| 6th century | First Saxon settlers arrive |
| 11th century | Known as Medletun, the town becomes an important Anglo-Danish settlement |
| Edward the Confessor grants a charter for a Tuesday market to Leofric of Merica (Lady Godiva's husband). | |
| 1077 | Geoffrey de Wirce grants a tithe of the market to the monastery of St Nicholas in Anjou |
| 1086 | Domesday Book lists Medeltone as having a market, two water mills, two priests and a population of 200. |
| 12th century | |
| 1129 | Roger de Mowbray becomes lord of the manor. |
| 1160 | Leper hospital founded by Lord Mowbray at Burton Lazars, a mile south of Melton. Local spring water was supposed to cure leprosy. Part of the Order of St Lazarus of Jerusalem, it became England's chief lazar house by the 13th century. Only earth mounds remain now. |
| 1194 | King Richard the Lion Heart visits Melton. King Street named in his honour. |
| 13th century | |
| 1280 | Major enlargement of the originally Norman church of St Mary. The church is the stateliest and most impressive of all the churches in Leicestershire, built in the Early English, Decorated, and Perpendicular styles. St Mary's is 164 feet long with a tower 100 feet high. |
| 14th century | |
| 1347 | Earliest record of a school in the town - taken over by the Crown from the Cluniac Priory of Lewes |
| 1381 | Poll tax records show 440 taxpayers living in Melton |
| 1384 | Anne of Cleves' house built as a Chantry House for priests from the Cluniac Priory of Lewes. Subsequently seized by Henry VIII at the Dissolution (1536) and given to Thomas Cromwell, Earl of Essex. He was executed for treason and the income from the property was given by Henry to is divorced wife, Anne of Cleves. The house was later used as a vicarage until 1760 when a new vicarage was built on the other side of Burton Street. Now the building is a public house. |
| 15th century | |
| 1477 | Death of Ann, the daughter of John Mowbray. She had married Richard, Duke of York but had no children. The manor passed to William Viscount Berkeley, who became Earl of Nottingham in 1483. The Berkeleys held the manor for about 80 years. |
| 16th century | |
| 1549 | Establishment of the Town Estate |
| 1553 | Bishop Latimer preached here in October, and charged 2s3d. |
| 1563 | Estimated population: 149 families |
| 17th century | |
| 1603 | 300 households in Melton, according to a religious survey |
| 1625 | The town is visited by the plague. Victims were put in isolation to try to contain the infection. |
| 1636 | The town is again visited by the plague. Death rate doubles to 122 in the year. Citizens of Leicester give the town £10. |
| 1640 | Robert Hudson, born in Melton but now a citizen and haberdasher in London, built and endowed the Bede House in Burton Street. |
| 1643 | Civil War and Melton is held by Parliament. One morning in November the Royalists attacked and took the larger Parliamentary force by surprise and took their officers to Belvoir Castle. |
| 1645 | Civil War 25 February: A Parliamentary force of about 3000 men under Colonel Rossiter attempted to re-take the town but were defeated by the Royalist garrison of about the same size, under Sir Marmaduke Langdale. About 170 Parliamentarians and 150 Royalists died in the battle, which took place in the fields to the west of Dalby Road. |
| 1665 | Another visitation of the plague. |
| 18th century | |
| 1760 | Enclosure Act passed for land near Melton, including some owned by the Town Estate. |
| 1793 | A town meeting decides to establish a girls school, and to light the town centre with oil lamps, the cost to be met from the Town Estate. |
| 1794 | Leicester to Melton canal opens |
| 19th century | |
| 1801 census | Population 1,706 |
| 1803 | Canal extended to Oakham |
| 1831 | Pork pie industry starts in Melton |
| 1836 | Workhouse built on Thorpe Road to house 300 people |
| 1841 census | Population 3,725 |
| 1847 | Midland Railway reaches Melton |
| 1851 census | Population 4,414 |
| 1852 | A programme of improvements to the town drains starts |
| 1853 | Gas lighting introduced by a Lighting Committee and the Town Estate |
| 1860 | A local Board of Health is set up |
| 1861 census | Population 4,400 |
| 20th century | |
| 1901 census | Population 7,454 |
| 1981 census | Population 23,554 |
| 1991 census | Population 24,065 |