# Timeline of Exeter

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

## 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

* 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

* 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

* 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.