| 410 (AD) | The refugees from Britain's largest Roman settlement (now Wroxeter, then Viroconium, 5 miles East of Shrewsbury) select Shrewsbury to settle, because of its excellent defensive position on a hill inside a loop of the River Severn.
|
| 617-760 | Shrewsbury is the capital town of West Mercia
|
| 920 | Shrewsbury permitted to print money
|
| 1066 | The most famous date in British history - when the Norman king William the Conqueror landed, then quickly took Britain over. By this time Shrewsbury was already a substantial walled city.
|
| 1083 | Shrewsbury's great Benedictine Abbey and Monastery established - the building is still Shrewsbury's biggest church.
|
| 1280 | King Edward I extends the castle to its present area as part of his continuing fight against the Welsh
|
| 1380 | Shrewsbury is Britain's third largest town, after London and York.
|
| 1403 | The date of the battle of Shrewsbury, between King Henry IV and the powerful Percy family from Northumberland - a battle known by most people as the one which features Falstaff as coward, in Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part 1.
|
| 1485 | Henry VII (Henry Tudor) declared king in Shrewsbury before his battle (at Bosworth) for the throne against the current king, Richard III - a battle again best known for its featuring in Shakespeare's Richard III.
|
| 1642 | King Charles I shelters in Shrewsbury during the English civil war between the Parliamentarians (Puritans/Roundheads) and the Royalists. King Charles was later executed, and the victory of the Parliamentarians is seen by many as the birth of the modern political democracy.
|
| 1761 | 25 Claremont Hill - the current home of Severnvale - built.
|
| 1780 | The famous architectural engineer Thomas Telford (after whom the modern town of Telford is named) modernises the castle.
|
| 1809 | Charles Darwin, the famous proponent of the theory of evolution (first presented in 1859) and writer of The Origin of Species born, and subsequently educated, in Shrewsbury.
|
| 1830 | Madame Tussaud presents a waxwork exhibition here.
|
| 1851 | The great violinist, composer and conductor, Paganini presents a concerto in Shrewsbury
|
| 1858 | Charles Dickens, perhaps England's greatest novelist, stays - and writes a little - in Shrewsbury
|
| 1910 | Wilfred Owen, one of Britain's foremost war poets, lives and writes here.
|
| 1982 | Severnvale Academy established by the Rogers brothers, and still going strong today!
|
| 1984 | Princess Anne opens the Gateway Arts Centre, which Severnvale now uses for its Junior Centre in Summer.
|
| 2003... | Shrewsbury continues to be a wealthy market town of approximately 100,000 inhabitants still fulfilling its 7th century role as a provincial 'capital'.
|