• Menu
  • Skip to right header navigation
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Before Header

***Museum is open 6 days per week: Tuesday - Saturday open from 10.30am - 4.30pm, Sunday open 11.30 am - 3.30pm, Monday - Closed***
*** See our shop page to get selected items from the shop by post. ***

Donate and Hear Me Roar Tyger

Read the story behind our tyger

Athelstan logo

Capturing the history of Malmesbury

  • Home
  • Shop
  • Venue Hire
  • About Us
    • Athelstan Museum Malmesbury
    • Friends of Athelstan Museum
    • Museum Collection Policy
    • Museum Support
    • Volunteers
    • News & Newsletters
    • Useful Web Links
  • Support Us
    • Make a Donation
    • Become a Member
    • Corporate Sponsors
    • Legacy Donations
    • Fundraising
    • Volunteering
  • Contact
  • Home
  • Shop
  • Venue Hire
  • About Us
    • Athelstan Museum Malmesbury
    • Friends of Athelstan Museum
    • Museum Collection Policy
    • Museum Support
    • Volunteers
    • News & Newsletters
    • Useful Web Links
  • Support Us
    • Make a Donation
    • Become a Member
    • Corporate Sponsors
    • Legacy Donations
    • Fundraising
    • Volunteering
  • Contact
  • Visit
    • Opening Hours
    • Getting Here
    • Inside the Museum
    • Accessibility
    • Shop
    • Explore Malmesbury
  • What’s On
    • Current Events
    • Past Events
  • Our Collection
    • Agriculture & Industry
    • Art
    • Transport
    • Coins
    • How People Lived
    • Highlights From Our Collection
    • Malmesbury Images
    • Malmesbury Voices
    • Textiles & Lace
  • Malmesbury History
    • Timeline
    • People
      • Charles James Fox
      • Eilmer The Flying Monk
      • Hannah Twynnoy
      • John Scotus
      • Joseph Addison
      • King Athelstan
      • Princess Eadgyth
      • Richard Hatchwell
      • Robin Tanner
      • St Aldhelm
      • St Lullus
      • Thomas Hobbes
      • Walter Powell
      • William of Malmesbury
      • William Stumpe
    • Architecture
      • Abbey and Spire
      • Aerial View
      • Castle
      • Early Churches
      • Market Cross
      • Silk Mills
      • Town Walls
    • Community
      • Concert Band
      • Education
      • Sports Clubs
      • Trade & Industry
    • Transport
      • Rail
      • Road
      • Vehicles
      • Water
    • Governance
  • Learning
  • Visit
    • Opening Hours
    • Getting Here
    • Inside the Museum
    • Accessibility
    • Shop
    • Explore Malmesbury
  • What’s On
    • Current Events
    • Past Events
  • Our Collection
    • Agriculture & Industry
    • Art
    • Transport
    • Coins
    • How People Lived
    • Highlights From Our Collection
    • Malmesbury Images
    • Malmesbury Voices
    • Textiles & Lace
  • Malmesbury History
    • Timeline
    • People
      • Charles James Fox
      • Eilmer The Flying Monk
      • Hannah Twynnoy
      • John Scotus
      • Joseph Addison
      • King Athelstan
      • Princess Eadgyth
      • Richard Hatchwell
      • Robin Tanner
      • St Aldhelm
      • St Lullus
      • Thomas Hobbes
      • Walter Powell
      • William of Malmesbury
      • William Stumpe
    • Architecture
      • Abbey and Spire
      • Aerial View
      • Castle
      • Early Churches
      • Market Cross
      • Silk Mills
      • Town Walls
    • Community
      • Concert Band
      • Education
      • Sports Clubs
      • Trade & Industry
    • Transport
      • Rail
      • Road
      • Vehicles
      • Water
    • Governance
  • Learning
malmesbury abbey

St Aldhelm

St Aldhelm sketch

One of Maeldub’s pupils was Aldhelm, renowned for his scholarship across Europe. Aldhelm developed Maeldub’s school, built churches in Malmesbury and established the Benedictine monastic order here, gaining the support of both the Pope and King Ine of Wessex. Appointed the first Abbot of Malmesbury (c. 671–675), he oversaw the monastery for thirty years.

He was famed as an author; among his more renown works is “De Virginitate”(“About Virginity”) which he wrote first in prose for the Abbess Hildelith and the nuns of Barking. A few years later he wrote a version in poetry.

It is related that he would woo visitors to Malmesbury by singing and playing the lute before preaching to them. He would often stand in the cold river and spring to subdue his flesh. St Aldhelm’s well still runs today and a field by the river is called St.Aldhelm’s mead.

Aldhelm has several miracles attributed to him and indeed miracles are a necessary prerequisite for Saintdom. One relates how coming into a building he threw off his cloak behind him expecting his servant to catch it; the servant was not there but when the saint turned round the cloak was hanging suspended on a sunbeam. Another miracle was while he was supervising a building it was found that a crucial roof beam was too short; Aldhem prayed; the beam was offered up again; and lo, it fitted exactly.

In 705 King Ine divided the Diocese of Wessex in two and appointed Aldhelm Bishop of Sherborne. Aldhelm held this office until his death on 25th May 709 – a date still celebrated locally. His body was returned to Malmesbury, where his shrine became an important site of pilgrimage, gaining a reputation for delivering miracles.

We know of Aldhelm’s life from three important figures. Alfred the Great describes how Aldhelm would sing and preach to those entering the town. Bede praises his Latin scholarship. William of Malmesbury, the eleventh century historian, refers to Aldhelm’s own writings.

Above Footer

Feed our Tyger

Click the donate button to hear him

Roar

roaring tyger

Hannah Twynnoy is possibly the first person to be killed by a tiger in England, but why was this possible? What happened to cause her death?

Donate and Hear Me Roar Tyger

english heritage artfund south west musedum development program
European Union logo
The European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development: Europe investing in rural areas
DEFRA logo Wiltshire Council logo Leader logo Vale Action logo

Footer

athelstan museum logo

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

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

  • Facebook
  • Twitter

Collections

  • Agriculture & Industry
  • Art
  • Coins
  • How People Lived
  • Highlights From Our Collection
  • Malmesbury Images
  • Malmesbury Voices
  • Textiles & Lace
  • Transport

Become a Member

Friends of Athelstan Museum members are the backbone of the museum.

Become a member

Make a Donation

We rely heavily on donations to allow us to continue our invaluable work in the community and surrounding villages.

Make a donation

Copyright © 2022 · Athelstan Museum Malmesbury| Registered Charity: 1174110 | Data Protection Policy | Website Accessibility | Site Map | Website by Callia Web