Help with the phonological development of English?

Heya!

    After a long late-night discussion with my husband last night, I'm utterly
revising Aelya. It used to be a Quenya/Sindarin/Old Irish meld, but now it needs to
be Old irish developing along English lines.I've seen similar works (Brithenig, the
Romance celtic language comes to mind) but I don't know diddly about how English has
developed. Anyone got good sources to look at, or websites, or anything that might
be helpful?
I've been working on a program that would handle sound changes and spit out
resulting word and it's history, so if I can get something fairly chronological
(i.e. first, loss of final vowels, then assimilation of following consonants, and so
on) for English, I would be greatly indebted.

    Thanks!

    Clint