Timeline of Leicester


The following is a timeline of the history of the city of Leicester, the county town of Leicestershire, in England.

Prehistory

Palaeolithic

Mesolithic

  • 9,500–4,500 BC – Late hunter gatherers active in the area. Stone tools found at Humberstone and Mowmacre Hill.

Neolithic

  • 4,500–2,500 BC – Farming begins in the area and forests are cleared. More than 50 axes and other worked flint tools have been discovered scattered across every part of the city and its suburbs.

Copper Age

  • 2,500–2,000 BC - pottery craft was discovered.

Bronze Age

  • 2,000-1,000 BC
  • *Metal working begins: metal remains found in High Street, Abbey Meadows, Eyres Monsell, and Glenfield. Pottery remains have been found in Glenfield in large quantities, as well as in Western Park and the modern city centre.
  • * Evidence of ritual areas, crop marks and burial mounds, survive in Western Park and New Parks.
  • * Burial area near High Street with a crematorium urn and another crematorium urn from Aylestone Park.
  • 1,000 BC – earliest permanent settlement on Glenfield Ridge overlooking Soar Valley from the west.

Iron Age Period

Roman period

1st century CE (AD)

  • 44–46 – Roman Conquest of the area by Legio XIV Gemina under Aulus Plautius.
  • c. 48–60 – The Corieltauvi become allied with Rome :
  • * Tribespeople were made Civitas stipendaria of the Roman Empire.
  • * The gradually Romanising settlement of Ratae Corieltauvorum was recognised as the Corieltauvi's Civitas Capital. The plural conjugation of the name Ratae might have either referred to the different sided ramparts of a single oppidum or to the ramparts of several oppida surrounding the main one excavated east of the River Soar.
  • c. 48 – The Fosse Way was constructed just to the north of the original Iron Age oppidum, perhaps initially as a defensive ditch. The northern most boundary of the first wave of Romano-British occupied territories, it came to be a major route of transportation connecting Lincoln to the north east and Cirencester, Bath, and Exeter to the south west. It was also came to act as the Decumanus Maximus of the city of Ratae. Outside the city walls the Fosse way is the road northeast to Belgrave, Syston, and Melton, and southwest to Coventry until the mid 20th century. In the 18th and 19th the areas around the Fosse Way had been developed while the straight road was preserved as today's:
  • *Narborough Road,
  • *Belgrave Gate
  • *Belgrave Road,
  • *and Melton Road.
  • c. 51 — Watling Street constructed about 12 miles south of the city connecting Canterbury, London, and St Albans in the south east with Wroxeter in the north west, later extending to Chester. This road followed the route of today's A5 and marks the border between Leicestershire and Warwickshire.
  • c. 70 – The Via Devana is gradually constructed connecting Ratae to the Roman capital Colchester in the south east and Chester in the north west vier Watling Street. This road eventually constituted the southern section of Ratae's divided Cardo Maximus connecting what is still Southgates with the old Forum vier Vaughan Way before joining the Fosse way in the western half of the Decumanus Maximus, exiting vier the former West Gates, and continuing towards Mancetter where it met Watling Street. To the south east it passed through Medbourne to Godmanchester. The route survives today as
  • *Gartree Road,
  • *Evington Footway,
  • *New Walk,
  • *and Glenfield Road.
  • c. 75–99 – A drainage ditch, most likely with a defensive rampart of some kind, was dug around an area enclosing the original Iron Age oppidum. The north to south ditches measured about 805 metres and from east to west 670 metres enclosing 53 hectares. These boundaries will mark the site of the 3rd century stone walls and the boroughs boundaries with very few changes until the 19th century. Within the boundaries of the outer ditch a gridded network of streets were laid out, including the split Cardo Maximus and the continuous Decumanus Maximius.
  • *The route the Cardo Maximus followed is now:
  • **South Gates;
  • **The short footpath continuous with Wyggeston's House as far as Applegate ;
  • **The route of the present Highcross Street over Vaughn Way as far as Sanvey Gate and Soar Lane.
  • *The Decumanus Maximius, following the route of the 48 AD Fosse Way, is now:
  • **East Gates opposite the Haymarket and Belgrave Gate;
  • **Silver Street;
  • **Guildhall lane past Wyggeston's House and Jubilee Square;
  • **beneath St Nicolas Circle to the lost west gate around St Augustine's Road.
  • *The Raw Dykes were likely constructed during this stage of development.

2nd century

  • 120 – the Emperor Hadrian visited Ratae.
  • * The Thurmaston Milestone was erected, inscribed with Hadrians name.
  • c. 130–200 – Ratae developed into well established Municipium:
  • *The Forum and Basilica complex were constructed on the north side of the Fosse Way between what is presently Highcross Street and Vaughan Way. The site is now Jubilee Square.
  • *Thermae constructed. Ruins preserved in the courtyard of Jewry Wall Museum.
  • *Jewry Wall constructed, the wall of a communal Palaestra or Gymnasium constructed on the eastern side of the bath complex, the archways are likely the surviving entry between the exercise hall and the baths.
  • *The Mithraeum, a temple to the deity Mithra, was constructed on what is now St Nicholas Circle.
  • *The "Cyparissus Pavement" laid.
  • *The four "Blackfriars Pavements" laid.
  • *The "Peacock Pavement" laid.

3rd century

  • c. 208 – Emperor Septimius Severus likely visited Ratae during his journey to Hadrians Wall for the Caledonian Campaign.
  • c. 220 – Civic buildings expand:
  • *Large Macellum constructed immediately to the north of the Forum, around the site of the Medieval Blue Boar Inn in between today's Highcross Street, Vaughan Way, and Jubilee Square.
  • *Semi circular Theatrum constructed adjacent to the north wall of the Macellum.
  • * A Septisolium shrine was probably constructed around this time according surviving written testimony and some possible archaeological evidence. Inspired by the Roman Septisolium, although on a far smaller scale, it was devoted to the seven planetary deities.
  • c. 270 — City walls constructed in stone along the route of the earlier ditches. Stone defensive structures remain until the 16th century and surviving stones can be seen reused in the wall between St Mary de Castro churchyard and the gardens of the Newarke Houses Museum.
  • *The entrance roads and tracks along the walls extern have almost all survived as thoroughfares in the modern city. Working round the boundary, to and from the focal point of the Victorian Haymarket Memorial Clock Tower, and starting from East Gates these are:
  • **Gallowtree Gate,
  • **Horsefair Street,
  • **Millstone Lane,
  • **past Southgates and Vaughan way,
  • **The Newarke, particularly the south wall of the 11th century Leicester Castle,
  • **Castle Gardens,
  • **St Nicholas Circle,
  • **Bath Lane,
  • **Soar Lane,
  • **past Northgate and Highcross Streets,
  • **Sanvey Gate,
  • **and Church Gate.
  • *The walls had four major gateways of which no visible remains survive. Three of them have been preserved in the names of the streets. They were:
  • **South Gate – today commemorated in the street name Southgates, they stood roughly where Millstone Lane meets Vaughan Way. Two roads branched from here; the Via Devana to Medbourne and Godmanchester, and an unnamed road to the local settlement of Tripontium on Watling Street. The Newarke Street Cemetery grew up in between the two forks in the road.
  • **East Gate – today East Gates, it stood roughly between Cheapside and Gallowtree Gate. This was the eastern entrance of the Fosse Way into the city and the road to Lincoln. In the Middle Ages the two tracks following the east wall became Church Gate to the north leading up to St Margaret's and Gallowtree Gate to the south leading up to the gallows where the track met the Via Divana at the top of St Mary's Hill.
  • **North Gate – today the crossroads of Highcross Street, Northgate Street, Sanvey Gate, and Soar Lane. In the Middle Ages the road to Leicester Abbey and a procession route between St Martins Church and St Margaret's Church.
  • **West Gate – today where St Augustine's Road meets St Nicholas Circle. The onward route of both the Fosse Way to Bath and Exeter and the Via Devana.

4th century

  • 300 – roughly the time the provinces of Britain were reorganised. Ratae fell into the province of Flavia Caesariensis, its capital being at Lincoln.
  • 360 – major fire destroyed the public baths and many other buildings never to be rebuilt.
  • c. 375 — Antonine Itinerary records Ratae on a postal route between London and Lincoln.

5th century

Anglo-Saxon period

6th century

  • c. 515 — Icel, King of the Angles, led his tribe across the North Sea to settle in the Trent and Soar Valleys. In time this came to include a small settlement on the edge of the old Roman city of Ratae, near Southgates.

7th century

8th century

Early 9th century (800-870's)

  • 803 — Earliest Saxon written record of the town, referred to as Legorensis Caester.
  • 810 – King Kenulf, father of the famous Saint Kenelm, purportedly issued the foundation charter of Crowland Abbey at Leicester. Ceolwulf, brother of Kenulph, Wulfred, Archbishop of Canterbury, and Unwona, Bishop of Leicester, were apparently signatory witnesses. The source of this claim is the unreliable Chronicle of Crowland Abbey and cannot be accurate since Unwona died in the first years of the 9th century and had been succeeded in the See of Leicester by Wernbeorht by 803. However, it has been taken as evidence for the presence of the Mercian royal household at Leicester during the period.
  • 840 – According to local tradition Saint Wigstan, a young prince of Mercia, was martyred at Wistow just south of the city on the Kalends of June.
  • 870 – The nave of St Nicholas' Church dates to about this time.

Viking Period

Late 9th Century (870-899)

10th century

  • 918 – The city's Viking defenders surrender without a fight to Ethelfleda, Lady of the Mercians, and Edward the Elder, the children of Alfred the Great.
  • *Towns defensive walls repaired.
  • * St Mary's Church founded by Ethelfleda and Edward, the site of today's [Church of St Mary of Teck|Mary de Castro, Leicester|St Mary de Castro].
  • 940-943 — Edmund I, son of Edward the Elder, and his Anglo Saxon forces besieged one King Olaf and his Viking forces at Leicester. The year of the siege and treaty is unclear leading to a confusion about the characters involved. Olaf's court resident in Leicester at the time included Wulfstan. According to the Anglo Saxon Chronicle, the Viking forces were overwhelmed, with King Olaf and Archbishop Wulfstan escaping under cover of night. Other sources suggest the battle ended in stalemate.
  • *In the aftermath a peace treaty was brokered between the two warring parties by Archbishop Wulfstan and, according to some sources, the Archbishop of Canterbury, either Wulfhelm or Saint Odo with terms largely favourable to Edmund.
  • *The treaty involved the Baptism of King Olaf with King Edmund as godfather, perhaps only a symbolic affirmation of the treaty as was common at the time, since the presence of Wulfstan in Olaf’s court suggests he was already a Christian.
  • *The treaty formally recognised Olaf's rule over the Danelaw north of Watling Street but in a dependency upon the Anglo Saxon Kings of England.
  • *Some sources suggest the treaty stipulated that whichever of the two monarchs should outlive the other would inherit full authority over the Danelaw. When Edmund outlived King Olaf the Danelaw theoretically reverted to him.
  • 971 — Bishops of Leicester in exile at Dorchester and Lindsey merged to form one bishopric.

Early 11th century

Late 11th century

  • 1070 – The Norman Conquerors reached the city.
  • *Hugh de Grandmesnil was granted the lands encompassing the town of Leicester and made first Sheriff of Leicestershire.
  • *Motte and Bailey structure of Leicester Castle was begun.
  • *St Mary's, now part of the castle Bailey, was reconstructed.
  • 1072 — The ancient bishopric of Dorchester, Leicester and Lindsey in exile, was moved to Lincoln under the new Norman bishop Remigius de Fécamp. Leicester and Leicestershires churches became part of the Diocese of Lincoln until 1541. During this period the Cathedral church of the town was Lincoln Cathedral.
  • 1086 – The Domesday Survey report on the town of Ledecestre :
  • * The north to south walls of the town measured about 805 metres, from east to west 670 metres, the walls enclosing 53 hectares.
  • * 322 households.
  • **190 owned by Hugh de Grandmesnil
  • **39 in the possession of William the Conqueror and the Crown.
  • **93 in other hands.
  • * The Bishops Fee estate outside the north and east walls of the town held by the Bishop of Lincoln.
  • *An estimated population of 1,278.
  • *The town was a Free Borough outside the jurisdiction of any of the Leicestershire Hundreds and operated along principles of pre-conquest Danish law.
  • **There were 65 Burgesses or Freemen, the ancestor of the current Guild of Leicester Freemen and the established core of the towns Burgher class.
  • **The town was governed by a Portmanmoot of 24 Jurats elected from among the Burgesses.
  • * Leicester Market was active.
  • * The walled town had several churches of which 5 survive:
  • **St Nicholas Church, the old Anglo Saxon Minster dating back to the 6th or 7th century constructed in the shell of the old Roman Gymnasium;
  • **St Mary de Castro in the precincts of Leicester Castle;
  • **All Saints on Highcross Street, the northern section of the old Roman city's split Cardo Maximus, the first church reached on entering the North Gate;
  • **St Margaret's Church, just outside the north eastern corner of the walls at the crossroads of Sanvey Gate and Church Gate;
  • **& St Martin's Church, constructed on Fosse Way, the city's old Decumanus Maximus, roughly midway between the East and West Gates;
  • *And three churches which do not:
  • **St Clement's Church, later the Blackfriars Church in the northwest corner of the town;
  • **St Michael's Church, in the northeast corner of the town around what is today Vaughan Way, Burgess Street, and East Bond Street;
  • **& St Peter's Church, near what is now Free School Lane, its stones surviving in the structure of the Free School.
  • *Leicester Castle was completed.
  • 1092 – First recorded existence of the Archdeaconry of Leicester. Title held by Ranulph appointed by Bishop Remigius.
  • 1098 — Hugh de Grandmesnil died and Ivo de Grandmesnil inherits his Leicester territory and titles:
  • * Hugh died at Leicester Castle on February 22. His remains were preserved in salt and conveyed to his ancestral tomb at the Abbey of St. Evroult.
  • * His sons Robert and Ivo inherited his lands and titles, Robert the lands in Normandy and Ivo the titles in Leicester and Leicestershire.

12th century

  • 1100-1102 — Ivo de Grandmesnil, who according to Orderic Vitalis was the "first to introduce the horrors of private war into England", and a number of other barons rebel against Henry I in favour of Robert Curthose.
  • * c. 1101 - Ivo leads an attack on the properties of the king and other nobles in the town of Leicester and receives a heavy fine.
  • * 1102 - Ivo de Grandmesnil leases his Leicester territory and titles to Robert de Beaumont, Count of Meulan and counsellor of King Henry, for a period of 15 years in return for money to pay his fine and go on crusade to the Holy Lands. Ivo dies en route leaving the freehold of his estates to his children and their use in the hands of Robert de Beaumont.
  • 1107 — Robert de Beaumont formally made Earl of Leicester, the first of that title. His possession of the castle and the old Roman town was confirmed by King Henry I against the Grantmesnil interest.
  • * College of Priests established to serve St Mary de Castro and the castle's residents by the 1st Earl. All town parishes were placed under its control apart from St Margaret's.
  • * Beaumont confirmed the rights and privileges of the Portmanmoot and its Burgesses.
  • 1118 — Robert le Bossu, younger son of Robert de Beaumont, inherits the Earldom of Leicester. The County of Meulan and the other titles of Beaumont detach from the Earldom of Leicester at this point.
  • 1143 – Leicester Abbey was founded by Robert le Bossu for the canons previously resident at St Mary de Castro. All town parishes pass to its control including the college at St Mary de Castro while the Bishop of Lincoln continued to retain St Margaret's alone.
  • 1168 — Robert le Bossu is buried at Leicester Abbey following his death in Northamptonshire.
  • 1173 – Robert Blanchemains, 3rd Earl of Leicester became a principal rebel in the Revolt of 1173–1174 against Henry II.
  • *Leicester was besieged beginning in April by the royal army, at least 410 archers and more than 300 knights. Records survive of over a 100 carpenters paid to construct siege machines. On the 28 July the town was stormed from two directions, a break in the walls on Church Gate and another one near St Clement's Church and the River Soar. The houses were burned, the old Romano-Saxon and Norman walls demolished, and the burghers exiled to wander as outlaws. The castle alone held out. The town took many centuries to recover and large sections of the districts worst effected were still orchards and vegetable gardens until the 18th century.
  • 1174 - second round of attacks on Leicester, this time to take the castle. Keep destroyed.

13th century

14th century

15th century

16th century

17th century

18th century

  • 1708 — Great Meeting House constructed for the towns Protestant Dissenters on the corner of East Bond Street and Butt Close Lane. Today Leicester Unitarian Chapel.
  • 1717 – Last English witch trial conducted by Leicester Assizes. The two accused women, both of Wigston, were acquitted by the jury who disregarded the testimony of 25 witnesses.
  • 1751 – Leicester Journal newspaper began publication.
  • 1753 — John Wesley, father of the Methodist movement, made the first of about a dozen visits to Leicester. He stayed and preached at the Great Meeting House on Butt Close Lane.
  • 1760 – Leicester's last recorded accusation of witchcraft. Two elderly ladies of Glenn Magna accused one another of witchcraft and were subjected to the ducking stool, which one passed and the other failed. Other accusations followed. The only court proceedings to arise were fines for rioting as the crime of witchcraft was removed from the statute books.
  • 1770 – Daniel Lambert was born in Leicester
  • 1771 – Leicester Royal Infirmary opened.
  • 1773 – The High Cross in High Street was removed.
  • 1785 – The Greencoat School was established with money left by Alderman Gabriel Newton.
  • 1789 — William Carey became minister of Leicesters Particular Baptist congregation. He is regarded as a key founding figure in the global Protestant missionary movement, widely known as Father of modern missions.
  • 1792 – Leicester Chronicle newspaper began publication.
  • 1794 – The corporation sanctioned several fairs.

19th century

1800s – 1810s

  • 1800
  • *The City Rooms were opened.
  • *Leicester Medical Book Society founded.
  • 1801 – Population: 17,005.
  • 1804 – The common lands around the ancient city, including South Fields, North Fields, and High Fields, were controversially enclosed.
  • 1806 – Racecourse established.
  • 1816 – James Towle, notable Luddite, was executed in the city on 20 November. Two more Luddites were executed the following year.
  • 1817 – Leicester Savings Bank established.

1820s

1830s

1840s

1850s

1860s

1870s

1880s

1890s

20th century

1900s

1910s

  • 1911 — ‘Great Fire of Leicester’ - Church of St. George the Martyr & surrounding factories gutted by fire on 5 October, and subsequently rebuilt.
  • 1913 – De Montfort Hall opened.
  • 1918–1919 – the Spanish Influenza epidemic killed approximately 1600 people in Leicester.
  • 1919
  • * King George V and Queen Mary made a state visit the city on 10 June.
  • * Leicester granted city status in the aftermath of the Royal visit in June. It was seen as a restoration of the historic city status held during Roman times.

1920s

1930s

  • 1932 – The Little Theatre opened in Dover Street.
  • * Charles Street reopened in June
  • * Belgrave Gate was widened
  • 1933
  • * Joe Orton, noted satirical playwright, was born in the city on 1 January.
  • * Leicester City Police Headquarters, designed by G. Noel Hill and A.T. Gooseman, opened in Charles Street.
  • 1935
  • *Humberstone, Knighton, New Parks and Beaumont Leys were absorbed into the city of Leicester.
  • *Oswald Mosley and the Blackshirts held several demonstrations in the Market Place and Victoria Park and were heckled by members of the city's labour movement.
  • 1936
  • * The city boundaries were further extended to include most of Evington
  • * Odeon Cinema opened.
  • * The Jarrow Marchers arrived in Leicester on Thursday 23 October from Loughborough and continued on the next day to Market Harborough.

1940s

1950s

  • 1950 – St Luke's Church Humberstone Road demolished.
  • 1955 – New Friends Meeting House opened on Queens Road. Prebend Street Meeting House closes permanently the following year.
  • 1958
  • * Buddy Holly and the Crickets performed live at De Montfort Hall on 6 March, perhaps the city's first Rock n Roll performance.
  • * Queen Elizabeth II visited the city on 9 May, the first of her visited to the city as monarch.
  • * Christ Church on Bow Street were demolished along with its parish school.
  • * The construction of Vaughan Way and Burleys Way began in July 1958.
  • 1959
  • * Andrew Bailey, Chief Cashier and later Governor of the Bank of England, was born in the city on March 30.
  • * Vaughan Way and Burleys Way were opened in May 1959.

1960s

  • 1960 — Gary Lineker, noted football player and commentator, was born in the city on 30 November.
  • 1962 – Jewry Wall Museum built.
  • 1963 – The Beatles performed live at De Montfort Hall for the first time.
  • 1966
  • *St Luke's Church Stocking Farm was consecrated 29 April, a replacement to the lost Humberstone Street St Luke's.
  • * Southgates Underpass and St Nicholas Circle a started in August 1966.
  • *The City of Leicester Polytechnic was established.
  • 1968 - Southgates Underpass and St Nicholas Circle in opened in 2 May
  • * St Margaret's Way construction begin a November 1968, former Lower Church Gate.
  • 1969 – The Museum of the Royal Leicestershire Regiment opened in the Magazine Gateway.

1970s

1980s

1990s

21st century

2000s

2010s

2020s

  • 2020–2022 – The COVID-19 pandemic. Between 13 March 2020 and 19 December 2022 the city reported 128,123 cases of the virus and the lives of 1,171 of its citizens were lost to it. The city was one of Britain's worst affected and was subject to an additional hundred days of lockdown.
  • 2020 – New St Margaret's Bus Station building completed in November and opened 31 December.
  • 2022 – The 2022 Leicester unrest. A notable summer outbreak of ethno-religious tension between members of the city's Hindu and Muslim communities.
  • 2024 – Tension between a Far Right protest and an Anti Racist protest around East Gates and the Haymarket Memorial Clock Tower and other instances of unrest, 6 August.

Published before the 19th century

*

Published in the 19th century

1800s–1840s

*

1850s–1890s

  • *
  • *
  • *
  • *
  • *
  • *
*

Published in the 20th century

1900s–1940s

*

1950s–1990s

  • *
  • *
  • *
  • *
  • *
  • *
  • *
  • *
  • *
  • *
*

Published in the 21st century

*