Faversham Market Through The Ages

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