Crawley Museum

The Crawley Museum, located at 103 High Street, Crawley, is a complex timber-framed building dating from the late 15th to early 16th century. Originally an open hall-house, it has undergone substantial alterations and extensions during the 18th, 19th, and circa 1936. The building is L-shaped and incorporates brick and brick-faced sections. The roof is tiled, with portions covered in Horsham slabs.

The south wing, which runs east and west, remains largely original. The upper storey of this wing originally served as a solar, now divided into two rooms. The exposed trusses feature cambered tie-beams with brackets supporting a king-post, collar, and central purlin, supported from the king-post by two-way struts. The uprights of the walls within this wing have stop-chamfered detailing. A ground floor room at the west end presents a massive cross-beam and close-set joists, along with an exposed chimney beam from the original open fireplace. The chimney breast is constructed of local Sussex stone and topped with an 18th-century brick chimney stack. The hall range, running north and south, is distinguished by its higher roof ridge; the western slope is covered in Horsham slabs. Though extensively altered with the insertion of floors, some of the original timber-framed structure is still visible internally. An addition on the east side creates an entrance hall.

An early 18th-century two-storey wing extending south along the west front was added, with the west wall of the solar wing being faced in brick to match. The upper storey of the solar wing is tile hung. The north end of the house was rebuilt in brick in the 19th century, subsequently remodelled and replanned as servants’ quarters around 1936 during a general restoration. Most windows are 20th-century steel casements.

A weatherboarded structure originally part of the house, and dating back to the medieval period as a moot hall, was moved to the Weald and Downland Open Air Museum at Singleton and reconstructed in its original form.