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Glastonbury's history
and a Glastonbury timeline
A quiet, ongoing debate and battle goes on over Glastonbury's history, and it has done so for a long time.
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.
 Have you walked along the Mendips Have you seen the Holy Thorn tree And the lead mines on the hill-tops Up the Cheddar Gorge to Priddy, Near the Chalice Well His hut stood; You may walk there, in His footsteps, Kirsten Parsons I think I remember this moorland Marcus Bishop |
History and traditions
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.
Glastonbury Timeline
Key: BCE = Before the Common Era (BC) |
±8000 BCE Rising of sea levels after the ice ages, making the Brue valley part of the Severn estuary - the sea reaches near to Glastonbury
±4500 BCE Sinking of sea levels, allowing formation of salt marsh, peat deposits, fen and bog environments in the Somerset Levels
3806 BCE Building of the Sweet Track near Westhay – oldest known raised trackway on the Levels
±3000 BCE Formation of raised bog and drier areas on the Levels, with new tracks laid on the bog
±2300 BCE? Creation of banks on the sides of Glastonbury Tor
±1200 BCE Climate gets wetter, increasingly flooding the Levels and leading to a new phase of raised wooden track-building
±200 BCE Founding of lake villages at Glastonbury and Meare
¤ 200 BCE – 100 CE Likely period of Druid college and perpetual choir at Glastonbury
47 CE Roman invasion (started 43 CE) reaches Somerset (Avalon left untouched)
¤ 37 or 63 CE Possible dates of arrival in Glastonbury by Joseph of Arimathaea and followers
¤ 82 CE Death of Joseph at Glastonbury (according to Cressy)
±100s CE Building of Roman sea and river defences near Cheddar and salt-making industries at Burtle, Burnham and Woolavington. Peat first cut for fuel
¤ ±166 Visit to Glastonbury by Phagan and Deruvian, who restore the Christian community and found a hermit settlement on the Tor
189 Lucius converts to Christianity – first Christian king in Britain – after learning of the faith at Glastonbury
±400 Collapse of Roman sea defences with sea-level rises – large-scale flooding of western Moors – high water levels until 800s
¤ 433 Arrival of St Patrick in Glastonbury – sets up a proper monastic order at Glastonbury
±450 Glastonbury becomes home to Celtic hermits
462 St Benignus settles at Meare (from Ireland)
472 Death of St Patrick at Glastonbury – St Benignus becomes abbot
¤ 488 Arrival of St Bridget, who settles at Beckery
¤ 542 Geoffrey of Monmouth's date for the death of King Arthur at Glastonbury
±563 Arrival of St David in Glastonbury
±597 St Augustine visits Glastonbury
625 St Paulinus arrives in Glastonbury
±633 The Olde Church is encased in lead and wood by Paulinus to preserve it
664 Synod of Whitby brings decline of the Celtic British church
late 600s Arrival of the Saxons in Somerset
704 Charter of Saxon King Ine recognises the holiness and rights of the Olde Church at Glastonbury
±715 Endowment of the Abbey by King Ine of Wessex and Abbot Berwald
±800s Irish influences strongest in the Abbey. Abbot Cummain was probably Irish.
±854 Martyrdom of St Indract, abbot of Iona, at Shapwick, by bandits
878 Glastonbury area but not Glastonbury itself damaged by attacks by Danish Vikings. Saxon king Alfred takes refuge from Danes at Athelney.
940-960 St Dunstan becomes abbot, expanding the Abbey and its profile. Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury in 961, but remains Abbot of Glastonbury until death in 988.
1070s Glastonbury loses many of its estates to the Norman king William I
1080s Abbot Thurstan (or Turstin, the first Norman abbot) extends the Abbey church
1090 St Benedictus' church built. 1091 Benignus' relics translated from Meare to Glastonbury
1126-71 Abbey flourishes under Abbot Henry of Blois: cloisters, gatehouse, infirmary, etc
1129 Completion of Geoffrey of Monmouth's De Antiquitatae Glastonie Ecclesie
1170s Beginning of struggle with the bishops of Wells over the Abbey's independence
1184 Glastonbury Abbey destroyed by fire, rebuilding begins 1186
1190 Survey of Abbey estates gives first detailed records: the town has 90 houses
late 1100s St John's church begun
¤ 1191 Discovery of the bones of King Arthur and Guinevere
±1200 Attempted takeover of the abbey by the Savaric, Biship of Wells (dies 1205, Wells' claim given up 1218)
1264 Hospital of St Mary Magdalene founded on site of St Margaret's Chapel and Almshouses, Glastonbury.
1270s Beginning of drainage of some of the Moors close to Glastonbury
1275 Chapel of St Michael on the Tor destroyed by an earthquake
1278 Visit to Glastonbury of King Edward I and Queen Eleanor
1200s/1300s The Mary Magdalene Chapel (on what is now called Bride's Mound) changes its name to the St Bridget Chapel.
1300s Glastonbury hosts four fairs each year
±1310 Completion of rebuilding of the Abbey
1320s New chapel built on the Tor
1322 Abbey population reaches its peak: 60 monks, 20 'inferiors' and 60 servants
1430s Opening of the George & Pilgrims' Inn – rebuilt 1470s
1460s St John's parish church built
1474-1525 Abbot Beere, one of the most prominent abbots.
1535 Opening of the Crown Inn, Market Square
1539 Dissolution of Glastonbury Abbey by Henry VIII's men. Execution of Abbot Whiting
1542 Visit of John Leland, antiquary to Henry VIII
1540s The king's men are given properties and privileges in Glastonbury. (No local government after the fall of the Abbey)
1551 Flemish weavers brought to Glastonbury in attempt to revive the town (failed – they return)
1557 Four former monks petition the queen to re-found the Abbey (failed)
1607 Tsunami wave devastates Somerset coast, flooding Moors up to Glastonbury
1642 Population of town assessed at 1,575
1643 Town occupied by both sides in the English Civil War
1650s The town's churches dominated by radical Puritans. Serious poverty in Glastonbury.
1659 Quakers arrive in Glastonbury (meetings in Abbot's Kitchen from ±1670)
1685 Town occupied by Monmouth Rebellion (challenging the Stuart dynasty). The battle of Sedgemoor (at Weston Zoyland, the last battle on English soil) ends the rebellion. Fierce punishments afterwards (Judge Jefferies)
1705 Creation of the town corporation (town previously run by churchwardens)
±1712 Draining of Meare Pool (large lake north of Meare)
1751 Town temporarily gains fame as a healing spa. Pump Rooms, Magdalene St, opened in 1754
1770-1840 Enclosures of the Moors, with digging of rhynes, drainage, rectangular field systems and roads built – local resentment over loss of grazing and foraging rights
1792 Wells Road is built (avoiding the long climb up Bove Town)
1794 A great flood surrounds the town with water
1801> Digging of rhynes drains many of the moors around Glastonbury
1811> Sea storm inundation brings sea water as far as Glastonbury
1814 Glastonbury town hall built; with town improvements – pavements, street lights, rates
1821 Town population recorded as 690 families
1834 Opening of the Glastonbury Canal from Glastonbury to Highbridge (closed 1853)
1846 Rebuilding of the Market Cross (medieval cross destroyed 1810)
1854 Opening of the Central Somerset railway, Glastonbury-Highbridge
1850s> Industrialisation and growth of Glastonbury
1859 Railway extended to Wells; 1862 extended to Cole on Somerset & Dorset Rly
1864 Assembly Rooms built by public subscription
1900 Population of the town approx 4,500
±1900 Cleaning and restoration of the Chalice Well
1907 The Abbey and Abbey House bought by the Bishop of Bath & Wells
1907 Frederick Bligh Bond starts a decade of archaeological digs at the Abbey
1912 Alice Buckton buys the Chalice Well and moves to Glastonbury (dies 1944)
1914 The Glastonbury Festival founded by Rutland Boughton
1918 Publication of Bligh Bond's Gate of Remembrance (psychic discoveries at the Abbey)
¤ 1925 Visionary 'discovery' of the Glastonbury Zodiac by Katherine Maltwood
1931 Founding of the Glastonbury Pilgrimage
1938 Alice Buckton founds the Chalice Well Trust
1940 Opening of Huntspill River, signifying final major stage of drainage of the Somerset Levels
1942 'Secret War Effort' coordinated from Glastonbury by Dion Fortune and Wellesley Tudor Pole (psychic actions on Nazi Germany)
1959 Wellesley Tudor Pole and the Chalice Well Trust purchase the Chalice Well
1962 Closure of the railway through Glastonbury (owing to increasing car use and the 'Beeching Report)
1970 First Glastonbury rock festival at Worthy Farm, Pilton (regularly held from 1979 onwards)
1974 Local gov't reorganisation ends Glastonbury's status as a borough – creation of Mendip District Council
1970s-90s Glastonbury becomes a major centre for the New Age movement in UK
1984 Closure of Morlands sheepskin factory – Glastonbury's largest industry
1986 Closure of Chalice Hill to public access by private landowner
1994 Beginning of conversion of peat diggings back to conserved wetland at Ham Wall, west of Glastonbury
If you have additions, amendments or suggestions for this timeline, please e-mail