Chippenham Timeline

A Roman road to the south of Corsham and Lacock and a small settlement at Sandy Lane

Saxon settlement on higher ground to east of river - becomes a royal estate

Ethelswitha, older sister of King Alfred marries the King of Mercia in Chippenham's church

Saxon minster church in which King Alfred's daughter was married

The Danes attack Chippenham after Christmas and force King Alfred to flee to the Isle of Altheney in Somerset

Danes besieged in Chippenham by King Alfred after Battle of Edington and surrender

King Alfred leaves his Chippenham estates to his daughter

Chippenham given charter by King Edmund

Probably a mint in the town as there are coins of coins of Ethelred II (978-1016) have the place-name Cepen (Chippenham) on them

First documentary record of a church

Chippenham a royal manor and in the Domesday book are listed 113 holders of arable land although there are still 6 square miles of woodland on the manor, which would have been home to many pigs as there are 23 swineherds recorded. The population of the whole estate, not just the main settlement was between 600 and 800 people

From this time Chippenham sent 2 Members to Parliament

Core of the present Sheldon Manor House dates from this year

The Bell Inn, Market Street, in existence

The Borough Arms incorporating arms from the Gascelyn and Hussey families becomes the Common Seal of Chippenham for use on documents

Tower of St. Andrew's Church rebuilt

Maud Heath gives land and property in Chippenham to construct a causeway from Wick Hill, in Bremhill, to Chippenham for people going to market

By this date the Yelde Hall has been built

Queen Mary gives the town a charter in which she gives the borough lands to help the borough pay for the maintenance of the bridge, the causeway and the expenses of 2 M.P.s

An Act of Parliament passed stating that the repair of all roads within its boundaries was the responsibility of the parish

Original Butter Cross erected in the market place

Chippenham becomes a posting stage between London and Bristol for the Queen's horses

A severe visitation of the plague with many dying

The Yelde Hall is renovated

Civil War; on the night of Saturday 8th July there was a running fight in Chippenham with General Waller pursuing the Royalist army after the Battle of Lansdowne

Oliver Cromwell lodges at the White Hart on his way to Ireland

Money given by Richard Scott in for a school in St. Mary's Street for the education of 15 poor boys (school may not have opened until early 18th century)

William Woodroffe left £5 annually to be paid to a schoolmaster teaching 10 poor boys

The town bridge is in such a fragile condition that several men were employed helping large pieces of ice through the arches of the bridge in the great frost; piers of the bridge might otherwise have been destroyed

Waterford Mills (Messers Pocock & Co.) founded in Factory Lane

The first workhouse in Chippenham built

In January the London Flying Wagon caused considerable damage when the coach was involved in an accident in St. Mary's Street

The building that became the Bear Hotel built by Chippenham builder John Provis

Part of the town bridge collapses and is rebuilt and widened; Monkton House built around this time

First recorded inoculation against smallpox in Chippenham

Church of St. Nicholas, Hardenhuish, built

The mail coach took 16 hours for the journey from Chippenham to London

New Road is made by the turnpike trust; with the widening of the bridge 4 years later coach traffic no longer needs to go via Monkton Hill and Foghamshire en route between London and Bath

Town bridge is widened to 30 feet, strengthened, more arches built and a stone balustrade provided

The Chippenham branch of the Wilts & Berks Canal dug (to the site of the present bus station - The Wharf)

The town bridge lit by oil lamps

Old Baptist Church founded

More than 12 cloth factories working in the town; Wilts & Berks Canal opens

One of Chippenham's M.P.s is future Prime Minister Robert Peel

Chippenham Mill burnt down (rebuilt in 1817)

Battle between the men of the 2 Langleys and the men of Chippenham in the town. Two people killed and 31 injured

Gasworks built at Westmead ; the town bridge lit by gas; The Town Hall built by Joseph Neeld at a cost of about £12,000

Only one cloth factory still working in the town

The National Schools (St. Andrew's) built in the parish churchyard

The diarist Francis Kilvert born at Hardenhuish

Railway viaduct (Western Arches) built by Brunel; Brunel has site office by present railway station. 31st May railway line from Chippenham to London opens

Rowland Brotherhood moves to Chippenham and founds Chippenham Railway Works

British School opens in Ladd's Lane (moves to Wood's Lane in 1856)

Building of the Wilts, Somerset and Weymouth Railway provides a route to the south coast via Trowbridge and Westbury

Neeld Hall built as an extension to the Town Hall

Foundation stone of St. Paul's Church laid

The cemetery opens in London Road. Roman Catholic Church built on Station Hill (replaced by present building in 1936)

St. Paul's School opens

Railway Station built by Rowland Brotherhood using stone from the excavation of Box Tunnel

Three postal deliveries a day in the town, starting between 7.00 a.m. and 2.30 p.m. The workhouse at Rowden opened; it became the town's hospital in 1947

Chippenham Tannery opens (closed 1928)

A political riot after the election defeat of the Liberal Mr Lysley; 500 men, women and children involved, house windows smashed

Hathaway's Churn Factory established - butter churns made until 1934

The Néstle Milk Factory opens; first waterworks built and water pumped to 7 stand pipes in the town

Post Office sorting office opens on Station Hill

Parish Church of St. Andrew restored

12th May first issue of the newspaper The Chippenham Chronicle, North Wiltshire & West Gloucestershire Advertiser; price one penny, the last issue was 14th July 1882

Fountain erected in the Market Place

The great flood puts out the fires at the gas works and flood houses in Foghamshire

Elizabeth Utterson leaves 5 cottages in Lowden, 4 of them as homes for elderly ladies

Church of St. Peter at Lowden built

Mr E.C. Lowndes buys the Butter Cross for £6 and removs it into the grounds ofthe Manor House at Castle Combe

There are 2 silk factories in the town

Disastrous floods in the town

The Isolation Hospital opens

Secondary School opens in Cocklebury Lane (later Road)

Saxby & Farmer move from Kilburn into O'Donnell's Engineering Works in Chippenham

First sewerage works built for Chippenham

The Ivy lane School opens; King Edward VII visits Chippenham

Monkton Hill Wesleyan Methodist Chapel opens

The market moves to an area at the back of the Neeld Hall

Part of the Chippenham branch canal (from the Tunnel to the Wharf) is filled in

First council houses, in Wood Lane, built and occupied

World War I; Neeld hall used as hospital

Last cloth factory destroyed by fire

A merger of companies brings the Westinghouse Brake & Signal Co. to Chippenham

War memorial unveiled on 23rd May

John Cole Park opens on 23rd May with a bandstand built that year. Result of a legacy fron local pharmacist and former Town Mayor

Cloth industry ends in Chippenham - machinery is moved to Stroud

An automatic telephone exchange erected in Cocklebury Road

Classic Cinema built in Timber Street

Chippenham Grammar School moves to Hardenhuish

The Oxo Company opens a factory in Chippenham

Second World War; evacuees in Chippenham, many younger men in the armed forces, many women on war work, rationing, fear of bombing by planes returning from the Midlands, Westinghouse factory a Luftwaffe target; Home Guard formed, Air Raid Wardens, black outs at night, defences against invasion such as the pill box by the old Calne railway bridge, temporary army camps around Chippenham and American soldiers later in the war

About half of Chippenham's population employed in engineering, mostly at Westinghouse

Fire Station opens in Dallas Road

College of Further Education opened in former Secondary School in Cocklebury Road

Greenways Maternity Hospital opens

First part of the Market opens at Cocklebury

The whole Market moves out of the town to Cocklebury

Secondary Modern School for Girls opens at Hardenhuish (later Sheldon)

Monkton House bought by the local council after the death of owner, Lady Muriel Coventry; giant plane tree by town bridge felled when shops built. The Town Mill (on the site of the Domesday mill) demolished

The present post Office built; a pedestrian bridge built across river; Secondary Modern School for Boys opens at Hardenhuish (later Sheldon)

Heated 8 lane open air swimming pool opens in Monkton Park; singers Eddie Cochrane and Gene Vincent die in a road accident on Rowden Hill

Town museum opened in the Yelde Hall by the borough council

Museum opened in the Yelde Hall

Town bridge over river replaced by a concrete one; only the stone balustrade remains; Néstle factory by Town Bridge closes

Bewley House built as offices for Calne and Chippenham Rural District Council (now offices of North Wiltshire District Council)

Monkton Park School opens; new Church of St. Peter built and consecrated

The present Library in Timber Street is opened by Lord Eccles

The present fire station built; The Borough Lands and Borough Funds transferred to the newly formed North Wiltshire District Council

Brooke-Bond-Oxo closes in Westmead Lane with loss of 200 jobs. The grammar and secondary modern schools become co-educational comprehensive schools

26th February, Twinning ceremony in Chippenham with the French town of La Fleche

New inner relief road opens; named Avenue La Fleche after French twin town

Olympiad leisure complex opens

4th September, Twinning ceremony in Chippenham with the German town of Friedberg

Butter Cross re-erected in the Market Place by Chippenham Civic Society

Two World War II bombs found in Harden's Mead and detonated safely - 500 houses evacuated

Town museum collection moved into the new Chippenham Museum & Heritage Centre

Abbeyfield School opens at Stanley Lane in September

The TIC moves into the Yelde Hall

26 Sept. Stanley Park Sports Ground opened to the public, officially opened on 28 Oct. by the Town Mayor and Swindon Town F.C. goalkeeper, Rhys Evans

Wiltshire & Swindon History Centre opens on 31st October

Sorting Office closes on Station Hill and moves to Bumper's Farm