Malmesbury

The west tower of Malmesbury Abbey

Malmesbury is a market town in north Wiltshire, just south of the Cotswolds. The town became popular during the Middle Ages as the abbey as a center for learning. It is the oldest borough in England. Malmesbury was created by a charter of Alfred the Great about 880 AD. It was once the site of an Iron Age hill fort.

Malmesbury Media

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  Abbey Gardens along the River Avon

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  The interior of Malmesbury Abbey

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  Malmesbury and Westport from the Ordnance Survey one-inch map, first edition, 1828

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  The Town Hall and Museum, Malmesbury

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  The main entrance to Malmesbury Abbey (the South Porch) seen from the graveyard. This picture shows the full modern extent of the Abbey, to the right lie only ruins.

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  Typical scene in central Malmesbury, showing older modernised property, but highly preserved from its original construction

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  Malmesbury Market Cross, c. 1490

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  A large building of medieval origins, now a private home, Tower House stands at the end of Oxford Street. It contains a high-roofed main hall where it is said Henry VIII dined after hunting in nearby Bradon Forest. In the 1840s, a doctor living in the house, with a passion for astronomy, built a narrow tower protruding high from the roof. It dominates the skyline of the east of the town.

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  The inscription reads: Memorand that whereas King Athelstan did give unto the Free School within this borough of Malmesbury ten pounds and to the poor people my almshouse at St John's, ten pounds to be paid yearly by the Aldermen and Burgesses of the same borough for ever. That now Michael Wickes Esquire, late of this said borough and now citizen of London hath augmented and added to the aforesaid gift, viz.