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The Museum is open 6 days per week:
Monday – Closed, Tuesday – FRIDAY open 10.30am – 4.30pm,
SATURDAY OPEN 10.30AM – 4.00PM, Sunday open 11.30am – 3.30pm,
bank Holiday OPening Hours


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Athelstan Museum

Capturing the history of Malmesbury

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malmesbury abbey

Timeline

c3500BC

The invention of the wheel

c2600

NATIONAL HISTORY
Stonehenge stone circle started

c2590

Great pyramid built in Egypt

c1180

Fall of Troy

c800

MALMESBURY HISTORY
Iron Age fort at Malmesbury

753

Foundation of Rome

c563

Birth of Buddha

c5AD

Birth of Christ

43

NATIONAL HISTORY
England invaded by Romans

476

NATIONAL HISTORY
Fall of Rome

596

NATIONAL HISTORY
St Augustine brings Christianity to Anglo-Saxons

c570

Birth of Muhammad

c650

MALMESBURY HISTORY
Maildulph establishes his hermitage

675

MALMESBURY HISTORY
Foundation of the Abbey

709

MALMESBURY HISTORY
Death of Aldhelm 639 – 709, Abbot of Malmesbury, Bishop of Sherborne

c880

MALMESBURY HISTORY
Alfred builds burhs, including Malmesbury

924

NATIONAL HISTORY
Athelstan became King of the Anglo Saxons

939

MALMESBURY HISTORY
Athelstan King of All England died in Gloucester and buried in Malmesbury

c. 1010

MALMESBURY HISTORY
Eilmer’s flight from a tower of Malmesbury Abbey

1066

NATIONAL HISTORY
Norman conquest

1095

MALMESBURY HISTORY
William of Malmesbury born

1139

MALMESBURY HISTORY
Malmesbury attacked by future Henry II during the war of Anarchy between Stephen and Matilda

c. 1180

MALMESBURY HISTORY
Norman Abbey at Malmesbury completed

1187

Muslims capture Jerusalem

1206

Genghis Khan and his hordes move out of Mongolia

1215

NATIONAL HISTORY
Magna Carta signed at Runnymede

1258

NATIONAL HISTORY
Salisbury Cathedral finished

1284

MALMESBURY HISTORY
Running water in Malmesbury Abbey lavatorium

1295

MALMESBURY HISTORY
Model parliament; Malmesbury has 2 members

1348

NATIONAL HISTORY
Black death reaches England

1415

NATIONAL HISTORY
Battle of Agincourt

1492

Columbus discovers America

1539

MALMESBURY HISTORY
Dissolution of Malmesbury Abbey. William Stumpe buys Malmesbury Abbey from Henry VIII

1588

MALMESBURY HISTORY
Thomas Hobbes born

1588

NATIONAL HISTORY
Spanish Armada

1603

NATIONAL HISTORY
Death of Elizabeth I

1605

NATIONAL HISTORY
Gunpowder plot

1643

MALMESBURY HISTORY
Malmesbury changes hands 6 times in Civil War

1651

MALMESBURY HISTORY
Thomas Hobbes publishes Leviathan

1666

NATIONAL HISTORY
Great Fire of London

1679

Thomas Hobbes died

1681

Dodo becomes extinct

1687

Foundation of physics today;
Isaac Newton’s Principia Mathematica

1696

MALMESBURY HISTORY
William III gives charter to Malmesbury following first charter of incorporation granted by Charles I

1706

Cooke discovers Australia

1746

NATIONAL HISTORY
Battle of Culloden.  Last battle on British soil

1776

American revolution

1800

MALMESBURY HISTORY
James Harris made first Earl of Malmesbury

1801

NATIONAL HISTORY
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland formed

1805

NATIONAL HISTORY
Battle of Trafalgar

1807

NATIONAL HISTORY
Slave trade abolished

1815

NATIONAL HISTORY
Battle of Waterloo

1832

MALMESBURY HISTORY
Great Reform Act reduces Malmesbury’s MPs from two to one

1837

NATIONAL HISTORY
Queen Victoria ascends the throne

1851

NATIONAL HISTORY
Great Exhibition

1877

MALMESBURY HISTORY
Malmesbury Railway line opened

1884

MALMESBURY HISTORY
Third Reform Act resulting in Malmesbury losing its MP in 1886

1905

Einstein’s theory of relativity E = mc²

1914

Start of World War I

1919

NATIONAL HISTORY
Women get the vote

1939

Start of World War II

1953

NATIONAL HISTORY
Queen Elizabeth II crowned

1962

MALMESBURY HISTORY
Last train to Malmesbury (freight only)

1969

Moon landing

1972

MALMESBURY HISTORY
Malmesbury loses independent Borough Status

1993

MALMESBURY HISTORY
Dyson comes to Malmesbury

2001

MALMESBURY HISTORY
Queen Elizabeth and Duke of Edinburgh visit Malmesbury

2012

MALMESBURY HISTORY
Malmesbury Roman Coin Hoard found in a field in Milbourne, Malmesbury

8th September 2022

NATIONAL HISTORY
Death of Queen Elizabeth II
Charles III proclaimed King

2024

MALMESBURY HISTORY
1100th anniversary of Athelstan becoming King of Anglo Saxons

Putting Malmesbury’s history into context, events shown with a blue icon are of national significance, those with a red icon relate specifically to Malmesbury and the rest have international relevance.

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Athelstan Museum
Town Hall, Cross Hayes
Malmesbury
Wiltshire, SN16 9BZ

Tel: 01666 829258
Email: info@athelstanmuseum.org.uk

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