fell to John Goepel. He retained the existing names of those streets that existed, used old field names where that was appropriate and then took themes for groups of streets. So in Tilgate for example, there are groups of streets named after English cathedral cities, explorers, writers and artists.

Answer: Charles Dickens

The plaque reads in part, "John Leech who in 1843-48 illustrated the Christmas stories of Charles Dickens". He was also a well know illustrator for The London Charivari magazine, in turn better known as "Punch". The first editor of "Punch" was also a Crawley resident and is reputedly the first commuter into the bargain.

Answer: Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings

Of the various buildings designed by Mr Webb, the only one I am familiar with is Standen House which is only 7 miles from the building his blue plaque is attached to. Standen is to the south of East Grinstead close to the Weir Wood Reservoir, although the reservoir didn't exist when the house was built.

The house is now owned by "The National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty", or the National Trust as it is more commonly called. Philip Webb and William Morris were involved in a number of organisations in the late 19th century, including the Socialist League .

The one they are noted as having founded together and that is listed on the blue plaque, is the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings.

Answer: Richard Browne

The sculpture was commissioned by Crawley Arts Council to represent the community of Crawley which had increased 5 fold with the development of the New Town. Although the building is no longer the Co-op the sculpture is still there high up on the wall.

But now there is a concrete canopy outside the building, about 10 feet above the pavement, so if you can read the plaque you can't see the sculpture and vice versa. The sculpture can be seen by the simple expedient of crossing the road and looking back. All of the wrong answers also are people who have blue plaques in Crawley. Mark Lemon being the first editor of Punch magazine.

Answer: Malcolm Campbell

Malcolm Campbell, sometime holder of world records for speed on both land and water, is the relevant gentleman. Apparently, he did flotation trials for his boat Blue Bird on what is officially known as Tilgate Lake. It has long been called Campbells Lake by us locals. Malcolm Campbell died from a stroke in 1948, his son Donald, who also achieved world records for speed, died in a high speed crash on Coniston Water.

Of the other options, Barry Sheene, the motorcycle racer lived in the village of Charlwood, which is close to Crawley in the 1980's. British Formula 4 racing driver Billy Monger was born in Charlwood. His racing career was ended after a crash that resulted in a double leg amputation. John George Haigh is also known as the Acid Bath Murderer. He committed several of his murders in Crawley shortly after the end of World War 2. Strangely no-one has seen fit to commemorate his connection to Crawley with a blue plaque.