Faversham Market was mentioned in the Doomsday book in (completed in 1086) as one of only 42 places in England that was recorded as having a market. In 1546 King Henry VIII granted Faversham a Charter of Incorporation, which included the privilege of a market three times per week. Subsequent monarchs added to this, including the right that a new market town could not be established within the distance it took to drive a herd of sheep to market in one day (approximately 6 miles). This is still law in England today.
So today, as the market begins to re-open, I thought it would be a good time to reflect on the people who visited Faversham, and some of the major events the market has lived through:
- 1148 – Faversham’s Benedictine Abbey founded by King Stephen and his wife Queen Matilda.
- 1170 – Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Becket assassinated.
- 1252 – Faversham’s earliest charter issued by Henry III. It confirmed a number of rights and privileges enjoyed by the town and clarified its relationship with Dover as its ‘head port’ within the Cinque Ports.
- 1300 – Magna Carta presented to the Barons and Port of Faversham
- 1343 – Author of the Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer stays at the Maison Dieu complex during his own pilgrimage to Canterbury
- 1346 – The Plague (Black Death) arrives in England
- 1360 – Black Prince Stays at the Maison Dieu
- 1455 – Wars Of The Roses Begins
- 1527 – Grammar school founded.
- 1538 – Abbey dissolved by Henry VIII, the rubble was shipped to Pale Of Calais for defences
- 1551 – Thomas Arden (Controller of Customs & Mayor of Faversham) murdered. The incident was recorded in the play Arden of Feversham written in 1592.
- 1553 – Notorious Pirate John Ward is born in Faversham
- 1560 – Gunpowder industry starts at Home Works.
- 1564 – Christopher Marlowe is born in Canterbury, his family originate from Ospringe.
- 1585 – More corn shipped through creek to London than from any other port.
- 1587 – New grammar school opens, following a charter issued by Queen Elizabeth I in 1576. Faversham lost its previous school when the Abbey was dissolved.
- 1588 – Faversham was fitting out the Hazard to fight the Spanish Armada.
- 1597 – Shakespeare first performs in Faversham
- 1605 – Guy Fawkes and the gunpowder plot discovered.
- 1645 – Joan Walliford, Joan Cariden & Jane Hott, convicted as witches and executed in Faversham
- 1660 – Charles II visits John Trowts’ house at 23 Court Street following the restoration.
- 1683 – More wool exported through the Creek than from any English Port.
- 1688 – King James II’s brief imprisonment in Faversham.
- 1698 – Shepherd Neame founded
- 1815 – The Battle Of Waterloo
- 1838 – The Courtney Riots take place in Dunkirk and Hernhill
- 1840 – Henry Wreight leaves fortune to town
- 1858 – Strood-Faversham railway opens, some of the counties most elaborate Jutish treasures where unearthed in Kingsfield during the building works.
- 1914 – World War 1 breaks out
- 1916 – Great Explosion at Uplees: 106 people killed
- 1917 – Pollock’s Shipyard opens.
- 1930 – Great Britain wins the coverted Cup of Nations for Roller Hockey in a tournament held at Montreux. The whole team comes from Faversham, despite Faversham’s roller rink burning down five years earlier.
- 1939 – Start of World War 2
- 1965 – M2 to Medway Towns opened
- 1974 – Faversham Borough abolished, Faversham absorbed into new Borough of Swale.
- 1975 – Shipyards close
- 2020 – Covid-19 sees the market temporarily close
