Significant Burton Dates
1770 – Grand Trunk Canal reached Burton
1777 – William Bass bought brewery (High Street)
1778 – Robert Peel opened his first Burton Mill in Winshill
1819 – First salaried police officer (Richard ‘Dick’ Roe)
1834 – John Marston founded brewery
1834 – Burton Grammar School moved to Friars Walk
1839 – First Railway Station opened (Station Street)
1842 – First Burton Police Station (Station Street/Guild Street corner)
1864 – Present (half current width) Trent Bridge opened
1869 – First Burton Hospital opened in Duke Street
1875 – Burton Baths donated by Richard & Robert Ratcliff, son of Samuel
1877 – Burton Grammar School moved to new Bond Street school
1878 – Bass House opened in High Street (Bass, Ratcliff and Gretton Brewery Head Offices)
1878 – Burton upon Trent Municipal Borough formed
1878 – First Town Mayor, W.H. Worthington
1883 – ‘New’ Railway Station opened (Borough Road)
1883 – Old Town Hall (Market Place) demolished
1883 – Market Hall opened
1884 – Andresey Bridge built
1884 – Belvedere Workhouse opened
1889 – Ferry Bridge opened
1891 – St Paul’s Institute and Liberal Club gifted as new Town Hall
1896 – Burton Institute (Union Street) became first Free Library
1898 – Ferry Bridge Causeway opened
1901 – Burton granted County Borough status
1903 – Fire Station opened in New Street (from Union Street)
1903 – Tramway System opened
1905 – General Post Office opened in New Street (from Station Street)
1905 – Waterloo Tower opened
1907 – Magistrates Court opened in Horninglow Road
1910 – Police Station moved to Magistrates Court in Horninglow Road
1926 – Trent Bridge widening completed
1929 – Tramway System closed (31st December)

Monarch Reigns
1760 – 1820 George III
1820 – 1830 George IV
1830 – 1837 William IV
1837 – 1901 Victoria
1901 – 1910 Edward VII
1910 – 1936 George V
1936 – 1936 Edward VIII (abdicated)
1936 – 1952 George VI
1952 ……… Elizabeth II

Wars
1775 – 1782 American Independence
1799 – 1815 Napoleonic
1854 – 1856 Crimean
1899 – 1902 Boer
1914 – 1918 World War I

Food for thought
Queen Victoria reigned for more than 10 years after the Ferry Bridge was built… but when she was born, Napolean was still alive.

When Bass was working as a brewer, he would be reading reports about the War of American Independence and the French Revolution in the newspaper.

… maybe history is not as old as you think!