DATE

UNITED KINGDOM

REST OF THE WORLD

DUDLEY

AGE

OF

ST JOHN’S

CHURCH

ST JOHN’S CHURCH

1830

·          William IV King of Britain

·          First inter-city railway, Liverpool to Manchester

·          Covent Garden market built, London

·          World population reaches 1 billion

·          July Revolution in Paris -Charles X overthrown

·          First sewing machine, France

·          First individually wrapped soap for sale, New York

·          (In 1182 Dudley had two churches - St Edmunds - The ‘Castle Church’ and St Thomas’s - built by Gervase Paganel who founded the priory in about 1160)

1831

·          First motorised bus, Stratford to London

·          First lawnmower, UK

·          Charles Darwin sets off round the world

·          Virginia slave revolt led by Nat Turner

·          Victor Hugo, Hunchback of Notre Dame

·          Foreign Legion formed

·          St. Edmunds rebuilt in 1724 after being ruined during the seige of the castle by Parliamentary forces in the Civil War in 1646.

1832

·          National Gallery built, London

·          Word ‘socialism’ comes into use, England and France

·          First Reform Act to enfranchise the upper-middle classes

·          End of cholera epidemic, 50,000 dead

·          Chloroform invented, Germany

·          Great Cholera epidemic spreads from Russia into Central Europe

·          Mormon Joseph beaten, tarred and feathered in Ohio

·          Dudley grew considerably during the Industrial Revolution of the late 18th Century.

1833

·          Factory Act in England forbids employment of under 9’s in England

·          Act abolishing slavery in British Colonies

·          Birmingham Town Hall built

·          Contraceptive diaphragm invented, Germany

·          British land on Falklands Islands and claim them

·          Invention electro-magnetic telegraph, German

·          St Thomas’s Church demolished in 1815 and present church built and re-opened in 1818

·          St Andrews Church built in Netherton in 1827 to serve that area of the town.

1834

·          Tolpuddle Martyrs -six labourers deported for attempting to form a trade union

·          Poor Law Amendment Act - each Parish has to set up a workhouse

·          Houses of Parliament destroyed by fire

·          Louis Braille invents raised writing to enable the blind to read

·          Spanish Inquisition abolished

·          35,000 slaves freed in South Africa

·          More churches needed to serve the growing town

1835

·          Houses of Parliament re-built

·          Municipal Corporations Bill creates Town Councils

·          Police Sevice becomes accountable to Home Secretary and Local Police Authorities

·          Patent of first revolver gun, Samuel Colt, USA

·          Halley’s Comet reappears

·          Hans Christian Anderson publishes first children’s stories

1836

·          British Parliament accept registration of births, deaths and marriages

·          Worst English avalanche kills 8 of 5 buried, Lews, Sussex

·          End of Georgian period

·          Fibreglass invented, France

·          City of Adelaide founded, Australia

·          Alamo falls to Mexicans, James Bowie and Davy Crockett killed

·          Sites for the churches given by the trustees of John William, first Earl of Dudley, who had died in 1833

1837

·          Economic depression hits

·          King William IV dies

·          British Museum built, London

·          Queen Victoria crowned

·          England abolishes the use of the pillory

·          Euston station opened

Queen Victoria moves into Buckingham Palace, first monarch to live there

·          Isaac Pitman invents shorthand writing

·          Morse code invented

·          Cuneiform deciphered

·          Riot in New York over high price of flour

·          Canada gives black people the right to vote

·          1837 a circular sent by Vicar of Dudley Rev. W.H. Cartwright asking for support for a Grand Bazaar to be held in the Castle Courtyard. This took place on 18th and 19th July 1937

·          Funds from this and other efforts, plus contributions from national and diocesan societies for church buildings provided sufficient money to erect two Churches or ‘Chapels of Ease’, one planned for Eve Hill later known as St James’s and the other for Kates Hill - St John’s.

·          The cost of each church estimated to be £3000.

1838

·          British invade Afghanistan

·          Charles Dickens publishes Oliver Twist

·          London National Gallery opens

·          London pedestrian walks 20 miles backwards then forwards in 8 hours

·          First railway in Russia

·          Christian F. Schonbein discovers and names ozone, Swiss-German

·          Thousands of eastern Native Americans forced to move, many die

·          October 1838 The Bishop of Exeter was staying at Himley Hall and advantage was taken to have the foundation stones of both churches laid on the same day. After a long procession and much ceremony the two foundation stones were laid by the Hon Susannah Julia Ward (daughter of Lord Ward and second cousin of a former Earl of Dudley).

1839

·          Britain and Afghanistan at war

·          Scottish blacksmith invents first true bicycle

·          No minimum age for drinking, first  restrictions on opening hours introduced

·          Charles Goodyear discovers how to vulcanise rubber to make it hard

·          Louis Blanc publishes essay ‘to each according to his needs, from each according to his abilities’

·          While the church was being built services were held on Sunday afternoons and Tuesday evenings in a building at Dixons Green, erected as a chapel by Non Conformists at a cost of £436.

·          The site of this building is unknown.