Marlborough Timeline

  • Discovery of an Iron Age burial bucket in the early C19th suggests possible early occupation

  • Algeric, Bishop of the South Saxons, imprisoned in Marlborough by William I

  • A mint has been established by William I by this time

  • The first official mention of Marlborough made in the Domesday Book

  • Churches on the site of St. Mary's church and St. Peter's church in existence

  • St. Margaret's Priory founded; a coarse woollen cloth known as burel being made in the town

  • Building work started on Marlborough Castle

  • A merchant guild received royal approval

  • Thomas Becket spent Christmas here with Henry II

  • King John married to Queen Isabella at the Castle

  • First reference to the Town Mill, a corn mill

  • Royal Charter granted by King John setting up an annual 8-day fair and weekly markets on Wednesdays and Saturdays

  • Hospital of St. John the Baptist has been founded by this time; a fulling mill is in operation at Elcot

  • St. Thomas's Leper hospital founded

  • St. Mary's church, on the site of an earlier Saxon church, and St. Peter's church has been dedicated by this time

  • Chapel of St.Nicholas, at Marlborough Castle, in existence by this time

  • Church of St. George, Preshute, on site of Saxon church, dedicated

  • King's Mill, a corn mill, established

  • Five Jewish families lived in the town before being ordered to move to Devizes

  • Henry III grants a four day fair to be held outside St Peter's Church

  • Church of St. Martin built in present day Coldharbour Lane

  • Parliament held in Marlborough passed the 'Statute of Marlborough' giving rights and privileges to the smaller landowners

  • A Guildhall, on the north side of the High Street, is first mentioned

  • A prison is first mentioned

  • Two members of parliament represent the borough

  • First recorded Mayor is Philip Godwyne

  • Priory of the White Friars founded

  • There are 10 tanners in the town and the tanning industry flourishes from the 14th century

  • St. Katherine's chantry built in High Street

  • The Old Hart an important inn for the coach trade

  • St. Mary's church believed to be burnt down - major reconstruction work followed

  • St. Peter's church rebuilt

  • Cardinal Wolsey ordained in the Church of St. Peter

  • Clay pipe manufacture is a flourishing industry in the town

  • The Hermitage dedicated for the use of a hermit (replaced in 1628 by a house bearing the same name today)

  • Priory of the White Friars dissolved

  • St. Margaret's Priory dissolved

  • Marlborough Free Grammar School founded; St. John's Hospital closed

  • Coat of Arms confirmed to the borough

  • An almshouse in existence

  • Charter of incorporation granted by Elizabeth I; pin making is well established in the town

  • The ducking stool constructed at a cost of 7s 6d ( 37p)

  • Marlborough has been a centre for the sale of cheese from this time

  • A pest house is in the borough

  • A new Guildhall, incorporating a market house, stands at the east end of High Street on the site of the High Cross until destroyed in the Great Fire

  • Workhouse built

  • Town captured by Royalists in the Civil War; the town's gallows last used to execute 2 Welshmen who deserted from the Royalist forces

  • Parliamentary forces re-occupy the town

  • Two silver gilt Borough maces made at a cost of £16

  • The Great Fire of Marlborough destroys 250 buildings with damage estimated at £70,000; the Merchant's House in the High Street built for Thomas Bayly, a rich silk merchant

  • Town Hall rebuilt on same site (present day site)

  • Following a sermon by George Fox in 1656 c.24 Quakers are imprisoned and publicly humiliated

  • Quaker meeting house built at Manton Corner

  • Rope making established in the town

  • Charles II stayed at the Castle

  • Samuel Pepys stayed at the White Hart

  • William Penn preached at the Quaker meeting house

  • Town lighted by oil lamps

  • Race meetings held on Barton Down

  • Workhouse demolished and rebuilt in Hyde Lane

  • Castle appears as a crest on the Borough Arms

  • The almshouse becomes St. Mary's Workhouse

  • Presbyterian chapel in Back Lane certified

  • John Wesley preached in the town

  • Castle Inn opened

  • The Antelope Inn in High Street renamed Castle and Ball

  • The Marlborough Journal printed weekly

  • There is a coffee house in the town

  • Congregational School for Dissenters founded by Cornelius Winter

  • Marlborough Academy opened

  • Thomas Hancock, inventor of the process of India Rubber manufacture, born in Marlborough

  • There are 25 inns in the town

  • Town Hall rebuilt by John Hammond

  • Cow Bridge built (also known as Ducks Bridge or Pewsey Road Bridge)

  • Presbyterian chapel in Back Lane, by this time a Congregational chapel, closed

  • White Horse cut on Granham Hill

  • The pillory used for the last time

  • Methodist chapel certified in Oxford Street

  • Methodist church built in New Road

  • A new Congregational chapel (later the United Reformed Church) built in the Marsh

  • Private gas company formed

  • Primitive Methodist's Ebenezer chapel built in Herd Street; Priory House built on the site of the priory buildings

  • Gas lighting has been installed in part of the Town Hall by this time

  • Gas lighting has been installed in High Street by this time

  • Preshute Church of England Primary School founded; brewing is one of the chief trades in the town by this time

  • St. Mary's Workhouse closed

  • From this date all inhabitants of Marlborough granted rights of pasturage on Marlborough Common

  • Workhouse in Hyde Lane sold

  • Marlborough College founded; Castle Inn closed; Ailesbury Arms established

  • The Marlborough Reading and Mutual Improvement Society formed; agricultural machinery is being manufactured in the town; there are 7 cheese factors in the town

  • Preshute School built

  • Duke of Wellington visits Marlborough College

  • Chapel of St. Michael & All Angels, at Marlborough College, built

  • St. Peter's School founded

  • 44 stage coaches a day are stopping at Marlborough by this time; police station opened in St. Margaret's

  • Plymouth Brethren meeting in Kingsbury Street

  • The Bridewell gaol closed and opened as a Police Station; Church of St. George, Preshute, rebuilt; St. Peter's School built

  • St. Mary's School opened in Herd Street

  • The Marlborough Times founded

  • The Marlborough and Hungerford Express printed weekly

  • St. Peter's church restored

  • Railway line linking Marlborough with the Great Western main line at Savernake opened

  • Savernake Cottage Hospital founded; James Morrison & Co. commence manufacture of rope and twine

  • Plymouth Brethren moved to a building in High Street; Local Board of Health established

  • Town Hall altered and repaired to improve accommodation for county sessions; schoolroom built at the Congregational chapel in the Marsh

  • Isolation hospital built in Blowhorn Street; Marlborough Town Football Club formed

  • Savernake Hospital moved to present day location on London Road

  • Numbering of houses in the town introduced

  • Zoar Baptist Chapel opened in St. Martins

  • Post Office on south side of High Street burned down and replaced on north side

  • Railway line linking Marlborough to Swindon open by this time

  • A new Chapel of St. Michael & All Angels, at Marlborough College, built

  • Marlborough Golf Club founded

  • Mains water supply has been provided by this time; railway line between Marlborough and Grafton via Savernake opened; Bear and Castle hotel rebuilt

  • Police Station built in George Lane

  • Free Grammar School closed

  • Sewage works opened in Elcot Lane

  • Town Hall rebuilt by C E Ponting

  • Marlborough Grammar School founded on site of the Free Grammar School

  • There is gas lighting throughout the borough by this time

  • New Post Office built in High Street

  • Methodist church rebuilt on same site in New Road and becomes known as New Road Chapel

  • Corn Exchange converted to a cinema

  • St. Mary's and St. Peter's parishes amalgamated

  • War Memorial erected at junction of Salisbury Road and London Road

  • First council houses built; William Golding the novelist lived at 29 The Green and attended Marlborough Grammar School

  • Zoar Baptist Chapel closed

  • Town mIll ceased to be a working mill

  • Electric lighting introduced; all brewing has ceased in the town

  • Cemetery opened on Marlborough Common; Cow Bridge rebuilt as a concrete beam bridge by F.S. Cutler

  • Ebenezer chapel closed

  • Motorised fire engine bought

  • Isolation hospital demolished

  • The town pump and weighbridge removed from High Street

  • High Level railway station closed

  • County branch library opened on the Green; new swimming baths opened; Wingrove & Edge Ltd. established as a sheepskin tannery in Angel Yard; first Roman Catholic chapel established in Elcot Lane

  • Kingsbury Hill House School opened

  • Gas Works closed

  • Winston Churchill accepted the Freedom of Marlborough; Marlborough Secondary Modern School opened on Marlborough Common; T.H. White Ltd acquire the agricultural engineering business originally started in 1870 by T.Pope

  • King George VI and Queen Elizabeth visit the town

  • New pedestrian bridge built over the Kennet at Isbury Lane crossing

  • The production of hide leather at Wingrove & Edge Ltd begun; Town Mill demolished

  • New Fire Station opened in the Parade

  • Major restoration work carried out to St. Mary's church

  • Marlborough Common levelled and re-seeded

  • New Roman Catholic Church built in George Lane

  • Council houses built on part of Port field

  • New Grammar School built; all railway passenger services withdrawn

  • Marlborough Grammar School rehoused in new buildings south of the town; St. Peter's Junior School moved to the former Grammar School building at The Parade

  • Library moved to present site in High Street

  • James Morrison & Co. cease the manufacture of rope and twine

  • Upper storeys of the Polly Tea Rooms in High Street destroyed by fire; Marlborough Secondary Modern School moved to new buildings in Chopping Knife Lane

  • Cinema is closed; M4 between London and the West opened

  • Congregational church unites with Presbyterian church to become United Reformed Church

  • St. Mary's Infants School opened in George Lane replacing the school in Herd Street; Marlborough ceases to be a borough and becomes a parish with town status; St. Peter's church redundant

  • Marlborough Grammar School and Marlborough Secondary Modern School amalgamated to form St. John's Comprehensive School

  • St. Peter's Charitable Trust set up to look after St. Peter's church, now deconsecrated

  • United Reformed Church closed and amalgamated with newly designed Christchurch (former Methodist chapel)

  • Marlborough International Jazz Festival founded

  • By this time the Tourist Information Centre occupies St. Peter's church; Hills Group moves its headquarters from Swindon to offices on the site of the Ailesbury Arms Hotel

  • The Merchant's House owned by a charitable trust, renovated and opened to the public

  • Fire at the Castle and Ball

  • Restoration work on the Castle and Ball completed