Yeovil's Virtual Museum

Implements of 800,000 to 45,000 BC found where Glovers Walk is today

Stone axe head of c4,000 to c2,500 BC found near the Hundredstone

The famous gold torc, found in 1909, was dated to c2,000 to 600 BC

Several finds dating to the Roman Period have been found in Yeovil

Several finds dating to the Saxon Period have been found in Yeovil

Saxon Lords Aelfstan and Alward are replaced by Normans

Norman Lords Hugh Maltravers and Robert of Mortain control Yeovil

What will become today's Yeovil is divided into Manors and Tithings

Under a charter of King John, the Burgesses of Yeovil gained a market

The original 'Tenement' had become the Borough of Yeovil

Advowson of St John's separated from the Manor of Hendford

Black Death devastates Yeovil, possibly killing half the population

Riot in Yeovil over market rights, Bishop attacked in St John's church

The Church of St John the Baptist, Yeovil's parish church, built

Henry V grants Rectory and Lordship of Yeovil to Convent of Syon

John Green claimed sanctuary for killing John Raleigh with a sword

A Royal Grant confirms Yeovil's markets and fairs

The 'Great Fire of Yeovil'

Woborn Almshouse founded by Letters Patent of Edward IV and built with money bequeathed by John Woburn

A serious fire rages through Yeovil destroying many buildings

Earliest mention of the Mermaid, Yeovil's oldest surviving licensed premises

Henry VIII granted the borough and church of Yeovil to Catherine Parr

Sir John Horsey buys Lordship and parsonage of Yeovil for £45 a year

Antiquary John Leland visits Yeovil, calling it a "good market town"

The Chantry, attached to St Johns, first recorded as being used as a school

Sir Edward Phelips of Montacute House buys the Lordship of Yeovil

Only nine licensed premises allowed in town, the rest to be 'suppressed'

Another serious fire rages through Yeovil destroying many buildings

Another "Great Fire of Yeovil" awarded a "Protection" by Charles I

Start of the English Civil War

Battle of Babylon Hill

More Yeovil properties destroyed by a large fire

Plague and typhus were prevalent "Very bad at Yeovil and East Coker".

End of the English Civil War

First record indicates that the Three Choughs was operating at this time

Traveller staying at the Three Cups brings the plague to Yeovil

Portreeve issues halfpenny token due to shortage of small change

First meetings of Nonconformists in a barn on site of Baptist chapel

The Monmouth Rebellion

The 'Bloody Assizes' held by Judge Jefferies (not in Yeovil)

Eight Yeovil men executed for taking part in Monmouth Rebellion

Friends Burial Ground opens in Preston Road

Unitarian Chapel founded in Vicarage Street

Yeovil Charity School, aka the Charity Grammar School, opens

Old Sarum House built in Princes Street

A 'hurricane' breaks windows in St John's church

The Market House in the Borough is built by Lady Elizabeth Phelips

Hendford Manor built for Rev James Hooper

Robert Harbin builds the Summer House on Summerhouse Hill

First issue of "The Western Flying Post, or Yeovil Mercury"

Turnpike Commissioners appointed for "repairing and widening the roads"

Yeovil Old Bank, a private bank, established by Samuel Daniell

Hendford House (now Manor Hotel) built

Part of the Tolle Hall in the Borough falls down

William Edward's ironmongery shop built in the Borough (today's Superdrug)

In the first census, the population of Yeovil is 2,774

George Watts builds the Butcher's Shambles in the Borough

The 'Gloving Donkey' invented that revolutionises the gloving industry

A branch of Whitmash & White's Bank opens in Hendford

Yeovil Bank, a private bank, established by Samuel Watts the Elder

Yeovil's second Post Office opens in Silver Street, run by Robert Jennings

The Deposit Bank, first savings bank in Yeovil, opens next to the Choughs

Population of Yeovil reaches 4,655

The boundaries of the Borough of Yeovil are extended

Population of Yeovil reaches 5,921

The Yeovil Reform Riot - the Riot Act is read and the troops called out

Town Gas Works open off Middle Street

Yeovil Poor Law Union formed

25 High Street (Denner's, later Beales, main building) built

First Nonconformist marriage takes place in Yeovil

Yeovil Union Workhouse opens, with accommodation for 300

Deposit Bank moves to High Street - the building is still there

Osborne House built in Townsend

Yeovil's first National Day School opens in Huish

Consecration of the Church of the Holy Trinity in Peter Street

Manslaughter Trial of William Crocker following a fight in the Running Horse

William Phelips sells Lordship of Yeovil to George Harbin

National Day School, the first of its kind in the area, opens in Huish

Charles Pittard starts his leather dressing warehouse in Middle Street

Cholera epidemic hits Yeovil

The Shambles and the Market House in the Borough are demolished

New Town Hall in High Street opens with market stalls on its ground floor

Town House opens as a Police Station

Population of Yeovil reaches 7,744

Board of Health holds Public Enquiry following cholera outbreak in 1848

The Rammell Report is a scathing attack on Yeovil's sanitary conditions

Yeovil Branch of the Bristol and Exeter Railway opens at Hendford terminus

Yeovil becomes a Municipal Borough

John Ryall Mayo becomes Yeovil's first Mayor

The boundaries of the Borough of Yeovil are extended again

Railway extended through Yeovil to connect with Pen Mill

Yeovil's first hospital, the General Dispensary, opened

South Street school opens, Yeovil's second National Day School

Salisbury and Exeter line opens a station at Yeovil Junction

Woborn Almshouse rebuilt in Union Street

Yeovil Town Railway Station opens

Hendford becomes a halt

Salisbury and Exeter line extends to Hendford and new Town Station

Population of Yeovil reaches 9,200

First issue of Western Gazette by Charles Clinker

Disastrous fire sweeps through the town

Robert Colmer put on trial for Manslaughter

Giuseppe Garibaldi (1807-1882) visits Yeovil

The Town Hall finally gets a clock in a short tower

A goods line connects Yeovil Junction with Pen Mill

Formation of Yeovil & County Cricket Club

Market stalls removed from Town Hall and replaced by shops

Population of Yeovil reaches 9,800

Yeovil's first 'proper' hospital, Fiveways Hospital, opens

Smallpox epidemic hits Yeovil

Reckleford Board School opens

Yeovil's Post Office moves from Silver Street to Princes Street

Robert Colmer and Jane Colmer put on trial for Murder

James B Petter designs a modern and efficient fire grate - the 'Nautilus'

Population of Yeovil reaches 9,507

Corporation Baths open in Huish

Yeovil celebrates Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee

Town Hall clock tower taken down as unsafe

Yeovil Men's Swimming Club formed

Assembly Rooms open in Princes Street

Victoria Temperance Hall opens in South Street

Yeovil & District Co-operative Society registered

Ayr House in Hendford built as Manse for the Baptist Minister

Henry Cobb starts the Yeovil High School for Girls

Miss KM Chaffey opens Yeovil's first public library "Everybody's Library"

Population of Yeovil reaches 10,943

Ernest & Percy Petter design and produce a self-propelled oil engine

Yeovil celebrates the Royal Wedding of Prince George

Petters produce the first UK motor car with an internal combustion engine

Isolation Hospital built off Lyde Road for smallpox victims

Pen Mill Board School opens

First public showing of a film in Yeovil, at the Assembly Rooms

St Michael & All Angels church opens in Brickyard Lane

Yeovil celebrates Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee

Yeovil celebrates Queen Victoria's 80th Birthday

Aplin & Barrett's Western Counties Creamery opens in Newton Road

Litunga Lewanika, King of Barotseland (1878-1916), visits Yeovil

Yeovil celebrates the Coronation of King Edward VII

Yeovil's Post Office moves from Princes Street to Middle Street

Convent of the Sisters of St Gildas-des-Bois founded in Yeovil

The boundaries of the Borough of Yeovil are extended again

Kingston School renamed Yeovil County School

New Western Gazette office and printing works opens

Yeovil Ladies' Swimming Club formed

St Michael's Hall opens

Portreeve's Almshouse in South Street burns down

Corporation Almshouse (now Dorcas House) built to replace above

Yeovil Celebrates the Coronation of King George V

New clock tower installed on Town Hall

Yeovil's first fifty council houses officially open in New Town

Central Auction Rooms, Church Street, starts showing films

Disastrous fire sweeps through part of the factory of Aplin & Barrett

Official opening of the Newnam Memorial Hall in South Street

Westland Aircraft Works founded by Petters Ltd

Start of First World War

Yeovil recruits enlist

Central Auction Rooms renamed the Cosy Corner

Newnam Memorial Hall becomes a Red Cross Hospital for servicemen

Hoard of Roman coins discovered by workmen south of Westland Road

The Cosy Corner renamed the Central Cinema

End of First World War

Yeovil celebrates Peace Day

The town's library opens in the Victoria Hall

Population of Yeovil reaches 14,994

War Memorial unveiled in the Borough

Yeovil General Hospital opened in Kingston by HRH the Prince of Wales

Percy Petter designs and patents the Petometer, an early calculator

The Castle Inn, in part a 13th century building, was demolished

Experimental Nissen-Petren Prototype Housing built in Goldcroft

Yeovil County School renamed The Yeovil School

WRE Mitchelmore undertakes first excavation of Westland Roman Villa

CA Raleigh Radford excavates Westland Villa complex

Municipal Offices, Museum and Library open in King George Street

The boundaries of the Borough of Yeovil are extended again

Fire destroys the Central Cinema

Mudford Road Playing Fields, aka Mudford Rec, opened

Grand re-opening of the rebuilt Central Cinema

Yeovil's Post Office moves from Princes Street to King George Street

Hendford Halt opens for train passengers

Yeovil celebrates King George V's Silver Jubilee

First County cricket match at Yeovil's Somerset County Cricket Ground

Town Hall burns to the ground

The Odeon Cinema opens in Court Ash

Law Courts open in Petters Way as part of proposed civic centre complex

Police Station moves from the Town House to the Law Courts

Zeppelin taking aerial reconnaissance photographs seen over Yeovil

Start of Second World War

4,410 evacuees from London arrive in Yeovil

Formation of the Local Defence Volunteers, later re-named the Home Guard

First of the ten air raids on Yeovil

The Medical Hall in the Borough destroyed by a German bomb

Yeovil celebrates VE Day, end of the Second World War in Europe

VJ Day, Japan surrenders effectively ending the Second World War

150 'prefabs' built as temporary post-war housing in Larkhill Road

Yeovil celebrates the Borough Corporation Centenary

Town Gas Works closes

Long-distance trains from Pen Mill cease

15th century George Inn demolished

Reckleford Fire Station opens

Yeovil College opens

Hendford Halt closes, along with the railway line to Taunton

Central Cinema finally closes

Yeovil Town Station closes

Museum of South Somerset opens

Rail service between Yeovil Junction and Pen Mill withdrawn

Maltravers House built

The Calvinist Tabernacle demolished in Tabernacle Lane

Summerlands Hospital opens on the old workhouse site in Preston Road

Yeovil District Hospital officially opened by HRH the Duchess of Kent

Yeovil Borough Council replaced by Yeovil District Council

Johnson Hall opens

The Yeovil premises of Aplin & Barrett closes

Yeovil Town Council takes over functions of Charter Trustees

New library opens in King George Street

Last of Yeovil's glove manufacturing companies, Freke & Gifford, closes

Population of Yeovil reaches 41,871

Population of Yeovil reaches 49,698