England Travel » England King http://eltoroarchers.org all about england travel Sun, 03 Jul 2011 15:16:51 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 en hourly 1 Malmesbury – England’s Oldest Borough http://eltoroarchers.org/england-travel/malmesbury-englands-oldest-borough http://eltoroarchers.org/england-travel/malmesbury-englands-oldest-borough#comments Thu, 29 Oct 2009 13:22:54 +0000 admin http://eltoroarchers.org/england-travel/malmesbury-englands-oldest-borough Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.]]> Malmesbury is a small town situated on the southern edge of the Cotswolds and in the north western corner of the county of Wiltshire, a county with its many historic monuments the most famous being Stonehenge.

Malmesbury is a hill top town almost surrounded by two branches of the river Avon. It has an Abbey which once boasted the tallest spire in England even taller than the one still standing 80 miles away in the opposite corner of the county on top of Salisbury Cathedral. The town also has one of the country's finest Market Crosses built for the poor folk of the town to shelter from the rain on market days.

Malmesbury today is very much as it was a thousand years ago, mainly stone built and tiled cottages set upon a street pattern that goes back probably another thousand years before that. The town is said to be one of, if not, the oldest Borough in England once having its own mint producing silver coins for King Stephen as well as being for a short period the Capital of all England.

King Athelstan was buried here and he granted to the free men of Malmesbury a charter gifting them 500 acres of land on the south side of the town as a reward for their assistance in his struggle against the Danes. This resulted in an institution know as the Warden and Freemen being formed to look after and control this land and they are still in existence to this day.

So as you can see Malmesbury is steeped in history and its character has been protected as far as is possible making it a very popular destination on the tourist trails amongst the natives and those from all corners of the world. There is an abundance of places to stay in and around the area from which to explore the town and all its history can be found in written form available from the towns Athelstan Museum and its Norman Abbey.

By: David Forward

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