History
- 1241: The name "Gatwick" is first recorded, as Gatwik, the name of a manor, on the site of today's airport (under the northmost edge of North Terminal's aircraft taxiing area). Until the 19th century, it was owned by the De Gatwick family. Its name is derived from the Anglo-Saxon words gāt, 'goat', and wīc, 'dairy farm', i.e. 'goat farm'. (On the adjacent map, Gatwick Manor is at the northwest end of the racecourse; its name is somewhat obscured by the map's paper being eroded over an old crease. The site of the modern runway runs roughly from the racecourse to the lane junction at Hydefield farm southeast of Charlwood. Comparing old and new maps seems to show that the modern Gatwick Manor hotel is not the old Gatwick Manor but a rename for another old building, near Lowfield Heath.)
- 21 September 1841: The London and Brighton Railway opened, running near Gatwick Manor.
- 1890: The descendants of the original owners sold the area to the newly established Gatwick Race Course Company.
- 1891: The new owners opened a horse racecourse (Gatwick Racecourse), beside the London–Brighton railway, and a dedicated station including sidings for horse boxes. The course held steeplechase and flat races.
- 1916, 1917, 1918: During World War I the racecourse hosted the Grand National.
Read more about this topic: Gatwick Airport
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“The thing that struck me forcefully was the feeling of great age about the place. Standing on that old parade ground, which is now a cricket field, I could feel the dead generations crowding me. Here was the oldest settlement of freedmen in the Western world, no doubt. Men who had thrown off the bands of slavery by their own courage and ingenuity. The courage and daring of the Maroons strike like a purple beam across the history of Jamaica.”
—Zora Neale Hurston (1891–1960)
“I believe that history might be, and ought to be, taught in a new fashion so as to make the meaning of it as a process of evolution intelligible to the young.”
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95)
“The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.”
—Karl Marx (1818–1883)