Most of the information in this Timeline comes from the publications of Tonbridge Historical Society (details here). We would be glad to know of any errors or omissions (contact details).
up to 1499
| before 0 A.D. | An iron age trackway runs north-south through what is now Tonbridge; the Romans will improve and use it |
| before 1066 | A Saxon preaching place may have been where Tonbridge Parish church is now |
| 1066 | William the Conqueror gives the Manor and Castle of Tonbridge to his
kinsman Richard FitzGilbert The surrounding area is declared the ‘Lowy' of Tonbridge |
| soon after 1066 | Tonbridge's first
castle, a fort of wood and earth, is built
The Normans also build a small church on the present site of the Parish Church of St Peter and St Paul |
| 1086 | Domesday Book mentions 'Ricardi de Tonebrige' ('Richard of Tonbridge') |
| 1088 | William II burns Tonbridge’s wooden fortress, and the town, to punish Richard FitzGilbert for revolt |
| 1125 | The Textus Roffensis ('Rochester Chronicle'), written this year, refers to 'Tonebriga' |
| c.1180 | Richard de Clare founds the Priory of St Mary Magdalene |
| 1191 | A Medway bridge exists in Tonbridge by this date |
| 12th/13th C | Parts of the Port Reeve's House in East Street may date from this time |
| 13th C | The Parish Church is enlarged and a squat tower built |
| 1215 | Richard FitzGilbert’s grandson, Richard de Clare, attends signing of
Magna Carta King John attacks and seizes the Castle, but it is returned two years later |
| 1230-60 | The stone Castle is built, including the massive gatehouse which survives today |
| 1259 | The de Clare family obtain a licence for a wall round the town, but
only a bank and ditch (The Fosse) are constructed The Earl of Gloucester is granted the right to hold a weekly market in the town |
| 1264 | Henry III takes the Castle.
There is evidence of an inn on the present Chequers site at this time |
| 1272 | Edward I and Queen Eleanor are entertained at the Castle before their Coronation |
| 1297 | Prince Edward delivers the great Seal of England to the King's Chancellor in Tonbridge Castle |
| 1314 | The de Clare family’s involvement with the Castle ends after 250 years |
| 1326-7 | Earliest evidence of a mill at Tonbridge |
| 1337 | 11th July: fire devastates the Priory |
| 1340 | There is evidence of ironmaking near Bourne Mill at this time |
| 1348 | Ralph, Lord Stafford, takes over the Castle |
| 1431 | First mention of the Town Lands, rent from which is used for bridge repair in Tonbridge and other purposes |
| 1492 | John Judde leaves money for 'mending of foul wayes' in Tonbridge and elsewhere |
| late 15th C | The present Chequers building dates from this time |
| ▲Top |
1500 — 1699
| 1521 | Tonbridge Castle gatehouse is declared ‘as strong a fortress as few be in England’ |
| 1523 | Imminent suppression of the Priory; Tonbridge people protest to the Archbishop of Canterbury |
| 1525 | 8th February: the Priory closes. Henry VIII, as lord of Tonbridge Castle, has a narrow five-arched sandstone bridge built over the Medway |
| 1531 | Richard Mylls leaves land, rental from which is to pay for road repairs between Vauxhall and the town |
| 1550-1620 | There is evidence of cutlery-making in the Tonbridge area at this time |
| 1550s | There is evidence of a bell-foundry operating in Tonbridge An ironmaking forge is set up at the Postern |
| 1552 | An ironmaking furnace is in operation in the Vauxhall area |
| 1553 | Sir Andrew Judde founds the Free Grammar School which later becomes Tonbridge School |
| 1555 | Protestant martyr Margery Polley is burnt at the stake in Tonbridge for her beliefs |
| 1557-8 | There is an outbreak of the plague in Tonbridge Parish |
| 1576 | 20th July: 'Katherine, the wyfe of Edmond Brystone, was burned [in Tonbridge] for poysoining of her Husband' |
| 1580s | A strip of the High Street from Church Lane down to the Market Cross (East Street) is paved with stones |
| 1610 | A 'Playhouse' exists in Tonbridge at this time The plague strikes Tonbridge again; the death rate rises to six times normal as 144 die in the parish |
| 1619 | Sir Thomas
Smythe gives ten pounds, eight shillings for the maintenance of the
poor in Tonbridge; he later makes other charitable bequests to the town and its Grammar School |
| 1628 | Sutton's Bridge in the High Street is repaired by the County (now commemorated by a stone) |
| 1643 | Civil War: Tonbridge Castle owner Thomas Weller is a
parliamentarian; there is a minor skirmish near Hilden Bridge |
| 1646 | Thomas Weller is ordered to dismantle the Castle defences |
| 1663-4 | The population of Tonbridge is estimated at 586 people |
| 1671 | The Market Cross, which stood where Castle Street meets the High Street, is rebuilt |
| 1672 | Tonbridge has its own post office by now |
| 1677 | Provision is made for a bridge over the Medway in Postern Lane |
| 1692 | 8th September: an earthquake shock is felt in the town (or so it is claimed) |
| ▲Top |
1700 — 1799
| 1709 | The road from Sevenoaks to Woodsgate via Tonbridge is turnpiked |
| 1720s | The Poor House is built in what is now Bank Street |
| 1724 | Daniel Defoe writes of Tonbridge that 'the Houses in the Town are mostly ill-built, and the Streets sorrily paved' |
| 1730 | Tthere are now two brick mansions at the north end of the town |
| 1731 | George Austen is born in Tonbridge; his daughter will be the novelist Jane Austen |
| 1739 | The population is about 900 by now. Castle owner John Hooker starts to dismantle the Castle and sell the stone |
| 1740 | Parliament passes an Act for making the River Medway navigable from
Maidstone to Forest Row in Sussex A Charity School is founded in Tonbridge, whereabouts unknown |
| 1740s | Tthe Medway is ‘canalised’ from Maidstone to Tonbridge |
| 1743 | The Medway Navigation Company begins to trade as a coal merchant |
| 1744 | George Hooper leaves money for a ‘water engine' i.e. a fire engine, for the town |
| 1747 | Fire-fighting is now the responsibility of the Lighting and Watching Committee of the Parish Vestry |
| 1761 | James Cawthorn, Master of Tonbridge School,
is said to have locked a
boy in a cupboard and forgotten him; the boy dies |
| 1763 | 19th August: a phenomenal thunderstorm strikes; hop gardens, orchards and cornfields are entirely destroyed |
| 1765 | The road from Maidstone to Tunbridge Wells via Tonbridge is turnpiked |
| 1774-5 | The Big Bridge is rebuilt by the County |
| 1775 | 31st December: a snowstorm produces drifts 10 ft deep in Tonbridge streets |
| c1780s | In the outside world the
town is now often referred to as 'Tonbridge-Town' or 'Tunbridge-Town' to
distinguish it from Tunbridge-Wells; this will continue for more than a century |
| 1783 | A hot summer brings an ‘intolerable’ plague of caterpillars |
| 1784 | The Wise family advertise Tunbridge Ware as a product |
| 1791 | A Dissenters' chapel (later the Corn Exchange) is put up in Bank Street |
| 1792 | the Tonbridge Bank is set up by Messrs Children, Woodgate and Scoones; it will collapse in 1812 |
| 1793 | 31st July: the Town Wardens install a public pump at the ‘dipping
place' by the Big Bridge Thomas Hooker builds a mansion attached to the Castle (now Council offices and ‘Gateway’) |
| 1798 | A
Town Hall is put up in the High Street
near the Castle Street junction; it will be demolished in 1901 Hasted describes Tonbridge as 'now in a flourishing state' with 'many good houses'; several residents are 'persons of genteel fortune'. |
| 1799 | Anna Children is born at Ferox Hall; as Anna Atkins she will be a pioneer of photography |
| ▲Top |
1800 — 1849
| 1801 | The population of Tonbridge is c.1500 A pottery is in operation at Pittswood; later there is a brickfield on this site |
| 1804 | James Burton builds Mabledon at the top of Quarry Hill |
| 1808 | Humphry Davy pays the first of several visits to Tonbridge staying with the Childrens at Ferox Hall |
| 1809 | The Ightham to Tonbridge road is turnpiked |
| 1811 | Cannon Lane river bridge collapses and is replaced |
| 1813 | The Tonbridge Gunpowder Company starts production on its Ramhurst site |
| 1813 | The world's largest battery is constructed at Ferox Hall |
| 1814 | Thomas Beeching opens
Beeching’s Bank; it will merge with Lloyd’s in
1906 Severe flooding; the Little Bridge is swept away A canal is cut to link Leigh Powdermills to the Medway |
| 1818 | The Big Bridge is widened by replacing its stone parapets with iron railings |
| 1820s | ‘Macadamisation' begins in the town |
| 1823 | William Cobbett describes
Tonbridge as 'but a common country town, though very clean, and the
people looking very well' |
| 1828 | James Christie forms the Penshurst Canal company |
| 1829 | Tonbridge School governors erect posts to mark boundaries of their
property The New Cut is dug linking two branches of the Medway; River Walk now runs alongside The Stone Lock is constructed at Haysden, but never used A Wesleyan Methodist church opens in East Street; it will be rebuilt on the same site in 1872 |
| after 1829 | The Wesleyan Sunday School expands to weekdays; it will move to Barden Road in 1869 |
| 1830 | The ‘Straight Mile' is dug for the Penshurst Canal but never filled |
| 1830s | Uridge's Cage Green windmill is in operation; it will close down in the 1860s |
| 1831 onwards | The large Tonbridge parish is split up as new parishes are created
in Southborough, Hildenborough and Tunbridge Wells |
| 1832 | James Christie is bankrupt and absconds The High Street from Church Lane to the Chequers is macadamised Open drainage channels are constructed alongside part of the High Street 30 coaches now pass through Tonbridge each weekday, half of them bound for London, others for Tunbridge Wells, Maidstone, Tenterden, Rye, St Leonards and Hastings |
| 1835 | The first Board meeting of the Poor Law Union involving Tonbridge and nine other parishes takes place |
| 1836 | The new Workhouse for 500 people opens at Pembury; it will be
demolished c.2011 The Tonbridge Gas Company is formed; the streets are first lit on 12th November The South Eastern Railway receives assent for a line from London to Dover via Tonbridge |
| 1837-40 | The Vestry (early form of town council) builds some not very effective sewers |
| 1840 | Extra police are drafted in to Tonbridge to deal with the influx of railway navvies |
| c.1840 | The ruins of Tonbridge Priory are demolished to make way for the railway |
| 1840s | The Lavender Hill brickworks is in operation, until c.1915 Six or seven private schools are now operating in the town |
| 1841 | The population now exceeds 3,000 |
| 1842 | 26th May: the railway opens to ‘Tunbridge' from London via Redhill |
| 1844 | The railway reaches Dover from Tonbridge |
| 1845 | The National School opens in the former Bank Street Workhouse; it will become Woodlands School in 1964 |
| 1845 | Tonbridge's Eliza Acton publishes her best-selling Cookery Book |
| 1845 | A Branch line to Tunbridge Wells opens, but requires trains to reverse after leaving Tonbridge |
| 1845 or 6 | Telegraph lines are installed along the South-Eastern Railway; Tonbridge is the nerve centre of the network |
| 1847 | A Literary Society is flourishing in the town |
| 1848 | There are now 11 inns and taverns and 16 beer houses in the town |
| 1849 | A serious outbreak of cholera occurs at the lower end of the town; others follow in 1854 and 1866 |
| ▲Top |
1850 — 1899
| 1850 | Charles Dickens comes to Tonbridge to see the Telegraph Office A Mechanics’ Institute is set up, providing lectures and reading opportunities for working people |
| 1850s and 60s | Rapid development of roads and housing gives rise to a ‘New Town’ south of the railway |
| 1850s | Punnett's brickworks is in operation where Woodfield Road is now |
| c.1850 | Tonbridge Choral Society gives frequent concerts of sacred music |
| 1851 | The town’s population is almost 4,000 Starvecrow brickworks is in operation in Shipbourne Road; it will close in c.1930s |
| 1852 | The Tonbridge Water Works Company starts to supply piped water,
but only to 176 houses St Stephen's church, built by Punnett's, opens at the south end of the town Accurate Greenwich Time is now available in the town via the Electric Telegraph The railway station is renamed Tunbridge Junction |
| 1853 | Smallpox strikes the town; other outbreaks will follow in 1877 and 1883 |
| 1854 | St Stephen’s national (primary) school opens in Waterloo Road |
| 1856 | The Cattle Market Company is set up |
| 1857 | Trains can now go to Tunbridge Wells without needing to reverse, via
a new sharp curve out of the station Tonbridge now has its own Superintendent of Police, with 5 constables St Stephen’s infants’ school opens in Pembury Road A Drinking Fountain is installed at the junction of Waterloo Road and Quarry Hill An Ebenezer Chapel opens in the High Street; it will later transfer to Bradford Street |
| 1859 | The Metropolitan Drinking Fountain and Cattle Trough Association starts
to install troughs in London and elsewhere, including, eventually, some in Tonbridge |
| 1860 | A Ragged School (free school for poor children) is operating in the town but will close in 1888 |
| 1861 | The population is almost 5,000 |
| 1864 | A Police Station, with cells, is built in Pembury Road; it will
eventually be replaced with a much larger one The old Tonbridge School building is pulled down and the present one built The present railway station opens |
| 1865 | The original railway station, where the station car parks are now, is demolished |
| 1866 | A Sewer Authority is set up but achieves little |
| 1867 | A Zion Chapel opens in Pembury Road |
| 1868 | The ‘direct' railway line to London via Sevenoaks and Orpington
opens The Hadlow Road tollgate is removed On 22nd July Dr Fielding records a temperature of 100.5 degrees F (38.1 degrees C) in his garden in Mill Lane — a British record which will stand for more than a century |
| 1869 | William Blair launches the Tonbridge Free Press weekly newspaper |
| 1870-1900s | A horseracing track is in operation on what is now the Sportsground |
| 1870s | The Dry Hill area is developed with new roads and housing
R.W.Annison develops the Houselands (Slade) area with new roads and housing Turnpikes end about now A main drainage system is set up The Fire Brigade is now the responsibility of the Lighting Committee of the Local Board |
| c.1870 | There are now three Postal Deliveries a day in the town |
| 1870 | The Union Workhouse at Pembury admits nearly 7,000 vagrants in 6
months St Stephen’s girls’ school opens on the corner of St Stephen’s Street |
| 1871 | Tonbridge’s population is now almost 7,000 After years of squabbles and chaos Tonbridge finally elects a Local Board; it will be the town’s ruling authority for the next 24 years, replacing the Vestry |
| 1872 | A drinking fountain is installed outside the Star and Garter at the
junction of London and Shipbourne roads A Baptist Church opens in the High Street and will remain there until 1973; the site is now Somerfield’s The Little Bridge is swept away by floods (again) |
| 1873 | The first Sewage Treatment Works opens |
| 1874 | Christ Church, a breakaway C of E church, opens in Lansdowne Road; it will close c.1900 |
| c1876 | A Public Hall is built; it will become the Capitol Cinema in 1921; Wellington Place now occupies the site |
| 1876 | The end of Tunbridge Ware manufacture in Tonbridge A Congregational Church opens in the High Street; It will be replaced by today’s U.R.C. church in 1976 St Saviour’s Church is consecrated |
| 1877 | Extensive renovations at the Parish Church |
| c.1878 | The Market moves from the High Street to Bank Street site (now Market Quarter) |
| 1878 | A pioneering experimental telephone link is made between Tonbridge and London |
| 1879 | Very bad flooding, followed by a freeze; skating on the Medway The town’s first hospital, the Isolation Hospital, opens in Vauxhall Wood; it will close in 1933 |
| 1880 | Great flooding in the High Street in October |
| 1881-1911 | Many new homes built in the Pembury Road/Quarry Hill area |
| 1881 | The population now exceeds 9,000 47 cricketball makers now live in the town |
| 1882 | The Local Board opens a free (Public) Library in the High Street, where Barclay’s Bank is today |
| 1887 | Legendary cricketer Frank Woolley is born in Tonbridge |
| 1888 | The present
Big Bridge is opened
Tonbridge Cricket Club is founded Sir Andrew Judde's Commercial School is established in East Street as a fee-paying day school for boys; it will move to its present site in 1896 and become a grammar school, the Judd School |
| 1890s | The Angel Ground is first used for cricket |
| 1890 | St Eanswythe’s Mission Hall opens in Priory Road |
| c.1890 | After decades of confusion,
the Local Board finally decides that Tonbridge should be spelled with an
'o', not a 'u', thereby helping to distinguish Tonbridge from Tunbridge Wells |
| c.1891 | The Local Board sets up a Technical Institute in Salford Terrace; it
will move to new-built premises in Avebury Avenue ten years later |
| 1891 | The population of Tonbridge has grown to over 10,000 The first chain stores arrive: Freeman, Hardy and Willis, and the International Tea Company |
| 1892 to c.1912 | The High Street is widened from
the south end to the Big Bridge in stages, involving
demolition of all properties on the west side |
| 1892 | There are now about 47 streets with houses in the town; the number
will grow by 34 in the next 20 years Tonbridge Ladies College opens as a private school at Fosse Bank in the High Street; it will become Fosse Bank School on Quarry Hill, and later in Hildenborough Princess Beatrice, youngest daughter of Queen Victoria, visits Tonbridge |
| 1893 | Future novelist E.M.Forster moves to Tonbridge and is a dayboy at
Tonbridge School The railway station is renamed to Tonbridge Junction |
| 1894 | The Tonbridge Urban District Council takes over, and will run the town
until 1974 A temporary Roman Catholic Church opens in Waterloo Road |
| 1895 | Severe frosts; skating on the Medway for two months from 6th January
The Gas Company buys a new gasholder; is is still standing in 2011 |
| 1896 | A new Post Office opens at 91 High Street (now Pizza Express)
Bradbury and Agnew's Whitefriars Press opens its Tonbridge works |
| 1897-1927 | The Angel Ground is used for the Kent County Cricket Club’s Nursery |
| 1898 | There are now 21 telephone subscribers in Tonbridge Punnett's establish the Quarry Hill brickworks; it will grow and survive until the 1990s Yardley Court School is founded Work starts on a Salvation Army Citadel in Lyons Crescent; it will eventually close in 1984 The Castle is purchased by Tonbridge Urban District Council |
| 1899 | About 8 or10 people in Tonbridge now own a motorcar, it is said The South Eastern Railway becomes the South Eastern and Chatham |
| ▲Top |
1900 — 1949
| c.1900 | Horsedrawn omnibuses now link the town with Hadlow, Hildenborough and East Peckham | |
| 1900 | Brown, Knight and Truscott's
Dowgate Press opens its Tonbridge works
The horsewash, adjacent to the Big Bridge, is removed Lord Avebury opens the new Public Library and Technical Institute in Avebury Avenue |
|
| 1901 | The population is now approaching 13,000 | |
| 1902 | Queen Victoria Cottage Hospital opens in Baltic Road, paid for by
public subscription ‘Hospital Sunday’ becomes a big annual event, with a grand parade to raise funds for the Cottage Hospital Tonbridge Council's Electric Light Station in the Slade starts to generate current A new Fire Station opens in Bank Street |
|
| 1903 | Tonbridge Orchestral Society is formed A Convent is established at Shrublands in Mill Lane Tonbridge Rugby Football Club is formed Corpus Christi Roman Catholic church opens in Lyons Crescent |
|
| 1905 | There are now seven bicycle shops in the town The County School for Girls opens in the Technical Institute Building; it will move to Deakin Leas in 1913 and become Tonbridge Grammar School for Girls A rifle club is formed |
|
| 1907 | There are now 20 inns and pubs, 9 hotels and 23 beer retailers in
the town 1st Tonbridge Scout Troop, and Boys’ Brigade are formed Tonbridge has at least five Brass Bands The Slade and Sussex Road primary schools open |
|
| 1908 | The Electric Light Station is enlarged to supply more than 7000 lamps | |
| 1909-39 | 12 to 15 private schools are operating in Tonbridge at any one time during this period | |
| 1909 | March 5th: two trains collide at Tonbridge Station; two railwaymen are killed and 11 passengers injured | |
| 1910 | The Medway Navigation Company collapses The Star Cinema opens in Bradford Street; it will close in 1914 and reopen from 1930-39 A Council outdoor swimming pool opens A row over the introduction of Mixed Bathing at the town pool attracts national attention An estimated 10,200 hop-pickers come to the Tonbridge area this year |
|
| 1911 | The population of Tonbridge is approaching 15,000; they live in 3,300 houses | |
| 1912 | The Autocar company runs the first regular motor bus service from
Tunbridge Wells through Tonbridge to Hadlow |
|
| 1913 | 21st July: a ‘Suffragist's Pilgrimage' passes through the town
Hall’s Garage in the High Street now offers 20-25 h.p. Studebakers for £295 |
|
| 1914 | The Empire Picture Palace opens in Avebury Avenue; it will be a
theatre from 1932-55 Cricket-ball makers from Tonbridge and district, who supply most of the balls used in this country, strike for more pay |
|
| 1914-18 | FIRST WORLD WAR: 3,000 Tonbridge people serve, 346 are killed Much extra rail traffic runs through Tonbridge to and from the Front |
|
| 1915 | The Medway Navigation is reopened by Board of Conservators A new Post Office and Telephone Exchange opens at 94 High Street (now Wetherspoon's) |
|
| 1916 | The short-lived Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) Hospital for the
wounded at Quarry Hill House has over 500 patients |
|
| c.1916 | The Telegraph Office, opposite the railway station, burns down | |
| 1917 | Crystalate’s ‘Town Works' opens; millions of gramophone records will be pressed here | |
| 1918 | A Roller-skating Rink opens in Bradford Street; it will close in
1939 (now part of Car Park) Storey Motors starts making cars in Tonbridge, but will stop in 1920 The Infant Mortality Rate in Tonbridge is 107.8 per 1000 but drops to 56.6 by 1920 (and 4.8 in 2009) |
|
| 1919 | The town has 18 solicitors but only 8 doctors and 2 dentists Hilden Oaks school opens The town elects its first female Councillor; in the 1930s there will be at least five |
|
| 1920s | Many council houses are erected in this decade Motoring becomes more affordable: Chas. Baker and Co. are now selling Morris cars from their High Street premises Several petrol filling-stations appear in the town Motor taxis replace horse-drawn cabs outside Tonbridge Station in this decade |
|
| 1920 | There are 21 new cases of TB in the district this year, and 19 of diphtheria, but no smallpox | |
| 1921 | The population is now 16,000 The Capitol Cinema opens in the former Public Hall in the upper High Street The Pavilion Cinema opens in Avebury Avenue; it will close in 1941 (site now part of the Library) TUDC buys a secondhand steamroller and a new tar boiler for road-mending |
|
| 1922 | The Gas Company buys a second,
larger, gasholder – still a conspicuous feature of the town in 2011 The Medway Hall opens in Bradford Street; it will close c.1970, now Somerfield Car Park |
|
| 1923 | Lord Hardinge of Penshurst opens the Council’s new sportsground (now
‘Racecourse Sportsground’) South Eastern and Chatham Railway becomes part of Southern Railway |
|
| early 1920s | Open-top double deckers ply between Tonbridge and the Wells | |
| mid 1920s | Bus wars develop between rival operators Autocar (solid tyres) and
Redcar (pneumatic tyres); they reach a truce in 1928 |
|
| 1920s and 30s | The heyday of hop-picking; tens of thousands of Londoners descend on
the town to live and work on local farms every August and September |
|
| 1926 | Catastrophic
fire at Whitefriars Press
Vale Road residents complain of excessive smoke and grit from the locomotive shed |
|
| 1927 | 324 gas cookers are installed in Tonbridge this year | |
| 1928 | South-Eastern Tar Distillers' opens Vale Road plant; it will close
in the 1990s Car Parking is already a problem in the town, but is still free |
|
| 1929 | The railway station is finally renamed ‘Tonbridge’ | |
| 1930s | The Depression: begging rife in the High Street Red Phone Boxes appear in the town Artist and art historian Martin Hardie moves to Tonbridge Tonbridge now has a few hundred London commuters |
|
| 1930 | Lord Cornwallis opens Cornwallis Avenue There are still 130 privately-owned shops in the High Street The journey time to Charing Cross is now 55 minutes October 5th: William King of Tonbridge, 32, an engineer on the R101 airship, dies when the airship comes down in northern France and is destroyed by fire |
|
| 1931 | The population has only grown by a few hundred in the last ten years | |
| 1932 | 650 Tonbridge people now work for the Southern Railway, the town’s
biggest employer Electro-Chemical Developments company starts in Cannon Lane; as Wallace and Tiernan in Tudeley Lane it will be the town’s largest employer in the 1960s 27 die and 534 are injured in road accidents in South-west Kent this year |
|
| 1933 | Unemployment peaks, with more than 1000 Tonbridge men and women out
of work Woodland Walk is created as a work scheme for the unemployed Maidstone and District now reigns supreme in the local bus world Season Ticket Holders Association makes ‘emphatic and unanimous’ complaint about the train service |
|
| 1934 | Traffic lights are approved for Pembury Road/Quarry Hill junction
The station entrance is rebuilt The station platforms are improved and the line’s ‘London curve’ is made less tight Production ceases at Leigh gunpowder mills, which are then razed to the ground 700 people now work in the town’s various printing works Tonbridge now has two golf courses and 200 members There are now 13 garages or motor engineers in the town |
|
| mid-1930s | There is new housebuilding in North Tonbridge (Hadlow Road/Ridgeway area)
Tonbridge Gas Company is absorbed into South Suburban Gas |
|
| 1935 | Chas. Baker and Co. now offer driving instruction for the new
Compulsory Driving Test The new Queen Victoria Cottage Hospital opens on its present Vauxhall site In National Rat Catching Week, Tonbridge rat-catchers chalk up 467 kills, making Tonbridge the national champion |
|
| 1936 | Writer and painter Denton Welch moves to Tonbridge | |
| c.1936 | A grand shop for Burton’s the tailors is put up at 62 High Street (now QS) | |
| 1937 | The Ritz cinema opens in Botany; it will become a mini-cinema in
1978 and close in 1981 A Council employee catches 435 rats during National Rat Week The Distiller's Company produces first polystyrene made in UK in Tonbridge |
|
| 1938-42 | Norman Heatley, educated at Tonbridge School, plays a vital role in the development of penicillin | |
| 1938 | 1 in 3 Tonbridge people go to see Disney’s ‘Snow White’ in the
Town’s cinemas Tonbridge’s death rate of 9.9 per 1000 is now the same as the national average in 2009 16,600 civilian gas masks have arrived by October Air Raid Wardens are enrolled A new Telephone Exchange opens on its present site in Avebury Avenue; it will later be much enlarged |
|
| 1939 | Heart disease is the commonest cause of death, killing 173
in the town this year There are now 5,400 houses in the town, including 661 council houses |
|
| 1939-45 | SECOND WORLD WAR: tank traps and barbed-wire entanglements appear in the High Street | |
| 1939 | September: 615 boys from
Dulwich College are evacuated to Tonbridge, where they share the
premises of Tonbridge School; they will only stay one term |
|
| 1940 | The Local Defence Volunteers, later called Home Guard, is formed
Defensive ‘pillboxes' are constructed along north bank of Medway; some still remain in 2011 During the evacuation of Dunkirk 620 special trains carry 300,000 troops through the station, where local people ply them with food and drink During the summer and autumn the Battle of Britain is fought in the skies over Tonbridge A Prisoner-of-War Camp is constructed in Somerhill Park (now Weald of Kent School grounds) to hold German and Italian prisoners |
|
| 1940s | A strategic fuel pipeline is constructed through north Tonbridge and
linked to PLUTO (Pipe Line Under the Ocean) |
|
| 1942 | On December 16th bombs aimed
at the station destroy homes in Albert Road and Chichester Road instead;
3 die, 30 are injured |
|
| 1943 | The poet Sidney Keyes, educated at Tonbridge School, is killed on active service | |
| 1946 | The population is about 18,000 | |
| 1947 | A Girls’ Technical High School opens; it will become Weald of Kent
grammar school in 1978 Tonbridge Football Club ('The Angels') is formed, based at the former Angel cricket ground situated behind the |
|
| 1948 | Tonbridge Water Company amalgamates with the Sevenoaks Water Company
The Southern Railway becomes part of nationalised British Railways |
|
| ▲Top |
1950 — 1999
| 1950s and 60s | A huge expansion of new housing takes place at the North end of the town. 10,000 people will eventually live there, and three new churches and four new schools will be built. |
| 1950s | The Whitefriars Press is producing paperbacks by the million at this time |
| 1950 | Tonbridge-born scientist Cecil Powell is awarded the Nobel Prize for physics. (Further information on this site) |
| 1951 | The population reaches 19,000 |
| 1957 | Diesels take over from steam on the Hastings line 1600 commuters now travel to London daily |
| 1959 | Russell White becomes the first Bishop of Tonbridge |
| 1960s | High Street widening continues with the demolition of shops between
the Great Bridge and the Chequers Hop-picking by visiting Londoners has almost completely died out |
| 1961 | The population is now 22,000 The Tonbridge to London railway line is electrified at last |
| 1964 | Bank Street School moves and becomes Woodlands Junior School Prince Philip opens the Delarue School |
| 1965 | The present sewage works opens A new Methodist Church opens in Hunt Road |
| 1966 | November 3rd: Tonbridge North Library opens to serve the burgeoning area of Trench Wood and Cage Green |
| 1968 | Disastrous flooding in the town |
| 1969 | Derek Barton, educated at Tonbridge School, receives the Nobel Prize
for chemistry Tonbridge is twinned with French town Le Puy |
| 1970s | The end of cricketball-making in Tonbridge Gravel extraction takes place where Haysden Water now is |
| 1970 | The Vale Road to Cannon Lane ‘mini-bypass' is completed The Tonbridge Free Press newspaper ceases publication |
| 1971 | The population has leapt to 30,000 The Cattle Market ceases operation The A21 Tonbridge bypass is completed |
| 1974-80 | Gravel extraction takes place where Barden Lake now is |
| 1974 | Tonbridge Urban District Council is dissolved; the town becomes part
of Tonbridge and Malling District (later Tonbridge and Malling Borough) |
| 1980 | Tonbridge Football Club
relocates to Longmead/Tonbridge
Farm off as the Angel Ground is to be redeveloped |
| 1982 | The Leigh Flood Barrier is completed;
it is the UK's largest flood relief scheme, intended to protect Tonbridge
from future inundation The Sainsbury/Bentall/Angel Centre complex opens on the former Angel Ground |
| 1984 | Tonbridge and Malling is twinned with the German town of Heusenstamm |
| 1985 | The Fire Station moves to its present Vale Road site |
| 1986 | The Hastings line is electrified |
| 1987 | Gravel extraction starts in the Postern area |
| 1988 | September 17th: Tonbridge School Chapel burns down |
| 1989 | Whitefriars Press closes in Tonbridge |
| 1993 | Fred Dibnah demolishes the chimney of Quarry Hill brickworks, which has now closed |
| 1994 | Channel Tunnel Eurostar trains start to run through Tonbridge |
| 1997 | Tonbridge-educated cricketer Colin Cowdrey becomes Baron Cowdrey of Tonbridge |
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2000 —
| 2000s | Former industrial sites alongside the Medway are redeveloped for high-density housing |
| 2000 | A wet year: the Leigh Flood
Barrier comes into operation 13 times (twice a year is typical) October 12th: after torrential rain, flood waters come within inches of the top of the Barrier; Tonbridge has a narrow escape |
| 2003 | Channel Tunnel Eurostar trains cease to run through Tonbridge The Cattle Market site is sold for redevelopment as ‘Market Quarter' |
| 2004 | September 1st: An estimated
40,000 people pack into Tonbridge and Hildenbrough to celebrate the
homecoming of Kelly Holmes after she wins gold medals at 800m and 1500m in the Athens Olympics. Holmes, from Hildenborough, was educated in the town and trained with Tonbridge Athletics Club. She is appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 2005 New Year Honours |
| 2005 | The population of Tonbridge and Malling Borough is 112,000, of whom 37,000 live in Tonbridge |
| 2006 | February 22nd: criminals steal £53 million in notes from a depot in Vale Road |
| 2007 | July 8th: Roads are closed
and thousands line the streets for a glimpse of the Tour de France
cycle cavalcade as it flashes through the town |
| 2011 | Following major development, West Kent College in Brook Street
becomes K College (but will revert to West Kent College in 2014) |
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