1066   Battle is formed after the Battle of Hastings, in support of the Abbey that
​         William the Conqueror has built on the site of his famous victory 

1095   The Abbey is consecrated 

12th Century St Mary’s Church built 

1210   First mill recorded

1246   First jail recorded 

1251   First schoolmaster recorded 

Mid-13th Century Battle becomes a centre for leather processing and working 

1348   The Black Death halves the population. The Abbey has 52 monks in 1347
          but only 34 in 1351/2 

1377   Abbott Hamo de Offington beats off the French 

1420   The Pilgrims’ Rest is rebuilt

A Timeline of Battle's History

1538   Dissolution of the Abbey, which is then occupied as a private residence
         by Sir Thomas Browne, Henry VIII’s Master of Horse 

16th/17th Century Many buildings to be seen today appear, for example the
         Almonry, Pyke House, the Bull Inn, the Deanery

1676   John Hammond of Battle is licensed to establish a powder mill on the 
         ‘Peperynge Lands’. The town's gunpowder industry lasts two hundred years

c 1680 Clockmaking commences in Battle 

1789   First nonconformist chapel is built 

1812   Closure of the last Sussex ironworks at Ashburnham near Battle 

1816   Visit by the Duke of Wellington who is entertained at Battle Abbey 

1830/31 The testimony of 112 Battle citizens helps to acquit William Cobbett
         when he is charged with seditious libel 

1840   Battle Union workhouse in North Trade Road is built 

1845   National and Langton Schools constructed 

1850   Cresy Report improves town's sanitary conditions 

1852   Railway station opens 

1900  Waterworks at Powdermill Lane opens 

1966  Queen Elizabeth II visits for the 900th anniversary of the Battle of Hastings ​