Timeline of Exeter

various constructions

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 adding missing items with reliable sources.

Prior to 16th century

• 250 BC – Goods traded with Roman coins
• 45 CE – Romans in power (approximate date).
• 55 – Roman fort established in Isca Dumnoniorum (approximate date).
• 380 – Roman occupation ends (approximate date).
• 600 – Saxons arrive (approximate date).
• 868 – Monastery founded by Ethelred.
• 876 – Danes occupy town.
• 893 – Town besieged by Danes again.
• 900 – Market active.
• 927 – Athelstan evicts the Cornish from Exeter (and perhaps the rest of Devon), according to William of Malmesbury, writing around 1120.
• 932 – Monastery founded by Athelstan.
• 1003 – Exeter sacked by forces of Sweyn of Denmark.
• 1048 – Episcopal see relocated to Exeter from Crediton.
• 1050 – Leofric becomes bishop of Exeter.
• 1067 – Exeter besieged by forces of William the Conqueror.
• 1068 – Rougemont Castle built (approximate date).
• 1087 – Benedictine Priory of St Nicholas founded.
• 1130 – Exeter fair active.
• 1136 – Exeter besieged by forces of Stephen, King of England.
• 1190 – Old Exe Bridge construction began.
• 1207 – Mayor in office.
• 1214 – Old Exe Bridge construction finished (approximate).
• 1236 – Nunnery founded.
• 1348 – Order of Brothelyngham, an anti-religious group, active in the city.
• 1400 – Exeter Cathedral built (approximate date).
• 1466 – Tailors' trade gild incorporated.
• 1468/70 – Exeter Guildhall current building constructed.
• 1482 – Tailors' trade gild dissolved on the petition of the burgesses.
• 1490 – Company of Weavers and Fullers incorporated.
• 1497 – City besieged by forces of Perkin Warbeck.

16th–18th centuries

John Rocque's 1744 map of Exeter

• 1536
  • City becomes a county corporate.
  • Monastery disbanded.
• 1556 – Society of Merchant Adventurers incorporated.
• 1564 – Exeter Ship Canal construction begins.
• 1593 – Guildhall rebuilt.
• 1595 – Michael Harte bookseller in business.
• 1612 – Northernhay Gardens laid out.
• 1633 – Exeter Free Grammar School opens.
• 1643 – September: City taken by forces of Charles I of England.
• 1646 – April: Parliamentarians in power.
• 1664 – St Stephen's Church built.
• 1681 – Custom House built on the Quay.
• 1688 – November: William III of England visits city.
• 1696 – Mint established.
• 1714 – Exeter Mercury newspaper begins publication.
• 1743 – Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital opened.
• 1760 – George's Meeting (Unitarian) 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.
• 1792 – Exeter Gazette newspaper begins publication.

19th century

View of Exeter, 1803

• 1813
  • Devon and Exeter Institution founded.
  • Exeter Western Luminary begins publication.
• 1814
  • Iron Footbridge built.
  • Exeter Medical Library founded.
• 1821 – Besley's Exeter News begins publication.
• 1823 – Cholera epidemic.
• 1825
  • Mechanics' Institution opens.
  • Chichester Place laid out.
• 1832 – Veitch plant nursery in business.
• 1835 – Athenaeum instituted.
• 1837 – Catacombs built.
• 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.
• 1847 – Polytechnic Institution founded.
• 1848 – South Devon Railway begins operating from Exeter St Davids station.
• 1852 – Exeter and South Devon Volunteers formed.
• 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.
• 1867 – November: Economic unrest.
• 1870 – Royal Albert Memorial Museum established.
• 1882 – Horse-drawn tram begins operating.
• 1884 – 18 November: Sacred Heart Church opened.
• 1887 – 5 September: Theatre Royal burns down with 186 fatalities.
• 1889
  • Theatre Royal rebuilt.
  • Devon and Exeter Medico-Chirurgical Society founded.
• 1896 – City of Exeter Electricity Company formed.

20th century

Electric tram crosses the new Exe Bridge, 1905

Queen Street, Exeter, 1943

• 1901 – Population: 47,185.
• 1904 – Express & Echo newspaper begins publication.
• 1905
  • 29 March: Rebuilt Exe Bridge opened.
  • 4 April: Exeter Corporation Tramways begins operating its electric system.
  • Approximate date: Devon and Cornwall Record Society established.
• 1907 – Sidwell Street Methodist Church completed, a pioneering example of reinforced concrete construction by French engineer Paul Cottancin.
• 1910 – Empire Electric Palace opens.
• 1911 – Exeter Pictorial Record Society active.
• 1914 – 7 October: First of five war emergency hospitals in requisitioned buildings in the city opens to casualties, staffed by Voluntary Aid Detachment nurses.
• 1916 – December: Deller's Café opens in Bedford Street.
• 1937
  • Odeon Exeter cinema opens.
  • Exeter Airport opens.
• 1942 – May: "Baedeker Blitz": Aerial bombing by the German Luftwaffe devastates the city centre.
• 1949 – 21 October: Official inauguration of construction of Princesshay, Britain's first pedestrianised shopping precinct, as part of the postwar city centre reconstruction.
• 1955 – University of Exeter chartered.
• 1960 – October: Flood.
• 1963 – November: Exeter & Devon Crematorium opened.
• 1964 – Devon County Hall built.
• 1966 – 1 April: City boundaries extended to include Alphington, Pinhoe and Topsham.
• 1967 – Northcott Theatre opens.
• 1970 – Exeter College established.
• 1972 – Barnfield Theatre established.
• 1974 – Spacex (art gallery) established.
• 1977 – M5 motorway opens.
• 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.
• 2017 – Exeter Chiefs rugby union team win the Aviva Premiership.
• 2021 – World War II bomb detonation.

See also

• Exeter history
• Timelines of other cities in South West England: Bath, Bristol, Plymouth

Bibliography

Published in 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 (1724) [1677], Remarkable Antiquities of the City of Exeter, London: Printed for Edw. Score
• 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 19th century

1800s–1840s

• John Britton; Edward Wedlake Brayley (1803), "Exeter", Beauties of England and Wales, vol. 4, London: Vernor & Hood
• Alexander Jenkins (1806), The history and description of the city of Exeter, Exeter: P. Hedgeland, OCLC 5828563, OL 6929249M
• S. Woolmer (1811), A Concise Account of the City of Exeter (2nd ed.), Exeter
• George Alexander Cooke (c. 1822). "Exeter". Topographical and Statistical Description of the County of Devon (3rd ed.). London: Sherwood, Neeley and Jones.[2]
• James Dugdale (1819), "Devonshire: Exeter", New British Traveller, vol. 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. Vol. 3. Edinburgh: A. Constable. hdl:2027/nyp.33433089888832. 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, hdl:2027/njp.32101064794991, 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., hdl:2027/wu.89097040505
• George Oliver (1861), The history of the city of Exeter, Exeter: W. Roberts, OL 7051533M
• Charles Knight, ed. (1867). "Exeter". Geography. English Cyclopaedia. London: Bradbury, Evans, & Co. hdl:2027/nyp.33433000064794.
• 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, OL 14012345M
• Illustrated Hand Book of Exeter, Exeter: H. Besley and Son, 1880, OCLC 12990441, OL 22883206M
• 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, OL 6586115M
• Herbert Edward Reynolds (1895), A short history of the ancient diocese of Exeter, Exeter: H. Besley, OL 7241003M
• "Exeter", Great Britain (4th ed.), Leipsic: Karl Baedeker, 1897, hdl:2027/mdp.39015010546516, OCLC 6430424
• Charles Gross (1897). "Exeter". Bibliography of British Municipal History. New York: Longmans, Green, and Co.[3]
• Charles Slegg Ward (1897), "Exeter", North Devon and North Cornwall, Thorough Guides (7th ed.), Dulau & Co.
• Guide to Exeter. London: Ward, Lock & Co. 1899.
• "Exeter", Route Book of Devon (2nd ed.), Exeter: Henry Besley, 1900
• "Central Section: Exeter". Book of Fair Devon. United Devon Association. 1900.

Published in 20th century

• 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: The Trustees. hdl:2027/uc1.b5107011.
• 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.
• "Exeter (England)" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 10 (11th ed.). 1910. pp. 65–66.
• Report on the records of the City of Exeter, London: HM Stationery Office, 1916, OCLC 924383, OL 7065949M
• "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 (3): 149–161. JSTOR 40561002.
• W. G. Hoskins. "Exeter" History Today (May 1951), Vol. 1 Issue 5, p28-37 online.
• Aileen Fox. Roman Exeter (1952)
• 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 (3): 408–428. doi:10.2307/4053912. JSTOR 4053912.

Published in 21st century

• "Exeter". Brewer's Britain and Ireland. Weidenfeld & Nicolson. 2005. ISBN 1-84972-185-8 – via Credo Reference.(subscription required)
• Tim Isaac and Chris Hallam Secret Exeter (2018)

External links

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