Timeline of Bristol

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

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• 803 – St James' Priory founded.^[1]
• ca.1000 – A Saxon settlement began to grow up at the junction of the rivers Frome and Avon.^[2]
• 1009 – Market active.^[3]
• 12th C. – College Green created.^[2]
• 1129 – St James' Priory founded.^[2]
• 1140 – St Augustine's Abbey founded.^[1]
• 1141 – February: Stephen, King of England imprisoned in Bristol Castle after the Battle of Lincoln.
• 1147 – Bristol fair active.^[3]
• 1172 - Charter from Henry II.^[2]
• 13th C. – Society of Merchant Venturers formed.
• c.1220 – Bristol Cathedral construction begins.
• c.1223 – Grey friary founded.^[1]
• 1224 - Eleanor, Fair Maid of Brittany imprisoned in Bristol Castle under relatively comfortable conditions, almost to her death in 1241.
• c.1228 – Blackfriars Dominican priory established.
• 1290 – Jews expelled.^[4]
• 1292 – Church of St Mary Redcliffe built.^[5]
• 1295 – Parliamentary representation begins.
• 1373 – Bristol becomes a county corporate;^[5] Redcliffe becomes part of Bristol.^[2]
• 1470 – St Stephen's Church rebuilt.^[2]
• c.1478–1479 – Ricart's Maiores Kalendar of Bristol started.^[6]
• 1497 – May: Italian-born adventurer John Cabot sets sail on the ship Matthew (principally owned by Richard Amerike) looking for new lands to the west.^[7]
• 1498 – May: Cabot sets sail on his second voyage to the Americas; he is never heard of again.^[8]

• 1504 – Chapel of the Three Kings of Cologne built.^[2]
• 1542 – See of Bristol established.^[2]
• 1552 – Society of Merchant Venturers chartered.
• 1580 – Red Lodge Museum established.
• 1595 – Merchant Venturers' School founded.
• 17th C. – The trade in African slaves flourishes.^[2]
• 1643 – July: Bristol in the English Civil War: Bristol taken by forces of Prince Rupert.^[5]
• 1644 – Fort at St. Michael's Hill rebuilt.^[9]
• 1645 – September: Bristol taken by forces of Cromwell.^[5]
• 1656 – Bristol Castle demolished.^[10]
• c. 1670 – King William Ale House built as a refuge for poor women.
• 1691
  • Bristol Corporation of the Poor founded.^[9]
  • Almshouse established at St. Michael's Hill.^[9]

• 1701 – Merchants' hall built.^[1]
• 1702 – Bristol Post-Boy newspaper begins publication.
• 1710 – Colston's Hospital founded.^[5]
• 1708 – Unrest.
• 1709 – St James's Square laid out.^[11]
• 1712 – Custom House built.^[11]
• 1717 – William Cossley bookseller in business.^[12]
• 1725 – Farley's Bristol News-Paper begins publication.^[13]
• 1727 – Dowry Square laid out.^[11]
• 1729 – Walter Churchman patents his invention for making chocolate.^[14]
• 1737 – Bristol Royal Infirmary opens.
• 1738 – William Champion patents a process to distill zinc from calamine using charcoal in a smelter.
• 1739 – New Room (Methodist chapel) built.
• 1740 – Merchant Tailors' Guild Hall built.
• 1741 – King Square laid out.^[11]
• 1743 – The Exchange built.^[1]
• 1747 – Bristol becomes Britain's busiest slave trading port.^[15]
• 1753 – Economic unrest.^[5]
• c.1759 – Joseph Fry begins chocolate manufacture.
• 1766 – Theatre opens.^[1]
• 1767 – Bristol Gazette newspaper begins publication.^[16]
• 1768 – Bristol Bridge built.^[1]
• 1769 – St Nicholas Church rebuilt.^[2]
• 1770 – Bristol porcelain manufacture begins;^[17][18] Bristol blue glass is also first produced at about this date.
• 1773 – Bristol Library Society founded.^[19]
• 1779 – Stapleton Prison built to hold naval prisoners of war captured during the American Revolutionary War.
• 1786
  • Infirmary opens.^[1]
  • Wills, Watkins & Co. open a tobacconists' shop which becomes W.D. & H.O. Wills.
• 1788 – John Wesley gives speech against slavery.^[15]
• c.1790 – Berkeley Square laid out.
• 1791 – Christ Church with St Ewen and Equestrian Theatre^[20] built.
• 1793 – 30 September: Bridge riot.
• 1793–1813 – Stapleton prison used for French prisoners of war during the Napoleonic Wars.^[21]
• 1796 – John Harvey & Sons, importers of Harvey's Bristol Cream sherry, founded.^[22]
• 1799 – Pneumatic Institution established.

• 1803 – Bristol Dock Company incorporated.^[2]
• 1804 – Stapleton prison enlarged.
• 1809 – Bristol Harbour formed.^[2]
• 1810 – Commercial Rooms built.^[1]
• 1821
  • 13 April: John Horwood hanged at the New Gaol for the murder of Eliza Balsom.^[23]
  • 28 May: Population enumerated as 52,889.^[1]
• 1823
  • Chamber of Commerce founded.^[2]
  • Bristol Institution opens.^[24]
  • Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery established.
• 1830 – New cattle market opens.
• 1830s – Clifton becomes part of city.^[25]
• 1831 – October: Queen Square riots^[15] – 4 rioters killed and 86 injured by cavalry charge in Queen Square.
• 1832
  • 4 Queen Square rioters charged and hanged.
  • Bristol Mechanics' Institution building opens.^[24]
  • Holy Trinity Church built.
• 1836 – Zoological Gardens open.^[26]
• 1837 – Passage to St Vincent's Cave opens.^[27]
• 1838 – 8 April: Paddle steamer SS Great Western (launched 1837) begins her first voyage to the United States.^[28]
• 1840
  • 31 August: Bath–Bristol section of Great Western Railway begins operating and Bristol Temple Meads railway station opens.^[2]
  • Bristol and Clifton Ladies' Anti-Slavery Society instituted.^[29]
• 1841
  • 14 June: First section of Bristol and Exeter Railway opens to Bridgwater.
  • 30 June: Great Western Railway opens throughout between London and Bristol;^[5] Bristol Temple Meads railway station substantially complete.
• 1842
  • Synagogue opens in Park Row.^[4]
  • Buckingham Baptist Chapel built.
• 1843 – 19 July: Iron steamship SS Great Britain launched.
• 1844 – Bristol Academy for the Promotion of Fine Arts founded.
• 1847 – Horfield Barracks completed.^[30]
• 1850
  • Bristol, West of England and South Wales Permanent Building Society formed.
  • Pro-Cathedral of the Holy Apostles (Roman Catholic) consecrated.
  • Clifton Victoria Baths opened.
• 1858
  • Western Daily Press newspaper begins publication.^[16]
  • Bristol General Hospital opens.^[2]
• 1861 – Durdham Down and Clifton Down rights acquired.
• 1862
  • Bristol Naturalists' Society established.
  • Clifton College opens.^[2]
• 1864
  • Clifton Suspension Bridge opens.^[5][2]
  • Avonside Engine Company in business.
• 1865
  • Bristol and West of England Amateur Photographic Association formed.^[31]
  • Industrial Exhibition held.^[5]
  • Daily Bristol Times and Mirror newspaper in publication.^[16]
• 1867 – Bristol Beacon concert hall opens as Colston Hall.^[2]
• 1870 – Gloucestershire County Cricket Club formed.
• 1871 – Bristol Museum and Library established.^[32]
• 1872 – Bristol Harbour Railway opened.^[33]
• 1873 – Bristol Trades Council founded.^[34]
• 1875 – Bristol Tramways (horse-drawn) begin operation.
• 1876
  • University College, Bristol opens.^[5]
  • The Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society founded.
• 1877 – Avonmouth dock opens.^[5]
• 1884 – Clifton Antiquarian Club founded.
• 1887
  • 1 October: Bristol Tramways and Carriage Company formed by merger of the Bristol Tramways Company and the Bristol Cab Company^[35][36] and begins a horse-bus service to Clifton.^[37]
  • Bristol Camera Society established.^[31]
  • Bristol Home for Lost and Starving Dogs opens.^[38]
• 1889
  • Labour strike.^[5]
  • Bristol Choral Society founded.
  • March: Flood.^[5]
• 1892 – Labour strike.^[5]
• 1893 – Brazil, Straker & Co (motor vehicle manufacturers) in business.
• 1895 – Bristol Tramways begin operating with electric traction.
• 1898 – Cabot Tower built on Brandon Hill.^[5]
• 1899 – The chief magistrate becomes a lord mayor.^[2]

• 1901
  • Imperial Direct West India Mail Service begins operating to Jamaica.^[39]
  • Population: 328,945.^[2]
  • Area of city: 11,705 acres.^[2]
• 1904
  • Shirehampton becomes part of city.
  • Area of city: 17,004 acres.^[2]
• 1905 – Bristol Kyrle Society founded.^[40]
• 1906
  • January: Bristol Tramways and Carriage Company introduces its first motor buses.
  • 4 October: Great Western Railway opens Bristol Harbour Extension Railway and Canon's Marsh goods branch.^[33]
  • Bristol Central Library opened.^[2]
• 1908 – Royal Edward Dock opens at Avonmouth.^[2]
• 1909 – University of Bristol receives royal charter.
• 1910 – British and Colonial Aeroplane Company in business.^[41]
• 1912 – Bristol Hippodrome opens.
• 1914 – 29 June: International Exhibition opens at the "White City", Ashton Gate, becoming a military depot soon after the outbreak of war.^[42]
• 1916
  • August: First tanks shipped to France from Avonmouth.
  • 9 September: Bristol F.2 Fighter aircraft first flies.
• 1926 – Hanham Colliery closes.
• 1929 – Bristol Record Society founded.
• 1930 – Whitchurch Airport begins operating.
• 1932
  • 23 February: Old Market riot.
  • 7 March: Bristol Evening Post newspaper begins publication.^[16]
• 1933
  • Gaiety Cinema opens.^[43]
  • Ribena first manufactured, by H. W. Carter.
• 1934 – 18 September: BBC Bristol Studios open.
• 1938 – Ritz Cinema opens.^[43]
• 1940 – 2 November: Bristol Blitz (aerial bombing by German forces) begins.
• 1941 – 11 April: Bristol Tramways abandoned due to bomb damage to its electric power supply.
• 1944 – 15 May: Bristol Blitz ends.
• 1945 – Bristol Cars in business.
• 1946 – Bristol Old Vic theatre company and Bristol Old Vic Theatre School established.
• 1956 – 17 April: Chew Valley Lake (1,200 acres (4.9 km²)) in Somerset is inaugurated as a reservoir for the Bristol area by the Queen.
• 1957 – Bristol Airport opens.
• 1958 – Bristol bus station opens.
• 1959 – Bristol Siddeley aero engine manufacturer in business.
• 1963 – 30 April: Bristol Bus Boycott.
• 1968 – World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association headquartered in city.
• 1969 – 9 April: British prototype Concorde airliner first flies from Filton.
• 1970
  • 5 July: SS Great Britain returns to Bristol.
  • 4 September: BBC Radio Bristol begins broadcasting.
  • Purdown BT Tower, for telecommunications and a radio repeater, is built.^[44]
  • Bristol Polytechnic established from Merchant Venturers Technical College.
• 1972 – 1 May: Bristol Parkway railway station opens.
• 1973 – 29 June: Clifton Cathedral (Roman Catholic) consecrated.
• 1974
  • 1 April: Bristol becomes part of the county of Avon
  • May: Avonmouth Bridge opens in Shirehampton.
  • c. July: Ashton Court Festival begins.
• 1977 – Gay Pride begins.^[45]
• 1978
  • Royal Portbury Dock opens.
  • Castle Park laid out.
  • Bristol Gay Centre founded.^[45]
• 1980 – 2 April: St. Pauls riot.
• 1984
  • 1 May: Old Profanity Showboat opens.
  • Bristol Community Church organised.
• 1986 – Show of Strength Theatre Company formed.
• 1991 – 27 January: Following its purchase by the Chiltern Radio Group, Bristol station FTP is replaced by Galaxy Radio.
• 1992
  • 16 July: Hartcliffe riot.
  • University of the West of England granted university status.
• 1996
  • 1 April: County of Avon abolished; Bristol once again becomes both a city and a county.
  • 24–27 May: First International Festival of the Sea held in and around the Harbour; replica 15th-century ship Matthew dedicated.
  • 19 July: MoD Abbey Wood opened at Filton.^[46]
  • City of Bristol College established by merger of Brunel College and South Bristol College.
• 1998 – Tobacco Factory Theatre established.
• 2000 – Shakespeare at the Tobacco Factory theatre company founded.

• 2001 – Bristol Royal Hospital for Children building opens.
• 2003 – Plain Clothes Theatre Productions formed.
• 2004 – Bristol Shakespeare Festival begins.
• 2006 – Redland Green School built.
• 2007 – 26–27 May: Dot to Dot Festival first held in Bristol.
• 2009 – The Bottle Yard Studios open as a television and film production facility.
• 2010 – Brunel Institute opens.^[47]
• 2011
  • 21 April: Stokes Croft riot, including an attack on a locally controversial newly opened Tesco store.
  • Bristol becomes a "city of sanctuary" for refugees.^[48]
• 2012 – 19 November: Architect George Ferguson takes office as the first elected Mayor of Bristol.^[49]
• 2020
  • 10 February: Councillors reject a proposed expansion of Bristol Airport, by 18 votes to seven, on the grounds that it would exacerbate climate change, damage the health of local people, and harm flora and fauna.^[50]
  • 7 June: The 1895 statue of Edward Colston, a 17th-century merchant, slave trader, MP and philanthropist, is pulled down by anti-racism protesters.^[51]
  • 2 December: COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom: Bristol enters Tier 3, the strictest level of restriction.^[52]
  • 3 December: An explosion at a waste water treatment works in Avonmouth kills 4.^[53]
• 2022 – 4 September: Bristol Zoo closes at its Clifton site.^[54]

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

• John Ogilby (1699), "(Bristol)", Traveller's Guide, or, A Most Exact Description of the Roads of England, London: Abel Swall
• Nathaniel Spencer (1772). "County of Somerset: (Bristol)". Complete English Traveller. London: J. Cooke.
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• Mathew's New History of Bristol or Complete Guide. 1794.

• "Bristol", Kearsley's Traveller's Entertaining Guide through Great Britain, London: George Kearsley, 1803
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• John Evans (1828), New Guide, or, Picture of Bristol (4th ed.), Bristol, OCLC 45137262, OL 13521980M

• David Brewster, ed. (1830). "Bristol". Edinburgh Encyclopædia. Edinburgh: William Blackwood.
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• And Co, Hunt E. (1848). Hunt & Co.'s Directory & Court Guide for the Cities of Bath, Bristol, & Wells.
• Samuel Lewis (1848), "Bristol", Topographical Dictionary of England (7th ed.), London: S. Lewis and Co.

• Chilcott, John (1851). Chilcott's Descriptive History of Bristol (9th ed.).
• "Bristol", Black's Picturesque Tourist and Road-book of England and Wales (3rd ed.), Edinburgh: Adam and Charles Black, 1853
• "Bristol". Bradshaw's Descriptive Railway Hand-Book of Great Britain and Ireland. London: W.J. Adams. 1860.
• George Bryce (1861). Popular History of Bristol. Bristol: W. Mack.
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• "Bristol", Handbook for Travellers in Gloucestershire, Worcestershire, and Herefordshire, London: J. Murray, 1872, OCLC 2167311
• Wright's Bristol Directory. Bristol. 1872.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Bristol, Cardiff, Newport, and Swansea Commercial List. London: Estell and Co. 1876.
• 'Canynge' Concise Guide to Bristol and Suburbs, Bristol: Jefferies & Sons, 1878, OL 7075650M
• J. F. Nicholls (1881), Bristol Past and Present, Bristol: J.W. Arrowsmith, OCLC 2663342, OL 23385067M
  • v.1: Civil history
  • v.2: Ecclesiastical history
  • v.3: Civil and Modern History
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• Archaeological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, ed. (1883), Memoirs illustrative of the history and antiquities of Bristol, Pub. for the Archæological institute, by G. Bell, OL 23402282M
• William Clark Russell (1883). "Bristol". North-East Ports and Bristol Channel. Newcastle upon Tyne: A. Reid. hdl:2027/uc1.$b667579.
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• G.K. Fortescue, ed. (1902). "Bristol". Subject Index of the Modern Works Added to the Library of the British Museum in the Years 1881–1900. London. pp. 6 v. hdl:2027/uc1.b5107011.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
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• Charles Wells, ed. (1902). Historic Bristol. Bristol.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) (articles reprinted from The Bristol Times and Mirror)
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• "Bristol". England. Blue Guides. London: Macmillan. 1920.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to History of Bristol.

• "Bristol and Transatlantic Slavery: Timeline". Port Cities UK. UK: New Opportunities Fund.
• "Gloucestershire", Historical Directories, UK: University of Leicester. Includes Bristol directories, various dates.
• Europeana. Works related to Bristol, various dates
• Digital Public Library of America. Works related to Bristol, various dates

51°27′00″N 2°35′00″W / 51.45°N 2.583333°W / 51.45; -2.583333