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A Holt Timeline
Holt, Bradford on Avon, Wiltshire
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1001: Holt included in the grant of the Manor of Bradford to Shaftesbury Abbey
early 12th century: church built as a chapel of Bradford parish
after 1243: Holt became a manor under the de Holt family
1252: an annual fair on St Catherine’s day licensed to Robert de Holt
1316: John de Holte complained of poachers in his park at Holt
1408: Holt Manor had passed from the de Holts to the de Lisle family
1688: mineral spa water discovered at Holt
1720: Lady Lisle and Rev James Lewis promoted the Holt Spa
1731: The Courts house called “newly built”
1741: the Lisle family sold the Manor of Holt
1758: Christopher Beaven, leather dresser, bought a house in The Midlands
1762: a Turnpike road through Holt from Bradford to Melksham and Lacock authorised
1770: traditional date of the founding of J & T Beavens’ tannery
1793: Staverton Bridge widened
1794: Dr Arnot opened a school at the Spa
1802: Holt Spa advertised for sale
1813: the original Independent Church was built
1815: Dr Arnot became bankrupt
1830: Benjamin Sawtell started a bedding business
1835: the National School was opened
1846: the Independent Church was enlarged
1846: Holt became an ecclesiatical parish separate from Bradford
1848: the Wiltshire Somerset & Weymouth Railway built
1857: railway from Devizes built to Holt Junction
1859: the Independent Church had become Congregational
1861: Holt Junction railway station
1864: Holt Association Footbal Club founded
1867: Great and Little Commons were inclosed
1868: the former Spa Great House became Beavens’ glove factory
1873: Holt Reading Rooms opened
1873: the Turnpike road abolished
1880: new Congregational Church built
1884: the giant elm tree on Ham Green fell
1884: a Civil Parish of Holt was created, separate from Bradford
1889-91: most of St Katharine’s Church rebuilt
c1890: the woollen cloth factory at The Courts demolished
1893: the Reading Rooms extended
c1895: Holt Brewery closed
1896: the Three Lions pub sold to Wilkins Brewery of Bradford
1902: Dr (later Sir) George Hastings bought The Courts and laid out the garden
1934: Ladydown and some other parts of Bradford Without were added to Holt
1938: the Anglican National School and nonconformist Congregational School merged
1940: Queen Mary visited Major Goff at The Courts
1943: Major Goff gave The Courts to the National Trust
1956: the Reading Rooms became the Village Hall
1957: the former Spa Great House demolished
1972: the Congregational Church became the United Reformed Church
1962: new Holt Primary School opened in The Gravel
1966: Holt Junction railway station and the line to Devizes closed
1970: J & T Beavens’ tannery bought by Garner & Sons of Yeovil
1973: Primary School extended; infants moved there from Congregational School
1980: the White Hart pub became the Toll Gate
c1990: the Three Lions pub closed
2010: the Glove Factory Studios opened, extended in 2015
2019: redevelopment of the Beavens’ leather factories began