St Peter's Collegiate Church - Timeline

Timeline

This summary is based on a University of Wolverhampton publication, supplemented by the Victoria County History.

• 994 - Lady Wulfrun gave lands (given to her by King Aethelred II) to the Church of St Mary at Heantune. Wulfrun + heantune = Wolvernehampton - the town is named Wolverhampton. The church is run by a college of canons, who are secular priests.
• 1066 - The Norman Conquest leads to the church being granted to Samson, a royal chaplain, who alienates its lands and gives it to Worcester cathedral priory.
• 1135 - The church enters a period of great turbulence in the anarchy of King Stephen's reign, with several changes of control.
• 1152-54 - The church emerges triumphant, recognised as a royal chapel and independent of Lichfield's diocesan control, constituted as a dean and prebendaries, newly-dedicated to St. Peter or St. Peter and St. Paul.
• 1203-05 - The college is dissolved because of corruption and abortive plans are laid to replace it with a Cistercian monastery. Tower crossing (oldest extant part of the church) constructed. College restored, now recognised as lord of the manor of Wolverhampton.
• 1258 - Right to hold a weekly Market and an annual Fair on the feast of St Peter and St Paul.
• 1263 - Autonomy of burgesses recognised.
• 1280 - Archbishop of Canterbury turned away at the doors of the church. Independence from Canterbury formally recognised.
• 1350? - Chapel of our Lady and St George is built
• 1358 - Edward III orders an inspection because of notorious abuses at the church.
• 1440 - Nave roof raised to current height
• 1450 - Stone pulpit built
• 1479 - King Edward IV united the Deaneries of Wolverhampton and Windsor in a single holder, establishing the Royal Peculiar. Deans and prebends are mostly absent and poorly-paid curates do most of the work, as before.
• 1540 - Bells from Much Wenlock Priory installed to replace old bells (in 1729 more bells added to make a total of 10; in 1911 the frame replaced and bells recast)
• 1547 - The Reformation sweeps away the college and turns it into a parish church.
• 1550 - The canons alienate much of the college's property to the Leveson family on perpetual leases.
• 1553 - Queen Mary restores the college.
• 1560 - The college becomes an Anglican institution, unique in the Church of England.
• 1635 - Dean Christopher Wren calls in Archbishop Laud to purge Puritans and triumphantly consecrates an altar.
• 1642-43 - The church is damaged by Parliamentary troops, while Col. Leveson's royalists destroy all the college's records.
• 1646-60 - Under the Commonwealth, St. Peter's is a parish church with Puritan incumbents.
• 1667 - The restored college loses the first of many actions to recover its property from the Levesons.
• 1755 - The building of St. John's marks the end of St. Peter's church's monopoly in the town, although it remains merely a chapel-at-ease for over a century.
• 1811 - St. Peter's church is partially reformed with the appointment of a perpetual curate. The futile legal wrangle with the Levesons is abandoned.
• 1836 - Wolverhampton gains municipal self-government as a borough.
• 1840 - The Cathedrals Act declares the deanery and the Royal Peculiar abolished from the death of the current dean.
• 1846 - Dean Hobart dies and the deanery is suppressed.
• 1847 - St. Peter’s Collegiate School established adjacent to the church.
• 1848 - The college is wound up and St Peter’s becomes a parish within the Lichfield Diocese, with its own Rector. The dependent chapels become new parishes, each with a vicar.
• 1860 - "Father" Henry Willis built a new organ (in 1882 the organ was enlarged; revamped with an electrical blowing installation in 1914; rebuilt in 1970 and "restored" in 1983)
• 1865–Present chancel completed in decorated Gothic style
• 1937 - A civic and public appeal raises £10,000 in a few days for restoration of the tower and other important repairs.
• 1968 - Sanctuary re-panelled
• 1978 - Parish of Central Wolverhampton established: St Peter’s with All Saints, St Chad and St Mark. Later, the two latter were amalgamated and St John in the Square was added. Team ministry established under leadership of the Rector.