[timeline]
timeline
| YEAR | MONARCH | HISTORICAL EVENTS | COVENTRY |
| 55 BC | Julius Caesar invades Britain. | ||
| AD 43 | Claudius invades Britain. | ||
| 301 | Diocletian fixes price of British beer (to twice price of Egyptian beer). | ||
| 410 | Romans abandon Britain. | ||
| 927 | Athelstan of Wessex | ||
| 939 | Edmund I | ||
| 946 | Eadred | ||
| 955 | Eadwig | ||
| 959 | Edgar I | ||
| 975 | Edward 'The Martyr' | ||
| 978 | Ethelred 'The Unready' | ||
| 1013 | Swein Forkbeard | Danes conquer England. | |
| 1014 | Ethelred 'The Unready' | ||
| 1016 | Edmund II | ||
| Ironsides (Apr) | |||
| Cnut (Nov) | |||
| 1037 | Harold I 'Harefoot' | ||
| 1040 | Harthacnut | ||
| 1042 | Edward 'The Confessor' | ||
| 1066 | Harold II | Norman Conquest. | |
| 'Godwinson' (Jan) | |||
| William I of Normandy (Dec) | |||
| 1087 | William II 'Rufus' | ||
| 1100 | Henry I | ||
| 1135 | Stephen of Blois | ||
| 1154 | Henry II | ||
| 1189 | Richard I | ||
| 1199 | John | ||
| 1216 | Henry III | ||
| 1272 | Edward I | ||
| 1307 | Edward I | ||
| 1327 | Edward III | ||
| 1340-1453 | Hundred Years' War. | ||
| 1348-9 | Black Death. | ||
| 1377 | Richard II | ||
| 1399 | Henry IV | ||
| 1413 | Henry V | ||
| 1422 | Henry VI | ||
| 1455-85 | Wars of the Roses. | ||
| 1461 | Edward IV | ||
| 1471 | Battle of Tewkesbury. | ||
| 1483 | Edward V (April) | ||
| Richard III (June) | |||
| 1485 | Henry VII | ||
| 1509 | Henry VIII | ||
| 1536-9 | Dissolution of the monasteries. | ||
| 1547 | Edward VI | ||
| 1553 | Jane (July) | ||
| Mary I (July) | |||
| 1558 | Elizabeth I | ||
| 1588 | Spanish Armada. | ||
| 1603 | James I | ||
| 1605 | Gunpowder Plot. | ||
| 1625 | Charles I (executed 1649) | ||
| 1641-6 | English Civil War. | ||
| 1649 | England proclaimed a Commonwealth. | ||
| LORD PROTECTORS | |||
| 1653 | Oliver Cromwell | ||
| 1658 | Richard Cromwell | ||
| MONARCHS | |||
| 1660 | Charles II | Restoration. | |
| 1662 | Thomas Rotherham, watchmaker, in London. | ||
| 1665-6 | Great Plague. | ||
| 1685 | James II | Monmouth's Rebellion. | |
| 1689 | William III & Mary II | ||
| 1702 | Anne | ||
| 1714 | George I | ||
| 1727 | George II | George Potter introduces watchmaking to Coventry. | |
| 1745 | George Potter elected mayor. | ||
| 1745-7 | Jacobite Rebellion. | ||
| 1747 | Samuel Vale I founds watchmaking firm. | ||
| 1753 | George Potter elected mayor for a second time (dies in office). | ||
| 1754 | Vale, Howlette & Carr. | ||
| 1756-63 | Seven Years' War. | ||
| 1760 | George III | ||
| 1776 | Samuel Vale I leases Spon Street premises; factory system begins. | ||
| 1776-82 | American Revolution. | ||
| 1777 | Samuel Vale I elected mayor of Coventry. | ||
| 1784 | Howlette elected mayor. | ||
| 1786 | Vale I and Howlette in partnership. | ||
| c. 1787 | John Rotherham I marries Samuel Vale's daughter Alice. | ||
| 1796 | Samuel Vale II punched on nose during general election campaign. | ||
| 1801 | General Enclosure Act. | ||
| 1803-15 | Napoleonic Wars. | ||
| Slave trade abolished. | |||
| 1806 | Vale, Howlette, Carr & Rotherham. | ||
| 1811 | Samuel Vale II elected mayor. | ||
| 1817-18 | Parliamentary Report from the Committee on the Petitions of Watchmakers in Coventry. |
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| 1819 | New watchmaking law. Prince Leopold visits Coventry. |
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| 1820 | George IV | ||
| 1821 | Rotherham's probably makes watch presented to Queen Caroline. | ||
| 1830 | William IV | Vale & Rotherham. | |
| 1831-38 | E T Loseby apprenticed at Rotherham's. | ||
| 1832 | Richard Kevitt Rotherham elected mayor. | ||
| 1833 | Vale, Kevitt & Rotherham. | ||
| 1837 | Victoria | Vale, Rotherham & Rotherham. | |
| 1838 | E T Loseby becomes a freeman of Coventry. | ||
| 1840 | Rotherham's annual output: 6,000 watches. | ||
| 1846 | Act of Parliament frees up land in Chapelfields that was a nursery owned by Sir Thomas White's charity. | ||
| 1847 | Building starts in Chapelfields. | ||
| 1850s | Rotherham's annual output: 9,000 watches. | ||
| 1850 | Rotherham & Sons. | ||
| 1851 | 2,000 people employed in watch trade, including 21 manufacturers
employing 631 people. Rotherham's make 'smallest English handmade watch' for Great Exhibition. |
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| 1852 | Harriet Martineau's account of visit to Rotherham's in Dickens' periodical (Household Words, 6 March 1852). |
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| 1854-6 | Crimean War. | ||
| 1858 | Rotherham's presents watch to Charles Dickens. British Horological Institute founded in London. |
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| 1860 | Free Trade Act lifts import restrictions. | ||
| 1861 | Slump in watch sales results in workers looking for other work. Coventry census. General population: 49,936. Watchmakers: 1,943 (male), 43 (female). |
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| 1861-5 | American Civil War. | ||
| 1864 | Rotherham workshop rules. | ||
| 1867 | 2nd Reform Act enfranchises virtually all men in towns & extends franchise in country but excludes poorer agricultural labourers. | ||
| 1870 | Loseby's Market Hall clock (later the Godiva clock) installed. | ||
| 1871 | Coventry census. General population: 39,474. Watchmakers: 2,368 (male), 74 (female). | ||
| 1874 | Rotherham's factory at 26-28 Spon Street. | ||
| 1876 | Coventry Co-operative Watch Manufacturing Society established at 35 Mount Street. | ||
| 1880 | John Rotherham installs new machinery in factory. | ||
| 1884 | 3rd Reform Act: uniform male suffrage in town & country; some 2 million farm workers get vote. | ||
| 1887 | Coventry Technical Institute offers courses in horology under local watchmakers including Player, Rotherham and Bonniksen. | ||
| 1889 | J Rotherham and E T Loseby patent bow and pendant. Rotherham watch wins gold medal at Paris exhibition. |
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| 1890-1 | Rotherham's obtain highest record for complicated watches at Kew watch trials. | ||
| 1891 | Coventry census. General population: 53,004. Watchmakers: 3,032
(male), 534 (female). |
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| 1892 | Bonniksen patents Karrusel escapement, which is very successful at Kew watch trials. | ||
| 1893 | Thomas Player paints dial of CCWMS watch with name 'A M Player' for his 23-year-old daughter Annie. | ||
| 1899-1902 | Boer War | ||
| 1901 | Edward VII | ||
| 1903 | Bonniksen makes Admiralty watch. | ||
| 1910 | George V | ||
| 1912 | Bonniksen takes out patent on speedometer. | ||
| 1914-18 | World War I. | Rotherham's ceases watchmaking; makes devices for war effort. | |
| 1918 | Women win right to vote (at 30). School-leaving age raised to 14. |
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| 1934 | Rotherham's last watches made. | ||
| 1936 | Edward VIII (January) | ||
| George VI (December) | |||
| 1939-45 | World War II. | ||
| 1941 | Rotherham's factory bombed. | ||
| 1950-1 | Korean War. | ||
| 1950s | Rotherham's pigeon race timer, variamatic pump and cuckoo clock fail to take off. | ||
| 1952 | Elizabeth II | ||
| 1953 | Market Hall clock reinstalled in present position in front of Broadgate House (along with Lady Godiva and Peeping Tom). | ||
| 1955 | Rotherham's make their biggest ever clock for Coventry City football ground. | ||
| 1964 | Rotherham's make their last clocks. | ||
| 1982 | Falkland War. |
