Kent Past
The History of Kent
Copyright Kent Past 2010
Time-
Before 999
1000 -
1100 -
1200 -
1300 -
1400 -
1500 -
1600
-
1700 -
1800 -
1900 -
55 & 54BC Julius Caesar invades Britain
43AD Claudius Invades
Britain
130 Construction of Dover Lighthouses
250 – 270 Construction
of forts around the coast
270 – 290 Construction of Canterbury town walls
410
Withdrawal of Roman troops from Britain
449 Vortigern,
invites Hengist and Horsa to help protect Kent
488 Oisc crowned
first king of Kent
516 Octa King of Kent
543 Eormenric
King of Kent
580 Aethelberht crowned King of Kent
597 Augustine
arrives in Kent
598 Bishopric established in Canterbury
602 Canterbury
Cathedral founded
604 Diocese of Rochester created
Augustine
died
597 – 616 Athelbert issues a series of written laws
616 Eadbald
king of Kent
600 St Mary in Castro – possibly built within Dover
Castle
619 Mellitus Archbishop of Canterbury
640 Eorcenberht
King of Kent
664 Ecgberht crowned king of Kent
673 Hlothher
bcomes king of Kent
685 Hlothher issues written laws
685 Eadric
king of Kent issues written laws
686 Mul rules Kent
690 Wihtred
claims Kents throne
695 Whited issues a third series of laws
668
Theodore Archbishop of Canterbury
760 Death
of Aethelberht, last of the Eskings
774 Uprising in Kent against
King Offa of Mercia at the battle of
Otford
797
Danish and Viking invasions begin
805 Kent again
a province of Mercia
825 Kent ruled by Egbert of Wessex
832 Vikings
raid the Isle of Sheppey
850 Vikings winter in Thanet
851 King
Athelstan defeats the Vikings at Sandwich
854 Vikings winter on
the Isle of Sheppey
865 Vikings control much of Eastern Kent
893
Vikings build forts at Appledore and near Milton Regis
960 Dunstan
receives pallium from Pope John XII
991 Regular Viking raids
1006 Alphege Archbishop of Canterbury
1011 Siege
of Canterbury by the Vikings
1029 St Dunstan canonised
1066 William
defeats Harold at Hastings William crowned King of
England
1066
Dover castle built by William
1078 St Alphege Canonised
1082
Odo, Earl of Kent, arrested, tried, banished.
1086 Domesday
book compiled
1087 Timber castle at Rochester replaced by stone walls
1088
Siege of Rochester Castle by William Rufus against Odo
1093 Anselm
Archbishop of Canterbury
1127 Rochester Castle keep built
1143 Cistercian
Abbey founded at Boxley
1147 Benedictine Abbey founded at Faversham
1155
– 6 Two charters giving rights to the Cinque Ports
1162 Thomas
Becket Archbishop of Canterbury
1170 Thomas Becket murdered
1173 Thomas
Becket Canonised
1178 Austen Canons established at Erith
1180 Keep
and curtain walls built at Dover Castle
1204 King John loses Normandy
1215 Siege of Rochester
Castle
1216 – 17 Siege of Dover Castle
1217 Sea battle against
the French off Sandwich
1220 Maison Dieu, Dover, built for pilgrims
1240
Carmelite House founded at Aylesford
1264 Siege
of Rochester castle
1272 Carmelite Friary established in Sandwich
1290
Edward I built a small castle at Sandwich
1324 -
1335 Statute of Money – pilgrims
can only enter England through
1337 Start of the Hundred Years
War
1348 – 9 Black Death, possibly half the population of Kent dies
1351
Statute of Labourers
1363 – 80 Re-
1381 Peasants Revolt
1392 The first stone
bridge at Rochester
1401 The monopoly of Gravesend ferrymen confirmed
1448 Canterbury
granted a charter
1450 Cade’s Rebellion starts in March July rebellion
ends
1452 John Wilkins Rebellion
1457 Sandwich sacked
by the French
1509 Coronation of Henry VIII
1539 – 44 Construction of
Henry VIII castles (Chatham)
1549 Mast Pond Gillingham
1553 Mary
crowned
1554 Wyatt rebellion
1548 Maidstone granted
a charter
1550 All ships laid up at Gillingham
1558 Elizabeth
crowned
1559 Upnor castle built
1560 – 80 Walloon refugees
settle in Sandwich and Canterbury
1567 Anchorage renamed Chatham
1570
Chatham Dockyard at Sunne Hard
1588 Preparation
for a possible Spanish invasion. The Armada
1608 Major rebuilding of Knole House
1635 First
demand for the ‘Ship Money’
1640 – 1642 Kent Petitions to Parliament
1642 Start
of the First Civil War
1643 Royalist Rising in West Kent. Parliamentary
County
Committee based at Knole House
1644 County Committee based at Aylesford
1646
County Committee based at Maidstone
1647 Christmas
cancelled. Riots in Canterbury
1648 Royalist Rising in Kent. Battle
of Maidstone
1649 Execution of Charles I, January
1660 The
Restoration King Charles lands at Dover May 25th
1665 First Royal
Navy dockyard laid out at Sheerness
1667 Dutch fleet in the Medway
and Thames
1698 Shepherd Neame Brewery opened
1709 First Turnpike Act for Kent
1730 Mereworth
Castle constructed
1758 Chatham Lines defences built
1778 – 83 Amherst
Fort built
1791 Royal Sea bathing School opened
1796 Early
warning semaphore stations opened across Kent
1803 – 15 Western heights constructed at Dover
1805 – 9 Construction
of 74 Martello Towers around the South coast
1810 Folkestone harbour
constructed
1815 The first steamboats run between London and Margate
1824
Gravesend to Strood canal opened
1830 The first Swing
Riots
1830 Canterbury Whitstable Railway line opened 3rd May
1832 Great
Reform Act
1834 New Poor Law. Anti-
1838 Courtenay
Rising
1824
1844 Maidstone
linked to the rail system
1847 Faversham gunpowder mill explosion,
50 killed
1857 Medieval stone bridge at Rochester replaced
Kent
County Constabulary formed
1858 – 63 Establishment of the London, Chatham and
Dover Rail Company
1859 – 1864 Drop Redoubt up-
1859 Kent County
Cricket Club formed
1865 First railway specials bring hop pickers to
Kent
1870 Education Act allows school boards to be formed
1889 Formation
of Kent County Council
1896 Maidstone Typhoid epidemic, 131 die
1912 Betteshanger, Chislet, Snowdown and Tilmanstone collieries opened
1913
County Hall opened in Maidstone
1913 Kent coalfield
opened
1914 Start of the First World War
HMS
Bulwark explodes in the Medway, 800 killed
1916 Faversham munitions
factory explosion, 106 killed
1918 End of the First World War
1922 Chalk
cross of remembrance carved into the Downs at Lenham
1939 Start of
the Second World War.
1940 Evacuation of Dunkirk
Battle
of Britain
1942 Canterbury heavily bombed, Baedecker raids
1944 First
V-
V2 missiles land in Kent
1945 End
of the Second World War.
1953 Coastal flooding around Kent
1958
1960 Opening of the Kingsferry Bridge to
Sheppey
Royal Dockyard at Sheerness closes
1963 Current
boundaries of Kent established
1964 First nuclear power station opened
at Dungeness
1972 Local Government Act changes Kent boundaries
1981 Royal
Navy Dockyard at Chatham closes.
1989 Last of the Kent collieries closes
1994
Channel Tunnel opened
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