Lowfield Heath
| Lowfield Heath | |
|---|---|
.jpg) The village crossroads, looking east along Church Road |
|
| District | |
| Shire county | |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | CRAWLEY |
| Postcode district | RH11 |
| Dialling code | 01293 |
| Police | Sussex |
| Fire | West Sussex |
| Ambulance | South East Coast |
| EU Parliament | South East England |
| UK Parliament | |
Coordinates: 51°8′45″N 0°10′47″W / 51.14583°N 0.17972°W
Lowfield Heath is a former village within the boundaries of the Borough of Crawley, West Sussex, England. Situated on the main London to Brighton road approximately 27 miles (43 km) south of London and 2 miles (3.2 km) north of Crawley, it was gradually rendered uninhabitable by the expansion of London Gatwick Airport immediately to the north.
Houses and village amenities were steadily demolished between the 1950s and the 1970s, and only one original building – St Michael and All Angels Church, built in 1867 – remains, although there are various buildings on the site which serve the airport. The village took its name from an area of heathland of the same name, parts of which still survive, and a few houses and farms away from the old village centre survive and are still described as being in Lowfield Heath. A windmill stood in the area until it was moved to nearby Charlwood in 1987, and is also still referred to as the Lowfield Heath windmill.
A large area of common land, consisting of heathland on top of Weald Clay, straddled the border between the counties of Surrey and Sussex north of Crawley. An ancient oak tree, the "County Oak", stood on the heath for centuries and marked the traditional boundary. This tree was eventually cut down in the 1840s, but its name survives in a retail park and industrial area near the present Manor Royal estate in the north of Crawley. The timber was used to make an oaken screen for the nearby St Margaret's Church in Ifield. Most of the heath, including the section in which the village developed, was north of the county boundary, on the Surrey side, and this area was in the Parish of Charlwood. The small section which lay within Sussex—consisting of the part southwest of the County Oak—was in the Parish of Ifield. The land is low-lying, flat and often damp, as the River Mole rises nearby and is fed by many tributaries.
...
Wikipedia