While it was interesting to learn about what motivated the Crawley new town development (The Argus, March 30), it was quite distressing to see my family's home village of Three Bridges redefined as a "neighbourhood", created by planners in 1947 as a mere extension of the Crawley project.

From just after the end of the First World War my grandfather owned and ran Tilgate Park Garage, a bicycle shop and end-of-terrace house in Three Bridges High Street.

Crawley was a small market town and Three Bridges was important enough in its own right to be a railway junction the Germans wanted to take out in World War Two.

My mother tells of travelling to Horsham from Three Bridges every morning, with endless stoppages as they waited to see where the doodlebugs would land.

Needless to say, my grandparents had their own reasons to be nervous of the bombs - underground petrol tanks.

Nearby is the famous and ancient Worth Church where my relatives are buried.

Perhaps that too will one day be called a Crawley "neighbourhood" by a careless young historian whom others will reference.

Because of those developments, Three Bridges High Street became Three Bridges Road and businesses gradually lost their viability as the big fish swallowed the little fish.

Crawley sprawl, the bypass and now the internet have all conspired to erase history.

Not much of old Three Bridges has survived the invasion.

It is said the past informs the future but the past has first to be remembered, respected and passed on at the factual level.

-Valerie Paynter, Hove