Pre-5th century A.D. – Romans build three forts on the site of what is now Lancaster Castle. |
Ca. 124 A.D. – Romans build small altar at Lancaster |
Ca. 343 – The Romans are thought to have built a large fort at Lancaster. |
5th century A.D. – Romans leave Britain and the forts fall into disrepair. |
Ca. 630 – First church is built on site of Lancaster Priory. |
Ca. 1066 – William the Conqueror gives Lancaster to Roger of Poitu in gratitude for his services in battle. |
1086 – Domesday Book lists name as ‘Loncastre’ for a modern meaning of ‘The Roman fort on the River Lune.’ |
1093 – Roger of Poitu establishes his military headquarters at Lancaster. |
1094 – Benedictine Priory of Lancaster is founded. |
12th century – Position of High Sheriff of Lancashire created. |
Ca. 1150 – Normans build a stone keep to form the nucleus of Lancaster Castle. |
1166 – Assizes first held at Lancaster. |
1193 – Lancaster receives its first charter as a market town and borough. |
1196 – First written reference made of a gaol at Lancaster Castle. |
1206 – King John holds court at Lancaster Castle. |
1253 – Records show that more than £250 was spent on constructing Lancaster Castle’s curtain wall and gateway. |
1265 – Henry III gives his son, Edmund, lands that had belonged to Simon de Montfort and Robert Ferrers, Earl of Derby. |
1267 – These lands acquire the name of Lancaster, and Edmund becomes the first Earl of Lancaster. |
1297 – Edmund’s son, Thomas, inherits the earldom of Lancaster and extends his holdings via marriage. |
1322 – Robert Bruce and Edward II visit Lancaster Castle. |
1325 – Witches’ Tower (originally called the Well Tower) is built. |
1351 – Edmund’s grandson, Henry, becomes first Duke of Lancaster. |
1361 – John of Gaunt becomes Earl of Lancaster by marrying Henry’s daughter, Blanche. |
1362 – John of Gaunt becomes the second Duke of Lancaster. |
1362 – First shipping bylaws for Lancaster were written. |
1399 – John of Gaunt dies. Following his uncle’s death, Richard II seizes the duchy of Lancaster |
Ca. 1400 – Either Henry IV or Henry V launches a rebuilding program at Lancaster Castle, including the John of Gaunt Gatehouse |
1460 – Edward IV visits Lancaster Castle. |
1585 – Queen Elizabeth I rebuilds the upper story of Lancaster Castle’s Norman Keep. |
1612 – Trial of Lancashire Witches is held in Lancaster Castle. |
1617 – James I visits Lancaster Castle. |
1652 – George Fox, founder of Quakerism – first visits Lancaster. |
1664 – George Fox is imprisoned at Lancaster for refusing to take the Oath of Supremacy. |
1670s – First known voyage from Lancaster to the Americas occurs. |
1715 – Jacobite army marches into Lancaster. They leave two days later for the Battle of Preston. |
1729 – Robert Gillow begins making furniture from imported mahogany. |
1736 – Lancaster ships begin transporting African slaves. |
1740s – Gillows opens a London warehouse; improved distribution dramatically increases the firm’s national reputation. |
1742 – Robert Gillow becomes an Indies trader. |
1745 – Bonnie Prince Charlie briefly occupies the town during the Jacobite Rebellion. |
1749 – Lancaster’s Port Commission is established. |
1764 – Lancaster’s Custom House is completed. |
1770s – Lancaster native artist Joseph R.A. Farringdon returns from London to paint Lancashire and the Lake District. |
1783 – Architect Thomas Harrison completes construction on new Town Hall for Lancaster. |
1788 – Gaoler’s House is erected at Lancaster Castle. |
1788 – Architect Thomas Harrison is commissioned to design a Crown Court and Shire Hall at Lancaster Castle. |
1792 – Construction begins at Lancaster Castle on a prison for female felons. |
1794-1796 – A prison for male felons and “accommodations for debtors” are built at Lancaster Castle. |
1796 – Lancaster Castle’s medieval Great Hall is demolished. |
1798 – Workers complete construction of Harrison’s Crown Court and Shire Hall. |
1800 – Public executions are moved from Gallows Hill on the moors to the Hanging Corner at Lancaster Castle. |
Ca. 1800 – Lancaster becomes the third busiest port in England, after London and Bristol. |
1801 – Noted cabinetmaker Gillow of Lancaster makes the Grand Jury Room’s table and chairs for £7 each. |
1802 – Joseph Gandy provides designs for decorative elements of the Crown Court and Shire Hall |
1803 – Lancaster martitime insurance broker Gideon Yates is imprisoned for debt; later is a local artist |
1811 – The last time a convicted prisoner’s hand was branded with M for malefactor in Lancaster’s Crown Court. |
1816 – Artist J.M.W. Turner paints his most famous pictures of Lancaster |
1817 – Artist Gideon Yates paints his last scenes of Lancaster before moving to London. |
1821 – Joseph Gandy designs and builds a 5-story, panopticon Female Penitentiary at Lancaster Castle. |
1822 – John of Gaunt’s statue is installed above the gatehouse that bears his name. |
1835 – Liverpool receives rights to hold assizes, hastening Lancaster’s decline as an assizes center. |
1846 – Prince Louis Napoleon visited Lancaster Castle. |
1846 – The Lancaster & Carlisle Railway opens Carnforth Station. |
Ca. 1850 – The River Lune begins to silt up, encouraging citizens to turn to manufacturing. |
1852 – Queen Victoria visits Lancaster Castle. |
1857 – Ulverstone & Lancaster Railway reaches Carnforth Station. |
1865 – In the last public execution to be held at Lancaster Castle, Stephen Burke is hanged for murdering his wife. |
1866 – The national Bankruptcy Act ends the centuries-old tradition of holding debtors at Lancaster Castle |
1880 – London & North West Railway takes over lines of the former Lancaster & Carlisle Railway, including Carnforth Station. |
1890 – Norman curtain wall is discovered at Lancaster Castle during excavation. |
1904 – Lord Ashton begins construction on Ashton Memorial. |
1906 – Model of Ashton Memorial exhibited at the Royal Academy in London. |
1909 – Lord Ashton completes Ashton Memorial, “England’s grandest monument.” |
1912 – George V visits Lancaster Castle. |
1916-1918 – Lancaster Castle is used to house German POWs. |
Late 1920s – A total of 64 Roman coins are discovered near Lancaster. |
1931 – The original plans for Lancaster Castle’s Great Hall and dungeons are discovered. |
Ca. 1940 – Two cannons and the railings around Lancaster Castle are melted down to make bullets. |
1954 – Lancaster Castle is returned to prison use once again for low-priority criminals. |
1965 – Construction begins on Lancaster University. |
1966 – Lancaster University begins partial operations. |
1968 – Students move in to Lancaster University. |
1971 – Lancaster assizes are demoted to status of a third-tier Crown Court. |
1975 – Criminal trial of the alleged IRA pub-bombers the Birmingham Six is held at Lancaster Castle’s Shire Hall. |
1988 – An excavation for Mitchell’s Brewery includes the discovery of 34 Roman coins. |
1999 – Queen Elizabeth II visits Lancaster to mark the 600th anniversary of the Crown’s ownership of the duchy. |
