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 adding missing items with reliable sources.

various constructions

Prior to 16th century

• 250 BC – Goods traded with Roman coins
• 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]
• 927 – Athelstan evicts the Cornish from Exeter (and perhaps the rest of Devon), according to William of Malmesbury, writing around 1120.^[6]
• 932 – Monastery founded by Athelstan.^[3]
• 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]
• 1190 – Old Exe Bridge construction began.
• 1207 – Mayor in office.
• 1214 – Old Exe Bridge construction finished (approximate).
• 1236 – Nunnery founded.^[7]
• 1348 – Order of Brothelyngham, an anti-religious group, active in the city.
• 1400 – Exeter Cathedral built (approximate date).
• 1466 – Tailors' trade gild incorporated.^[9]
• 1468/70 – Exeter Guildhall current building constructed.^[9]
• 1482 – Tailors' trade gild dissolved on the petition of the burgesses.^[9]
• 1490 – Company of Weavers and Fullers incorporated.^[10]
• 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.^[11]
• 1564 – Exeter Ship Canal construction begins.^[1]
• 1593 – Guildhall rebuilt.^[7]
• 1595 – Michael Harte bookseller in business.^[12]
• 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.
• 1681 – Custom House built on the Quay.
• 1688 – November: William III of England visits city.^[3]
• 1696 – Mint established.^[3]
• 1714 – Exeter Mercury newspaper begins publication.^[13]
• 1743 – Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital opened.^[9]
• 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.^[12][14]
• 1792 – Exeter Gazette newspaper begins publication.^[13]

19th century

View of Exeter, 1803

• 1813
  • Devon and Exeter Institution founded.^[3]
  • Exeter Western Luminary begins publication.^[15]
• 1814
  • Iron Footbridge built.
  • Exeter Medical Library founded.
• 1821 – Besley's Exeter News begins publication.^[13]
• 1823 – Cholera epidemic.^[1]
• 1825
  • Mechanics' Institution opens.^[7]
  • Chichester Place laid out.
• 1832 – Veitch plant nursery in business.^[16]
• 1835 – Athenaeum instituted.^[3]
• 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.^[7]
• 1847 – Polytechnic Institution founded.^[3]
• 1848 – South Devon Railway begins operating from Exeter St Davids station.^[3]
• 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.^[17]
• 1867 – November: Economic unrest.^[7]
• 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.^[7]
• 1889
  • Theatre Royal rebuilt.
  • Devon and Exeter Medico-Chirurgical Society founded.^[18]
• 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.^[9]
• 1904 – Express & Echo newspaper begins publication.^[19]
• 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.^[20]
• 1907 – Sidwell Street Methodist Church completed, a pioneering example of reinforced concrete construction by French engineer Paul Cottancin.
• 1910 – Empire Electric Palace opens.^[21]
• 1911 – Exeter Pictorial Record Society active.^[22]
• 1914 – 7 October: First of five war emergency hospitals in requisitioned buildings in the city opens to casualties, staffed by Voluntary Aid Detachment nurses.^[23]
• 1916 – December: Deller's Café opens in Bedford Street.^[23]
• 1937
  • Odeon Exeter cinema opens.^[21]
  • Exeter Airport opens.
• 1942 – May: "Baedeker Blitz": Aerial bombing by the German Luftwaffe devastates the city centre.^[1]
• 1949 – 21 October: Official inauguration of construction of Princesshay, Britain's first pedestrianised shopping precinct, as part of the postwar city centre reconstruction.^[24]
• 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.^[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.
• 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