Timeline
c. 63 CE Legendary foundation of the Old Church and first community at Glastonbury | 410 CE Departure of the last Roman legions from Britain | 670 – 690 CE First grants of land recorded, first Saxon Church built at Glastonbury | 940 – 963 CE Church extended by Abbot Dunstan | 967 – 975 CE Kings Edmund and Edgar buried at the abbey | 1066 Battle of Hastings, start of Norman era
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1078 – 1096
First Norman abbot Thurstin met with resistance culminating in battle
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1100 – 1118
Period of rebuilding and extension
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1126 – 1171
Abbey flourishes under Abbot Henry of Blois
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1184
Great fire destroys abbey including the Old Church
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1186
The Lady Chapel is completed on the site of the Old Church
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1189
Work begins on rebuilding the east end of the church
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1191
Tombs of King Arthur and Guinevere discovered
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1213
The Great Church is consecrated
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1274 – 1291
Nave completed, King Edward I and Queen Eleanor attend reburial of Arthur in the choir
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1322 – 1342
Abbot’s Hall, lodging, and Kitchen built
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1348
The Black Death kills a third of the population of England
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1374 – 1420
The cloister is remodelled
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1493 – 1524
Joseph of Arimathea legend thrives. Abbot Beere has Joseph’s crypt chapel built.
Additions of the Edgar Chapel, Loretto Chapel, and St. Patrick’s almshouses
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1534 – 1538
Last abbot Richard Whiting signs the Act of Supremacy. Suppression of the monasteries begins
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1539
Dissolution of Glastonbury Abbey and hanging of Richard Whiting on the Tor
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1547 - 1553
The abbey site is granted to Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset. A colony of refugee Flemish weavers is settled on the site
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1825 – 1830
Site acquired by John Fry Reeves. Abbey House built
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1896 – 1906
Site inhabited by the Austin family
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1907
Glastonbury Abbey purchased on behalf of the Church of England
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1908
Abbey site opened to the public. Conservation begins under W. D. Caroe. Excavations by Frederick Bligh Bond
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1951 – 1979
Excavations of Ralegh Radford and Wedlake
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1963
The Glastonbury Abbey Estate charity is formed
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2009
The charity in its current form is registered
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2018
Management of Abbey House returns to the abbey charity
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2022
Regalia launches campaign to rebuild Glastyonbury Abbey
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