You've got to remember were in a league now where there are so many metropolitan sophisticated towns and cities represented.
Crawley, Doncaster, Oldham, Stevenage, Colchester, Walsall, Bury, Scunthorpe, Hartlepool... the list goes on.
Its understandable that people take the piss out of Swindon.
Its just another town. Shitty towns abound over our lovely green and pleasant isle.
Crawley is a shit hole, but the surrounding area is home to lots of affluent areas. Crawley is also situated smack bang in the middle of the London to Brighton line, and where other South Coast lines converge. It has also boasted the highest employment rates in the past due to it's locality to Gatwick Airport.
Other than being home to a few young mums and chavs, I don't see why Crawley is despised so much or has such a bad reputation, other than Steve Evans used to be their manager?
I lived in Crawley for 14 years, and think it's a great place to grow up. I'm firmly routed to the South East now, although choose to live outside Crawley.