Frederick Pledge – Crawley’s first historian
In 2024, a member of the Celebrating Hampshire Historians group, Roger Ottewill investigated the life of Frederick Pledge (1875 to 1942) who spent 30 years of his life in Crawley and published, in 1907, “Crawley: Glimpses into the past of a Hampshire village”, which was, at the time, a definitive history of the village.
Two of the Village Hall trustees, Tessa Campbell and Bart Huby, provided input to Roger’s work. Roger summarised his research in a paper, focused primarily on Frederick Pledge’s life and work – and also including a lot of fascinating detail on the history of Crawley village and later historians, including David Dunbar.