History of Bristol

By emily.speller
  • 803

    St James' Priory Church Founded

  • 1009

    Market Active

  • 1140

    St Augustine's Abbey founded

  • 1141

    Stephen, King of England, imprisoned in Bristol Castle after the Battle of Lincoln

  • 1147

    Bristol Fair Active

  • 1220

    Construction on Bristol Cathedral begins

  • 1223

    Grey friary founded

  • 1228

    Blackfriars Dominican priory established

  • 1290

    Jews expelled

  • 1292

    Church of St Mary Redcliffe built

  • 1295

    Parliamentary representation begins

  • 1373

    Bristol becomes a county corporate; Redcliffe becomes part of Bristol

  • 1478

    Ricart's Maiores Kalendar of Bristol started

  • 1498

    Cabot sets sail on his second voyage to the Americas; he is never heard of again.

  • 1504

    Chapel of the Three Kings of Cologne built.

  • 1542

    See of Bristol established.

  • 1552

    Society of Merchant Venturers chartered.

  • Merchant Venturers' School founded.

  • Bristol in the English Civil War Bristol taken by forces of Prince Rupert.

  • Fort at St. Michael's Hill rebuilt

  • Bristol taken by forces of Cromwell.

  • Bristol Castle demolished

  • King William Ale House built as a refuge for poor women.

  • Bristol Corporation of the Poor founded.

  • Almshouse established at St. Michael's Hill.

  • Merchants' hall built

  • Bristol Post-Boy newspaper begins publication.

  • St James's Square laid out.

  • Colston's Hospital founded

  • Custom House built.

  • William Cossley bookseller in business.

  • Farley's Bristol News-Paper begins publication

  • Dowry Square laid out.

  • Walter Churchman patents his invention for making chocolate.

  • Bristol Royal Infirmary opens.

  • William Champion patents a process to distill zinc from calamine using charcoal in a smelter.

  • New Room (Methodist chapel) built.

  • Merchant Tailors' Guild Hall built.

  • King Square laid out

  • The Exchange built

  • Bristol becomes Britain's busiest slave trading port

  • Economic unrest.

  • Joseph Fry begins chocolate manufacture.

  • Theatre opens.

  • Bristol Gazette newspaper begins publication.

  • Bristol Bridge built

  • Bristol porcelain manufacture begins; Bristol blue glass is also first produced at about this date.

  • Bristol Library Society founded.

  • Stapelton Prison built to hold naval prisoners of war captured during the American Revolutionary War.

  • Infirmary opens.

  • Wills, Watkins & Co. open a tobacconists' shop which becomes W.D. & H.O. Wills.

  • John Wesley gives speech against slavery

  • Berkeley Square laid out.

  • Christ Church with St Ewen and Equestrian Theatre built.

  • Bridge riot.

  • Stapelton prison used for French prisoners of war during the Napoleonic Wars.

  • John Harvey & Sons, importers of Harvey's Bristol Cream sherry, founded

  • Pneumatic Institution established.

  • Bristol Dock Company incorporated

  • Stapelton prison enlarged.

  • Docks built.

  • Commercial Rooms built

  • Population: 52,889

  • John Horwood hanged for the murder of Eliza Balsom

  • Chamber of Commerce founded

  • Bristol Institution opens

  • New cattle market opens

  • Clifton becomes part of city

  • Queen Square riots – 4 rioters killed and 86 injured by cavalry charge in Queen Square.

  • 4 Queen Square rioters charged and hanged.

  • Bristol Mechanics' Institution building opens.

  • Holy Trinity Church built.

  • Zoological Gardens open.

  • Passage to St Vincent's Cave opens

  • Paddle steamer SS Great Western (launched 1837) begins travelling to the United States

  • Bath-Bristol section of Great Western Railway begins operating.

  • Bristol and Clifton Ladies' Anti-Slavery Society instituted.

  • London-Bristol railway completed

  • Synagogue opens in Park Row

  • Buckingham Baptist Chapel built.

  • Iron steamship SS Great Britain launched.

  • Bristol Academy for the Promotion of Fine Arts founded.