Timeline of Exeter

The following is a timeline of the history of the city of Exeter, Devon, England.

This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by expanding it with reliably sourced entries.

Prior to 16th century

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• 45 CE – Romans in power (approximate date).^[1]
• 55 – Roman fort established in Isca Dumnoniorum (approximate date).
• 380 – Roman occupation ends (approximate date).^[2]
• 600 – Saxons arrive (approximate date).^[2]
• 868 – Monastery founded by Ethelred.^[3]
• 876 – Danes occupy town.^[4]
• 893 – Town besieged by Danes again.
• 900 – Market active.^[5]
• 932 – Monastery founded by Athelstan.^[3]
• 927: William of Malmesbury, writing around 1120, says that Athelstan evicted the Cornish from Exeter and perhaps the rest of Devon: "Exeter was cleansed of its defilement by wiping out that filthy race".^[6] The area inside the city walls still known today as 'Little Britain' is the quarter where most of the Cornish Romano-British aristocracy had their town houses, from which the Cornish were expelled. Under Athelstan's statutes it eventually became unlawful for any Cornishman to own land, and lawful for any Englishman to kill any Cornishman (or woman or child).
• 1003 – Exeter sacked by forces of Sweyn of Denmark.^[3]
• 1048 – Episcopal see relocated to Exeter from Crediton.^[4]
• 1050 – Leofric becomes bishop of Exeter.^[7][8]
• 1067 – Exeter besieged by forces of William the Conqueror.^[7]
• 1068 – Rougemont Castle built (approximate date).
• 1087 – Benedictine Priory of St Nicholas founded.
• 1130 – Exeter fair active.^[5]
• 1136 – Exeter besieged by forces of Stephen, King of England.^[1]
• 1207 – Mayor in office.
• 1236 – Nunnery founded.^[7]
• 1400 – Exeter Cathedral built (approximate date).
• 1490 – Company of Weavers and Fullers incorporated.^[9]
• 1497 – City besieged by forces of Perkin Warbeck.^[4]

16th-18th centuries

John Rocque's 1744 map of Exeter

• 1536
  • City becomes a county corporate.^[7]
  • Monastery disbanded.^[1]
• 1556 – Society of Merchant Adventurers incorporated.^[10]
• 1564 – Exeter Ship Canal construction begins.^[1]
• 1593 – Guildhall rebuilt.^[7]
• 1595 – Michael Harte bookseller in business.^[11]
• 1612 – Northernhay Gardens laid out.
• 1633 – Exeter Free Grammar School opens.
• 1643 – September: City taken by forces of Charles I of England.^[7]
• 1646 – April: Parliamentarians in power.^[7]
• 1664 – St Stephen's Church built.
• 1688 – November: William III of England visits city.^[3]
• 1696 – Mint established.^[3]
• 1714 – Exeter Mercury newspaper begins publication.^[12]
• 1758 – Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital built.
• 1763 – Trewman's Exeter Flying Post newspaper in publication.
• 1764 – Exeter Synagogue consecrated.
• 1778 – Bridge rebuilt.
• 1783 – Gilbert Dyer's circulating library in business.^[11][13]
• 1792 – Exeter Gazette newspaper begins publication.^[12]

19th century

View of Exeter, 1803

• 1813
  • Devon and Exeter Institution founded.^[3]
  • Exeter Western Luminary begins publication.^[14]
• 1814
  • Iron Footbridge built.
  • Exeter Medical Library founded.
• 1821 – Besley's Exeter News begins publication.^[12]
• 1823 – Cholera epidemic.^[1]
• 1825
  • Mechanics' Institution opens.^[7]
  • Chichester Place laid out.
• 1832 – Veitch plant nursery in business.^[15]
• 1835 – Athenaeum instituted.^[3]
• 1840 – Exeter Diocesan Training College opens.
• 1842 – Church of St Andrew built.
• 1844 – Bristol and Exeter Railway begins operating to Exeter St Davids railway station.^[7]
• 1847 – Polytechnic Institution founded.^[3]
• 1848 – South Devon Railway begins operating from Exeter St Davids station.^[3]
• 1853 – Prison built.
• 1854 – School of Art founded.
• 1860 – London and South Western Railway begins operating to Exeter Queen Street station.
• 1862 – Devonshire Association for the Advancement of Science, Literature, and Art established.^[16]
• 1867 – November: Economic unrest.^[7]
• 1870 – Royal Albert Memorial Museum established.
• 1882 – Horse-drawn tram begins operating.
• 1887 – 5 September: Theatre Royal burns down with 186 fatalities.^[7]
• 1889
  • Theatre Royal rebuilt.
  • Devon and Exeter Medico-Chirurgical Society founded.^[17]
• 1896 – City of Exeter Electricity Company formed.

20th century

Queen Street, Exeter, 1943

• 1901 – Population: 47,185.^[18]
• 1904 – Express & Echo newspaper begins publication.^[19]
• 1905
  • Devon and Cornwall Record Society established (approximate date).^[20]
  • Bridge rebuilt.
  • Electric tram begins operating.
• 1910 – Empire Electric Palace opens.^[21]
• 1911 – Exeter Pictorial Record Society active.^[22]
• 1924 – Sidwell Street Methodist Church built.
• 1937 – Odeon Exeter cinema opens.^[21]
• 1938 – Exeter Airport opens.
• 1942 – May: Aerial bombing by German forces.^[1]
• 1955 – University of Exeter chartered.
• 1960 – October: Flood.
• 1964 – Devon County Hall built.
• 1967 – Northcott Theatre opens.
• 1970 – Exeter College established.
• 1972 – Barnfield Theatre established.
• 1974 – Spacex (art gallery) established.
• 1977 – M5 motorway opens.^[1]
• 1997 – Douglas Centre for the History of Cinema and Popular Culture opens at University of Exeter.

21st century

• 2007 – Princesshay rebuilt.
• 2008 – 22 May: Attempted bombing in Princesshay.
• 2011 – Population: 117,773.

See also

• History of Exeter

References

Further reading

Published in the 17th-18th centuries

• John Ogilby (1699), "(Exeter)", Traveller's Guide, or, A Most Exact Description of the Roads of England, London: Abel Swall 
• Richard Izacke; Samuel Izacke (1677/1724), Remarkable Antiquities of the City of Exeter (1st/2nd ed.), London: Printed for Edw. Score  Check date values in: |date= (help)
• Antient History and Description of the City of Exeter. Exeter: Andrews and Trewman. 1765. Compiled and digested from the works of Hooker, Izacke, and Others 
• Daniel Defoe; Samuel Richardson (1778), "Devonshire: (Exeter)", A Tour Through the Island of Great Britain (8th ed.), London: J.F. and C. Rivingdon 

Published in the 19th century

1800s-1840s

• John Britton; Edward Wedlake Brayley (1803), "Exeter", Beauties of England and Wales 4, London: Vernor & Hood 
• Alexander Jenkins (1806), The history and description of the city of Exeter, Exeter: P. Hedgeland, OCLC 5828563 
• S. Woolmer (1811), A Concise Account of the City of Exeter (2nd ed.), Exeter 
• George Alexander Cooke (ca.1817?). "Exeter". Topographical and Statistical Description of the County of Devon (3rd ed.). London: Sherwood, Neeley and Jones.  Check date values in: |date= (help)
• James Dugdale (1819), "Devonshire: Exeter", New British Traveller 2, London: J. Robins and Co. 
• "Exeter". Rees's Cyclopædia. 1819. 
• New Guide to the City of Exeter. Exeter: W. Spreat. 1824. 
• Robert Watt (1824). "Exeter". Bibliotheca Britannica 3. Edinburgh: A. Constable. OCLC 961753. 
• Exeter itinerary and general directory, Exeter: T. and H. Besley, 1828 
• David Brewster, ed. (1830). "Exeter". Edinburgh Encyclopædia. Edinburgh: William Blackwood. 
• "Exeter", Great Western, Cheltenham and Great Western, and Bristol and Exeter Railway Guides, London: James Wyld, 1839, OCLC 12922212 
• Samuel Lewis (1848), "Exeter", Topographical Dictionary of England (7th ed.), London: S. Lewis and Co. 

1850s-1890s

• "Hand Book of Exeter", Besley's Hand Book for the Archery Meeting, and Visitor's Guide to Exeter, Exeter: Henry Besley, 1858, Grand National Archery Meeting 
• George Samuel Measom (1860), "Exeter", Official Illustrated Guide to the Bristol and Exeter, North and South Devon, Cornwall, and South Wales Railways, London: Richard Griffin and Co. 
• George Oliver (1861), The history of the city of Exeter, Exeter: W. Roberts 
• Charles Knight, ed. (1867). "Exeter". Geography. English Cyclopaedia (London: Bradbury, Evans, & Co.). 
• Hand-book and directory for Exeter and its neighbourhood. Exeter: H. Mortimer. c. 1874. 
• W. Cotton; Henry Woollcombe (1877), Gleanings from the Municipal and Cathedral Records Relative to the History of the City of Exeter, J. Townsend 
• History, gazetteer and directory of the County of Devon including the City of Exeter (2nd ed.), Sheffield: William White, 1878 
• Illustrated Hand Book of Exeter, Exeter: H. Besley and Son, 1880, OCLC 12990441 
• John Parker Anderson (1881), "Devonshire: Exeter", Book of British Topography: a Classified Catalogue of the Topographical Works in the Library of the British Museum Relating to Great Britain and Ireland, London: W. Satchell 
• R.N. Worth (1883), "Exeter", Tourist's Guide to South Devon (3rd ed.), London: Edward Stanford 
• Popular Illustrated Guide to Exeter and Its Neighbourhood. Exeter: Thomas Upward. 1887. 
• Edward Augustus Freeman (1890), Exeter, Historic Towns (2nd ed.), London: Longmans, Green, and Co., OCLC 3601841 
• Herbert Edward Reynolds (1895), A short history of the ancient diocese of Exeter, Exeter: H. Besley 
• "Exeter", Great Britain (4th ed.), Leipsic: Karl Baedeker, 1897, OCLC 6430424 
• Charles Gross (1897). "Exeter". Bibliography of British Municipal History. New York: Longmans, Green, and Co. 
• Charles Slegg Ward (1897), "Exeter", North Devon and North Cornwall, Thorough Guides (7th ed.), Dulau & Co. 
• Guide to Exeter. London: Ward, Lock & Co. 1899. 

Published in the 20th century

• "Exeter", Route Book of Devon (2nd ed.), Exeter: Henry Besley, 1900 
• "Central Section: Exeter". Book of Fair Devon. United Devon Association. 1900. 
• A.R. Hope Moncrieff, ed. (1902), Black's Guide to Exeter and East Devon, London: A. & C. Black 
• G.K. Fortescue, ed. (1902). "Exeter". Subject Index of the Modern Works Added to the Library of the British Museum in the Years 1881–1900. London. 
• J.G. Bartholomew (1904), "Exeter", Survey Gazetteer of the British Isles, London: G. Newnes 
• A.M. Shorto (1906). Story of Exeter: for use in schools. Exeter: James G. Commin. 
• "Exeter". List of Works Relating to British Genealogy and Local History. New York: New York Public Library. 1910. 
• Great Britain. Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts (1916), Report on the records of the City of Exeter, London, OCLC 924383 
• "Exeter". England. Blue Guides. London: Macmillan. 1920. 
• W. G. Hoskins. Industry, Trade and People in Exeter, 1688–1800 (1935)
• W. Stanley Lewis and A. H. Shorter (1939). "The Evolution of Exeter". Geography 24. JSTOR 40561002. 
• Aileen Fox. Roman Exeter (1952)

Published in the 21st century

• Connie S. Evans (2000). "'An Echo of the Multitude': The Intersection of Governmental and Private Poverty Initiatives in Early Modern Exeter". Albion: A Quarterly Journal Concerned with British Studies 32. JSTOR 4053912. 
• "Exeter". Brewer's Britain and Ireland. Weidenfeld & Nicolson. 2005. ISBN 1849721858 – via Credo Reference. (subscription required)

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Exeter.

• Royal Albert Memorial Museum. "Exeter Time Trail". Exeter City Council. 
• "Devon", Historical Directories (UK: University of Leicester) . Includes digitized directories of Exeter, various dates
• "Timeline". Exeter Memories. David Cornforth. 
• Digital Public Library of America. Works related to Exeter, various dates

Coordinates: 50°43′00″N 3°32′00″W / 50.716667°N 3.533333°W / 50.716667; -3.533333

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