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<H1><A HREF="avalon-history1.html">Glastonbury: history and traditions</A></H1>
<H3>An overview of the history and ancient traditions of Glastonbury</H3>
<P><I>A quiet, ongoing debate and battle goes on over Glastonbury's history, and it has done so for a long time.</I></P>
<P>The key issue concerns what is accepted as admissible historical evidence, and how traditions are interpreted. There is some propaganda too, with excessive claims made both on historians' and mystics' sides. Also evidence has been destroyed, not available, covered over, unresearched or kept quiet.</P>
<H4>History and traditions</H4>
<P>On this site we use the word 'traditions' to indicate legendary aspects of history which cannot conclusively be verified. Two of Glastonbury's biggest traditions concern Joseph of Arimathaea and King Arthur. We use the word 'history' to refer to evidentially sound and accepted events.</P>
<H4>Glastonbury Timeline</H4>
<P>Here is a timeline of dates in Glastonbury's history and traditions.</P>
<P>31/63 Possible dates of arrival in Glastonbury by Joseph of Arimathaea and followers</P>
<P> 166 Visit to Glastonbury by Phagan and Deruvian</P>
<P>433 Arrival of St Patrick in Glastonbury – founding of abbey soon after</P>
<P> 450 Glastonbury becomes home to Celtic hermits</P>
<P>472 Death of St Patrick at Glastonbury – St Benignus becomes abbot</P>
<P>488 Arrival of St Bridget</P>
<P>542 Geoffrey of Monmouth's date for death of King Arthur at Glastonbury</P>
<P> 563 Arrival of St David in Glastonbury</P>
<P>625 St Paulinus arrives in Glastonbury</P>
<P> 630 The Olde Church is encased in wood by Paulinus</P>
<P>664 Synod of Whitby brings decline of the Celtic British church</P>
<P>late 600s Arrival of the Saxons in Somerset</P>
<P> 715 Re-founding of the Abbey by Saxon King Ine of Wessex and Abbot Berwald</P>
<P>940-960 St Dunstan becomes abbot, expanding the Abbey and its profile</P>
<P>1070s Glastonbury loses many of its estates to the Norman king William I</P>
<P>1080s Thurstan extends the Abbey church</P>
<P> 1090 St Benedictus' church built</P>
<P>1126-71 Abbey grows under Abbot Henry of Blois: cloisters, gatehouse, infirmary, etc</P>
<P>1129 Completion of Geoffrey of Monmouth's <I>De Antiquitatae Glastonie Ecclesie</I></P>
<P>1170s Beginning of struggle with the bishops Wells over the Abbey's independence</P>
<P>1184 Glastonbury Abbey destroyed by fire, rebuilding begins 1186</P>
<P>1190 Survey of Abbey estates gives first detailed records: the town has 90 houses</P>
<P>late 1100s St John's church begun</P>
<P>1191 Discovery of the bones of King Arthur and Guinevere</P>
<P>1270s Beginning of drainage of some of the Moors close to Glastonbury</P>
<P>1275 Chapel of St Michael on the Tor destroyed by an earthquake</P>
<P>1278 Visit to Glastonbury of King Edward I and Queen Eleanor</P>
<P>1300s Glastonbury hosts four fairs each year</P>
<P> 1310 Completion of rebuilding of the Abbey</P>
<P>1320s New chapel built on the Tor</P>
<P>1322 Abbey population reaches its peak: 60 monks, 20 'inferiors' and 60 servants</P>
<P>1430s Opening of the George & Pilgrims' Inn – rebuilt 1470s</P>
<P>1460s St John's church built</P>
<P>1474-1525 Abbot Beere, one of the most prominent abbots.</P>
<P>1535 Opening of the Crown Inn, Market Square</P>
<P>1539 Dissolution of Glastonbury Abbey by Henry VIII's men. Execution of Abbot Whiting</P>
<P>1542 Visit of John Leland, antiquary to Henry VIII</P>
<P>1540s The king's men are given properties and privileges. No local government in Glastonbury</P>
<P>1557 Four former monks petition the queen to re-found the Abbey (failed)</P>
<P>1607 Tsunami wave devastates Somerset coast, flooding moors up to Glastonbury</P>
<P>1642 Population of town assessed at 1,575</P>
<P>1643 Town occupied by both sides in the English Civil War</P>
<P>1650s The town's churches dominated by radical Puritans. Serious poverty in Glastonbury.</P>
<P>1659 Quakers arrive in Glastonbury (meetings in Abbot's Kitchen from 1670)</P>
<P>1670 Local Quakers start using the Abbot's Kitchen for their meetings</P>
<P>1685 Town occupied by Monmouth Rebellion – fierce punishments afterwards</P>
<P>1705 Creation of the town corporation (town previously run by churchwardens)</P>
<P>1751 Town temporarily gains fame as a healing spa. Pump Rooms, Magdalen St, opened in 1754</P>
<P>1792 Wells Road is built (avoiding the long climb up Bove Town)</P>
<P>1794 A great flood surrounds the town with water</P>
<P>1801> Digging of rhynes drains many of the moors around Glastonbury</P>
<P>1814 Glastonbury town hall built; town improvements – pavements, street lights, rates</P>
<P>1821 Town population recorded as 690 families</P>
<P>1834 Opening of the Glastonbury Canal from Glastonbury to Highbridge (closed 1853)</P>
<P>1846 Rebuilding of the Market Cross (medieval cross destroyed 1810)</P>
<P>1854 Opening of the Central Somerset railway, Glastonbury-Highbridge</P>
<P>1850s> Industrialisation and growth of Glastonbury</P>
<P>1859 Railway extended to Wells; 1862 extended to Cole on Somerset & Dorset Rly</P>
<P>1864 Assembly Rooms built by public subscription</P>
<P>1900 Population of the town approx 4,500</P>
<P>1908 The Abbey and Abbey House bought by the Bishop of Bath & Wells</P>
<P>1912 The Glastonbury Festival founded by Rutland Boughton</P>
<P>1931 Founding of the Glastonbury Pilgrimage</P>
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