Kingston’s History

Saxons	838	King Egbert of Wessex holds ‘Council of Kingston’ attended by nobles, archbishop and bishops.
Saxons	900–979	King Athelstan, King Ethelred the Unready and possibly five more Kings crowned here.
Normans	1086	Domesday Book lists 3 salmon fisheries, 5 mills, one church and about 500 people in the Royal Manor of Kingston.
Normans	1130	All Saints Church built alongside the older and smaller Saxon chapel.

In 1256 an eight day November fair was the first of three annual fairs granted by Royal Charter

Middle Ages	c1190s	Kingston’s first bridge across the Thames constructed.
	1200	King John awards Kingston’s first charter of privileges as a town.
	1309	Edward Lovekyn builds a family chantry chapel.
Tudors	1554	Townspeople wreck Kingston bridge during Sir Thomas Wyatt’s rebellion against Queen Mary I.
Tudors	1561	Queen Elizabeth I endowed Kingston Grammar School to be housed in old Lovekyn Chapel.

May Games in the 1500s entertained the crowds and made money for the church

Two 18th century characters—Esther Hamerton (above) and Cesar Picton (below). Cesar was brought from Senegal in 1761 aged six and became a rich coal merchant

17th Century	1628	King Charles I awarded Kingston Market the right to have no other market held within a seven mile radius of the town.
17th Century	1640s	Both sides occupy Kingston in turn during English Civil War.
18th Century	1706	Gilded statue of Queen Anne raised in Market Place.
	1729	Sexton and gravedigger killed in churchyard when old Saxon chapel collapses, and Sexton’s daughter Hester Hamerton famously wears men's clothes to carry on father’s work.
	1790	Highwayman Gerry Abershaw begins career robbing coaches in Kingston area.
19th Century	1828	New stone bridge across Thames to replace old medieval bridge declared open by Duchess of Clarence.
	1830	Pioneer photographer Edweard Muybridge born in High Street Kingston.
	1838	First trains to ‘Kingston-on-Railway’ at Surbiton.
	1840	New Market House replaces old medieval building, and Queen Anne’s statue transferred to present site.
	1850	Civic ceremony accompanies placing of Coronation Stone at southern end of the Market Place.
	1867	Retailer Frank Bentall opens small store.

The traditional Shrove Tuesday football game was banned in 1867 as being too riotous

20th Century	1912	Sopwith Aviation commences aircraft manufacture, to become Hawker Siddeley and then British Aerospace and Kingston’s biggest ever employer.
	1914	Kingston bridge widened to accomodate trams.
	1927	Status as Royal Borough confirmed by King George V.
	1935	Guildhall built, Coronation Stone moved to present site, Bentalls new store built.
	1990	John Lewis store built.
	1998–2001	Bridge widened again.
21st Century	2002	Queen Elizabeth II visits Kingston to commemorate 1100 years since the coronation of her ancestor, Saxon monarch Edward the Elder.