The Worshipful Company of Turners

Supporting the Craft, City and Charity for over four hundred years

Year Event
1179 Reference in the Pipe Rolls (Annual Accounts of Revenue & Expenditure) to “ the gild of strangers of which Warner le Turner is elderman”. Probably the earliest reference to a Guild of Turners
1295-1310 Probable origin of the Guild of Turners
1310 Six Turners sworn by Lord Mayor and Aldermen not to make any other measures than gallons, “potells” (two quarts)and quarts, and to make no false measures such as “chopyns” (about a pint) and “gylles” (half a pint)
1310-1311 Lord Mayor confers powers of self-regulation on a number of Crafts, including the Turners
1342 Turners summoned before the Lord Mayor and Aldermen to hear and do what for the common advantage of the people should be enjoined …… by reason of the manifold falsities and deceits found in the wooden measure
1435 The Wardens of the Craft of Turning complained to the Court of Aldermen that measures deficient in content, the product of “foreigners”, were being sold which were “false and deceitful to all the King’s people”. The complaint was upheld and a petition was granted giving the Wardens the power of “search and oversight” of all measures before being put on sale
1469 The Turners supply six armed men to take their share of the City Watch
1479 “The good men of the Mistery of Turners …… came to the King’s Court, Guildhall, and before the Lord Mayor and Aldermen” and petitioned successfully for the approval of Articles regulating the Craft
1513 Ordinance repealed which precluded “Foreyn strangers and aliens” from working as turners in the City
1591 Turners lease their first Hall in Philpot Lane, off Eastcheap, for a term of 40 years
1593 Records of the Turners Guild begin
1604 Royal Charter granted by King James I
1634 Grant of Arms by the College of Heralds
1636-1637 Turners obtain fresh lease until 1678
1666 Turners lose their Hall in the Great Fire of London
1668 Turners agree to rebuild the Hall, obtaining fresh lease until 1728
1670 Rebuilding completed
1685 Second Royal Charter granted by King James II
1698 Additional Ordinances approved by the Lord Chancellor, Chief Justice of the King’s Bench and Chief Justice of Common Pleas
1727 Fresh lease agreed, but not granted because of the landlord’s bankruptcy in the South Sea Bubble
1736 New Hall purchased on College Hill, off Cannon Street
1737 Possession of Philpot Lane Hall surrendered
1759 New Hall on College Hill let
1766 New Hall sold
1823 Additional Ordinances approved
1942 Association with the Corps of Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (REME) begins
1945 Company reaches agreement with the Society of Apothecaries for the use of their Hall in Blackfriars Lane
1952 First modern competition for ornamental turning organised by the Company
1953 First presentation of Annual City & Guilds Awards.
Link with REME formalised
1954 Introduction of Turners Shield for Craftmanship competition for REME
1956 First modern National Plain Turning Competition
1970 First modern National Design Awards Competition
1978 Formation of the Register of Professional Turners
2001 Launch of Bursary Competition
2004 Turners have float in Lord Mayor’s Show to celebrate the 400th Anniversay of the granting of the first Royal Charter
2004 First Wizardry in Wood exhibition in Pewterers’ Hall
2006 Penrose Halson installed as first female Master in the Company’s history
2008 Second Wizardry in Wood exhibition in Carpenters’ Hall

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