1775 – His first major work, a poem entitled "Inebriety", was self-published.

1780 – He went to London, where he had little success, but eventually made an impression on Edmund Burke, who helped him have his poem.

1781 – The Library, published.

1783 – Crabbe became best known were The Village.

1790 – He published an essay on the Natural History of the Vale of Belvoir in John Nichols’s, Bibliotheca Topographia Britannica, VIII, Antiquities in Leicestershire.

1810 – The Borough.

1814 – He became Rector of Trowbridge in Wiltshire, where he remained.