Chronology of the Coventry Area
(1800 - 1900)
| 1800 | Food riots in Coventry - food shortage a result of the war |
| 1801 | First national census - population of Coventry: 16,000 |
| 1813-1904 | John Gulson - founder of Coventry Public Library & twice Mayor |
| 1815 | First theatre in Coventry |
| 1818 | First purpose built theatre in
Coventry |
| 1819 | George Elliot (Mary Ann Evans) born in Nuneaton - died in 1880 |
| 1823 | William Webb Ellis, a pupil at Rugby School, broke the rules of football by picking up the ball and created
the game of Rugby |
1828 | Hillfields New Town (Coventry) built for ribbon weavers |
| 1831 | Josiah Beck places steam driven looms in New Buildings. In November, 500 luddites rioted and destroyed the
looms |
| 1832 | Christchurch church rebuilt - bombed in 1941 air raids |
| 1835 | Maudslay family produce a steam carriage in Coventry |
| 1837 -1901 | Queen Victoria's reign - she gave her name to the century |
| 1838 | Railways reach Coventry. The city connected to London |
| 1839 | Government
Education grants started - school provision in Coventry rises |
| 1840's | Some 30,000 weavers work on 3,500 plain and 2,228 Jacquard looms |
| 1842 | School of Design opened in Coventry |
| 1842 | Coventry loses County
status and loses some area as result |
| 1843 | Robert Owenite, Charles
Bray founds the Coventry Labourers' and Artisans' Co-operative
Society |
| 1846 | Foundation of John and Joseph Cash's first factory |
| 1846-1847 | Sir Joseph Paxton lays out the city's cemetery (now listed). Sir Joseph became one of the city's MP's in the
1860's |
| 1847 | Ellen Terry, actress, born in Coventry |
| 1848 | Earlsdon
in Coventry starts to be developed |
| 1849 | Mary Ball hanged - the last
woman to be hanged in Coventry |
| 1850 | Coventry-Nuneaton Railway
built |
| 1851 | Census - population of Coventry: 37,000 |
| 1856 | Coventry
Chamber of Commerce established |
| 1860 | Bicycles started to be manufactured
in Coventry |
| 1860 | Anglo French Trade agreement contributed to the decline of the ribbon industry in the city |
| 1860 & 1861 | Enclosure Acts resolved the common land problem which restricted the city's growth |
| 1861-1865 | Coventry's economy hit by the US civil war - shortage of cotton |
| 1862 | Some 4,000 weavers leave Coventry as a result of the cotton famine |
| 1863 | School of Art founded in Coventry |
| 1866-1957 | Alfred Herbert - leading Coventry engineer and industrialist |
| 1867 | A new Market Hall built to replace the 1719 Market House - destroyed by bombing in 1940 |
| 1867 | Coventry & Warwickshire Hospital
opened on Stoney Stanton Road |
| 1868 | James Starley starts manufacturing
bicycles |
| 1869 | Thomas Humber starts a bicycle firm in Beeston, Nottinghamshire |
| 1870 | William Hillman sets up a cycle company which in 1905 also began producing cars |
| 1873 | Coventry (Rugby) Football
club founded |
| 1877 | John Kemp Starley sets up own company in West Orchard - Meteor works. This was to develop into the Rover Company |
| 1883 | Coventry City Football Club founded (soccer) by employees of Singer |
| 1883 | Swanswell and Spencer parks founded in Coventry |
| 1885 | King Henry VIII School built and opened |
| 1887 | The Technical Institute
which grew out of the Mechanics Institute and the Useful Knowledge
Society opened in Coventry |
| 1887 | Humber bicycle factories opened
in Coventry |
| 1888 | James Starley builds an electric car |
| 1889 | Coventry regains county borough status in the general reform of local government - 650 hectares added to the area of the city, up from 420 hectares |
| 1890 | Pneumatic tyres start being made in Coventry |
| 1891 | Coventry Evening
Telegraph started as the Midland Daily Telegraph |
| 1891 | Moving pictures
shown at the Sydenham Palace Music Hall, Cox Street, Coventry |
| 1893 | FR Simms forms the Daimler Motor Syndicate and acquires the right to manufacture motor car engines from Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft |
| 1894 | Suffragen Bishopric of Coventry established under the See of Worcester |
| 1895 | Frederick Lanchester built a motor car in Birmingham using a Benz engine |
| 1895 | FR Simms sells right to produce Daimler
engines to Harry Lawson, Ernest Hooley and Martin Rucker. The
British Motor Syndicate is formed |
| 1895 | Suffragette / Suffragist
start their activity in Coventry |
| 1896 | First British motor car
manufactured in Coventry on 17 January by Daimler Motor Syndicate
which eventually develops into Jaguar. Harry Dawson buys an old
cotton mill in Drapers Fields - Daimler works. 123 Motor manufacturers were to make Coventry their home in the next 100 years |
| 1899 | Triumph Cycle Company formed and started to manufacture motor cycles in 1902 |
| 1899 | Some 610 hectares added to the city area |
© 1996 Coventry City Council. City Development Directorate. Myles Mackie
Page updated 20.10.96 by Ecosaurus: coventry@ecosaurus.co.uk