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.
The invention of the wheel

Stonehenge stone circle started
Great pyramid built in Egypt
Fall of Troy

Iron Age fort at Malmesbury
Foundation of Rome
Birth of Buddha
Birth of Christ

England invaded by Romans

Fall of Rome

St Augustine brings Christianity to England

Birth of Muhammad

Maildulph establishes his hermitage

Foundation of the Abbey

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

Alfred builds burhs, including Malmesbury

Athelstan first king of all England

Norman conquest

William of Malmesbury born

Malmesbury taken in war between Stephen and Matilda
Muslims capture Jerusalem
Genghis Khan and his hordes move out of Mongolia

Magna Carta signed at Runnymede

Salisbury Cathedral finished

Running water in Malmesbury Abbey lavatorium

Model parliament; Malmesbury has 2 members

Black death reaches England

Battle of Agincourt
Columbus discovers America

Dissolution of Malmesbury Abbey

Thomas Hobbes born

Spanish Armada

Death of Elizabeth I

Gunpowder plot

Malmesbury changes hands 6 times in Civil War

Thomas Hobbes publishes Leviathan

Great Fire of London
Thomas Hobbes died
Foundation of physics today;
Isaac Newton’s Principia Mathematica

Battle of Culloden. Last battle on British soil
Dodo becomes extinct

William III gives charter to Malmesbury
Cooke discovers Australia
American revolution

James Harris made first Earl of Malmesbury
Act of Union. United Kingdom formed

Battle of Trafalgar
Slave trade abolished

Battle of Waterloo

Queen Victoria ascends the throne

Great Exhibition

Malmesbury Railway line opened

Malmesbury loses their M.P.
Einstein’s theory of relativity E = mc²
Start of World War I

Women get the vote
Start of World War II

Queen Elizabeth II crowned

Last train to Malmesbury (freight only)
Moon landing

Malmesbury loses independent Borough Status

Dyson comes to Malmesbury
