Events from 2011 in

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

Incumbent

Events

January

* 1 January – Riot at Ford Open Prison is quelled by specialist guards in body armour. * 3 January – Adrian Lewis wins the World Darts Championship. * 4 January – Value added tax increased to 20% from 17.5%. * 5 January – Music retailer

HMV Sunrise Records and Entertainment, trading as HMV (for His Master's Voice), is a British music and entertainment retailer, currently operating exclusively in the United Kingdom. The first HMV-branded store was opened by the Gramophone Company ...

announces the closure of 60 stores following disappointing Christmas sales – a move which would see the firm lose 10% of its stores and could cost up to 900 people their jobs. * 7 January – The

England cricket team The England cricket team represents England and Wales in international cricket. Since 1997, it has been governed by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), having been previously governed by Marylebone Cricket Club (the MCC) since 1903. Engl ...

win

The Ashes The Ashes is a Test cricket series played between England and Australia. The term originated in a satirical obituary published in a British newspaper, '' The Sporting Times'', immediately after Australia's 1882 victory at The Oval, its first ...

series 3–1 in Australia. * 7 January – Former Labour MP

David Chaytor David Michael Chaytor (born 3 August 1949) is a former British Labour Party politician, who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Bury North from 1997 to 2010. He was the first member of Parliament to be sentenced following the United Kingdom ...

is jailed for 18 months for fraudulently claiming more than £20,000 in expenses. * 13 January – Labour win the Oldham East and Saddleworth by-election. * 15 January – Three former

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britai ...

bishop A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is c ...

s are

ordained Ordination is the process by which individuals are consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorized (usually by the denominational hierarchy composed of other clergy) to perform ...

as priests in the

Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham The Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham in England and Wales is a personal ordinariate in the Latin Church of the Catholic Church immediately exempt, being directly subject to the Holy See. It is within the territory of the Catholic B ...

of the

Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

Westminster Cathedral Westminster Cathedral is the mother church of the Catholic Church in England and Wales. It is the largest Catholic church in the UK and the seat of the Archbishop of Westminster. The site on which the cathedral stands in the City o ...

. * 22 January – Police charge 32-year-old

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

national Vincent Tabak with the murder of 25-year-old

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

woman Joanna Yeates, who was found dead on Christmas Day after going missing on 17 December. Tabak was first arrested in connection with the murder two days ago.

February

* 9 February – Former head teacher Jean Else has her Damehood revoked by the Queen, having previously being found guilty of misconduct. She is the first person to have the honour revoked.

March

* 3 March – The Labour Party wins the Barnsley Central By-election, with the Liberal Democrats finishing in sixth place. * 18 March – Former

British Airways British Airways (BA) is the flag carrier airline of the United Kingdom. It is headquartered in London, England, near its main hub at Heathrow Airport. The airline is the second largest UK-based carrier, based on fleet size and passengers ...

software engineer Rajib Karim, of

Newcastle upon Tyne Newcastle upon Tyne ( RP: , ), or simply Newcastle, is a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. The city is located on the River Tyne's northern bank and forms the largest part of the Tyneside built-up area. Newcastle is ...

is jailed for 30 years after he was earlier convicted of plotting to blow up a plane. * 24 March – Police find the body of 22-year-old Sian O'Callaghan in Oxfordshire, five days after she went missing in Swindon,

Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated Wilts) is a historic and ceremonial county in South West England with an area of . It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset to the southwest, Somerset to the west, Hampshire to the southeast, Gloucestershire ...

. A 47-year-old man is arrested on suspicion of murder and police are also searching for the body of an unnamed missing woman who is feared to have been murdered. * 25 March –

Delroy Grant Delroy Easton Grant Junior (born 3 September 1957) is a Jamaican-born British convicted serial rapist who carried out a series of offences of burglary, rape and sexual assault between October 1992 and May 2009 in the South East London area of E ...

, a 53-year-old

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

taxi driver who was found guilty on a total of 29 charges including indecent assault, burglary and rape committed against 10 elderly people between 1992 and 2009, is sentenced to life imprisonment at

Woolwich Crown Court Woolwich Crown Court, or more accurately the Crown Court at Woolwich, is located at 2 Belmarsh Road, Thamesmead is one of twelve Crown Court centres serving Greater London. It is adjacent to both HM Prison Belmarsh and Belmarsh Magistrates' C ...

with a recommendation that he should serve at least 27 years in prison before

parole Parole (also known as provisional release or supervised release) is a form of early release of a prison inmate where the prisoner agrees to abide by certain behavioral conditions, including checking-in with their designated parole officers, or ...

can even be considered. * 26 March – Hundreds of thousands of people march in

against

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is ...

budget cuts with the protests later turning violent
(''The Telegraph'')(''The Guardian'')
* 27 March – A 47-year-old taxi driver, Christopher Halliwell, is charged with the

murder of Sian O'Callaghan Sian Emma O'Callaghan (3 June 1988 – March 2011) was a 22-year-old British woman who disappeared from Swindon, Wiltshire, having last been seen at a nightclub in the town in the early hours of 19 March 2011. Her body was found on 24 March 2 ...

April

*1 April –

South Downs National Park The South Downs National Park is England's newest national park, designated on 31 March 2010. The park, covering an area of in southern England, stretches for from Winchester in the west to Eastbourne in the east through the counties of Hamp ...

Authority begins operation. *5 April – Police investigating the

have identified human remains found at a second site as those of Swindon woman Becky Godden-Edwards, who was last seen alive in 2002 at the age of 20. *13 April – 53-year-old actor Brian Regan, most famous for his role as Terry Sullivan in the former

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service ...

TV soap

Brookside Brookside may refer to: Geography Canada * Brookside, Edmonton * Brookside, Newfoundland and Labrador * Brookside, Nova Scotia United Kingdom * Brookside, Berkshire, England * Brookside, Telford, an area of Telford, England United States * Br ...

, is charged – along with another man – with the murder of a man who was fatally shot in Aigburth,

Merseyside Merseyside ( ) is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in North West England, with a population of 1.38 million. It encompasses both banks of the Mersey Estuary and comprises five metropolitan boroughs: Knowsley, St Helens, Sefton, Wi ...

, on 24 February this year. *16 April –

Turner Contemporary Turner Contemporary is one of the UK’s leading contemporary art galleries. Celebrating Margate’s connection with the painter J.M.W. Turner (1775 – 1851), an artist who believed that art could be an agent of change, its year-round exhibition ...

art gallery, designed by David Chipperfield, opens in

Margate Margate is a seaside town on the north coast of Kent in south-east England. The town is estimated to be 1.5 miles long, north-east of Canterbury and includes Cliftonville, Garlinge, Palm Bay and Westbrook. The town has been a significan ...

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

. *22 April – Nine people are arrested and eight police officers are injured during riots in

amid a protest against the opening of a new

Tesco Tesco plc () is a British multinational groceries and general merchandise retailer headquartered in Welwyn Garden City, England. In 2011 it was the third-largest retailer in the world measured by gross revenues and the ninth-largest in th ...

superstore in the Stokes Croft area of the city. *29 April – Prince William, Duke of Cambridge and

Catherine Middleton Catherine, Princess of Wales, (born Catherine Elizabeth Middleton; 9 January 1982) is a member of the British royal family. She is married to William, Prince of Wales, heir apparent to the British throne, making Catherine the likely next ...

marry Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognized union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children, and between t ...

Westminster Abbey Westminster Abbey, formally titled the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster, is an historic, mainly Gothic church in the City of Westminster, London, England, just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is one of the Unite ...

. A public holiday celebrates the day, which in conjunction with the May Bank Holiday, makes it a four-day weekend.

May

*13 May – Following a decision made at its Bishops' Spring Conference, the

Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales The Catholic Church in England and Wales ( la, Ecclesia Catholica in Anglia et Cambria; cy, Yr Eglwys Gatholig yng Nghymru a Lloegr) is part of the worldwide Catholic Church in full communion with the Holy See. Its origins date from the 6th ce ...

announces the reinstatement of the rule of abstaining from eating red meat on Fridays. The practice, last observed in 1984, will be reintroduced on 16 September to coincide with the first anniversary of the visit of Pope Benedict XVI. *14 May – The city of

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

celebrates as Manchester United FC seal their record 19th top division league title and

Manchester City FC Manchester City Football Club are an English football club based in Manchester that competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English football. Founded in 1880 as St. Mark's (West Gorton), they became Ardwick Association Footba ...

win the

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...

, ending the latter's 35-year wait for a major trophy. *21 May –

The Hepworth Wakefield The Hepworth Wakefield is an art museum in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, England, which opened on 21 May 2011. The gallery is situated on the south side of the River Calder and takes its name from artist and sculptor Barbara Hepworth who was born a ...

art gallery, designed by David Chipperfield, opens to the public in

West Yorkshire West Yorkshire is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. It is an inland and upland county having eastward-draining valleys while taking in the moors of the Pennines. West Yorkshire came into exi ...

. *29 May – Indy-style

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

racer

Dan Wheldon Daniel Clive Wheldon (22 June 1978 – 16 October 2011) was a British motor racing driver who won the 2005 IndyCar Series Drivers' Championship for Andretti Green Racing (AGR). He won the Indianapolis 500 in 2005 and 2011, and was co-winner ...

wins the

2011 Indianapolis 500 The 95th Indianapolis 500 was held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana on Sunday May 29, 2011. The race was part of the 2011 IZOD IndyCar Series season. The track opened for practice on May 14 and time trials were held from Ma ...

June

*15 June – St Paul's Cathedral completes its £40m 15-year restoration project. *29 June – A court ruling restricting the powers of police bail has thrown thousands of cases in England and Wales into disarray.

July

*10 July – The

2011 British Grand Prix The 2011 British Grand Prix (formally the 2011 Formula 1 Santander British Grand Prix) was a Formula One motor race held on 10 July 2011 at the Silverstone Circuit in Northamptonshire and Buckinghamshire, England, and won by Fernando Alonso. Chan ...

was held at Silverstone Circuit and won by Fernando Alonso. *12 July – Police (Detention and Bail) Act 2011, affecting England and Wales, receives its Royal Assent. *19 July – New

Museum of Liverpool The Museum of Liverpool in Liverpool, England, tells the story of Liverpool and its people, and reflects the city's global significance. It opened 2011 as newest addition to the National Museums Liverpool group replacing the former Museum of ...

opens to the public.

August

*7 August –

2011 England riots The 2011 England riots, more widely known as the London riots, were a series of riots between 6 and 11 August 2011. Thousands of people rioted in cities and towns across England, which saw looting, arson, as well as mass deployment of police ...

: The Metropolitan Police struggles to restore order in

Tottenham Tottenham () is a town in North London, England, within the London Borough of Haringey. It is located in the ceremonial county of Greater London. Tottenham is centred north-northeast of Charing Cross, bordering Edmonton to the north, Wal ...

after a riot the previous evening. *8 August – Prime Minister David Cameron cuts short his holiday to chair a meeting of the COBRA Committee as rioting in London continues into its third day and violence spreads across England with

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1. ...

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...

Nottingham Nottingham ( , locally ) is a city and unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located north-west of London, south-east of Sheffield and north-east of Birmingham. Nottingham has links to the legend of Robi ...

and

also affected.

September

*5 September – The first wave of independent state-funded schools in England, known as Free Schools, open their doors as the new academic year begins. *12 September –

Bernard Hogan-Howe Bernard Hogan-Howe, Baron Hogan-Howe, (born 25 October 1957) is an English former police officer and was the head of London's Metropolitan Police as Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis from 2011 until 2017. Born in Sheffield, Hogan-Howe ...

is named as the new Commissioner of London's Metropolitan Police. *21 September – An energy firm which has been test drilling for controversial "

shale gas Shale gas is an unconventional natural gas that is found trapped within shale formations. Since the 1990s a combination of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing has made large volumes of shale gas more economical to produce, and some ...

" in

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancash ...

has said it has found vast gas resources underground. *29 September – The Department for Transport announces a consultation process on raising the motorway speed limit on England and Wales' motorways to 80 mph.

October

*1 October – ** The sale of cigarettes from

vending machine A vending machine is an automated machine that provides items such as snacks, beverages, cigarettes, and lottery tickets to consumers after cash, a credit card, or other forms of payment are inserted into the machine or otherwise made. The ...

s is prohibited in

. ** A new record is set for the highest temperature recorded in October – at 29.9 °C (85.8 °F). *5 October – The world's largest solar bridge project gets underway in London. *13 October – Uefa's disciplinary panel decide that England striker

Wayne Rooney Wayne Mark Rooney (born 24 October 1985) is an English professional football manager and former player, who is the manager of Major League Soccer club D.C. United in the United States. He spent much of his playing career as a forward while ...

will miss the Euro 2012 group stage after being banned for three matches for his sending off against Montenegro for an incident the panel described as an "assault". *21 October –

's St Paul's Cathedral is forced to close its doors to visitors for the first time since the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

after

Occupy London Occupy London was a political movement in London, England, and part of the international Occupy movement. While some media described it as an "anti-capitalist" movement, in the statement written and endorsed by consensus by the Occupy assembly i ...

protesters set up camp on its doorstep. *28 October – Dutch engineer Vincent Tabak is convicted of the murder of landscape artist Joanna Yeates and sentenced to life imprisonment.

November

* 4 November – Several people die and dozens are injured after 27 vehicles collide – many bursting into flames – on the

M5 motorway The M5 is a motorway in England linking the Midlands with the South West England, South West. It runs from junction 8 of the M6 motorway, M6 at West Bromwich near Birmingham to Exeter in Devon. Heading south-west, the M5 runs east of West Brom ...

Somerset ( en, All The People of Somerset) , locator_map = , coordinates = , region = South West England , established_date = Ancient , established_by = , preceded_by = , origin = , lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset , lord_ ...

. *10 November –

Hinchingbrooke Hospital Hinchingbrooke Hospital is a small district general hospital in Hinchingbrooke near Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire. Opened in 1983, it serves the Huntingdonshire area, and has a range of specialities as well as an emergency department and a matern ...

Cambridgeshire Cambridgeshire (abbreviated Cambs.) is a county in the East of England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the north-east, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire to the ...

becomes the first

NHS The National Health Service (NHS) is the umbrella term for the publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom (UK). Since 1948, they have been funded out of general taxation. There are three systems which are referred to using the " ...

hospital to be run by a private firm. Healthcare partnership Circle has been awarded a ten-year contract, and will take over administration of the hospital – which has heavy financial debts – in February 2012. *19 November – Four Metropolitan Police officers are stabbed while chasing a suspect in

Kingsbury Kingsbury may refer to: Places United Kingdom * Kingsbury, London, a district of northwest London in the borough of Brent ** Kingsbury tube station, London Underground station * Kingsbury, Warwickshire, a village and civil parish in Warwickshi ...

, north

. Two officers are seriously injured, while a 32-year-old suspect is arrested for attempted murder. *30 November – More than one million public sector workers in England, including teachers and civil servants, strike over proposed pension changes.

December

*16 December – The Labour Party's Seema Malhotra retains the Feltham and Heston seat in south-west London for the party in a

by-election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, a bye-election in Ireland, a bypoll in India, or a Zimni election (Urdu: ضمنی انتخاب, supplementary election) in Pakistan, is an election used to f ...

sparked by the death of the previous MP. *27 December – The government plans to allow NHS hospitals to use up to 49% of their hospital beds and theatre time for private patients.

Predicted and scheduled events

September

*September – firstsite's new art gallery, designed by

Rafael Viñoly Rafael Viñoly Beceiro (born 1944) is a Uruguayan architect. He is the principal of Rafael Viñoly Architects, which he founded in 1983. The firm has offices in New York City, Palo Alto, London, Manchester, Abu Dhabi, and Buenos Aires. Viñ ...

, opens in

Colchester Colchester ( ) is a city in Essex, in the East of England. It had a population of 122,000 in 2011. The demonym is Colcestrian. Colchester occupies the site of Camulodunum, the first major city in Roman Britain and its first capital. Colch ...

Deaths

*2 January –

Pete Postlethwaite Peter William Postlethwaite, (7 February 1946 – 2 January 2011) was an English character actor. After minor television appearances, including in '' The Professionals'', his first major success arose through the British autobiographical fil ...

, actor (born 1946) *15 January – Susannah York, actress (born 1939) *15 January –

Nat Lofthouse Nathaniel Lofthouse (27 August 1925 – 15 January 2011) was an English professional footballer who played as a forward for Bolton Wanderers for his entire career. He won 33 caps for England between 1950 and 1958, scoring 30 goals, with o ...

, footballer (born

1925 Events January * January 1 ** The Syrian Federation is officially dissolved, the State of Aleppo and the State of Damascus having been replaced by the State of Syria. * January 3 – Benito Mussolini makes a pivotal speech in the Itali ...

) *24 March - Sian O'Callaghan, murder vitim. *23 July –

Amy Winehouse Amy Jade Winehouse (14 September 1983 – 23 July 2011) was an English singer and songwriter. She was known for her deep, expressive contralto vocals and her eclectic mix of musical genres, including soul, rhythm and blues and jazz. A membe ...

, singer (born

1983 The year 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to TCP/IP is officially completed (this is considered to be the beginning ...

) *16 October -

, British Indy 500 winner
ESPN, 16 December 2011 (born 1978)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:2011 in England *England Years of the 21st century in England 2010s in England

Incumbent

Events

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

Predicted and scheduled events

September

Deaths

See also

References