 Crawley's two main building firms had their yards and works in the Victorian streets near the railway line. Richard Cook's firm, which built the houses and streets of the 19th-century "New Town" development, was founded in 1861 and was based at the corner of two of the new streets. The works included a brickyard; poor drainage led to soil and dirty water from it polluting the surrounding area. The Crawley and Ifield Vigilance Committee, an amateur pressure group, demanded improvements for several years, and proper drains were eventually laid. Cook and Sons'advertisements revealed the range of products manufactured: the works made bricks, tiles, pipes and pottery, and his team of labourers carried out all types of building and contracting work. James Longley and Sons became the most famous business in Crawley and one of its largest: in 1898 more than 700 people worked for it. Longley moved his small firm from Turners Hill in 1881 when he bought Malthouse Farm and its brickworks. Expansion was rapid, and they received commissions for Christ's Hospital school near Horsham, the King Edward VII sanatorium in Midhurst, Graylingwell Hospital in Chichester, the choir stalls in Westminster Abbey and almost every railway station owned by the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway. Longley and Sons, which soon became Longley and Company, quickly became one of southeast England's main building firms; but it was nearly ruined on 20 March 1924 when the joinery and timber works, all stock inside it and sixty machines were destroyed by fire. The firm recovered, though, and was able to tender for a wide range of contracts in the New Town era, including Hazelwick School, much of the Manor Royal industrial estate, Crawley fire station, the Queen's Square shopping area and Crawley College's tower block extension.
